England's Ashes victories of 2005 and 2009 both owed much to swing bowling, but it is surely safe to say that neither the players nor the cheering multitudes at The Oval last month and four years ago, gave a single thought to the man to whom they really owed their victory.
This was not the astute captains, Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss, nor the bowling coaches Troy Cooley and Otis Gibson or even the Zimbabwean masterminds Duncan Fletcher and Andy Flower, rather it was in keeping perhaps with the general make up of the current side and its coach - an American citizen JOHN BARTON KING, always known as Bart.
He deserves to be remembered as the father of modern swing bowling, as well as being the greatest North American born cricketer, second on the whole continent only to Panama born George Headley, the superb West Indian batsman of the 1930s.
Bart, also the best cricketer never to play in a Test Match, was a magnificent all rounder. He was one of a number of really good players who made Philadelphia a centre of cricket excellence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, though he alone, perhaps, achieved greatness.
Such was his influence on cricket there that Philadlphia, thanks to Bart and other players such as medium pacer Percy Clarke and the Newhall brothers, was able to take on first class sides on level terms, being more than a match for several county sides, to say nothing of MCC and Ireland, as well as twice lowering the colours of the visiting Australians, though there were probably never more than 250 - 300 cricketers actively playing.
Bart was born in Philadelphia on 19 October 1873. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he was not born into wealth and it has been conjectured that, once his cricket credentials were proved, some of his team-mates found him the career in insurance that was to make him rich and allow him as much time as he needed to play cricket.
First prominent in youth cricket at the age of eleven, Bart grew to be 6 feet 1 in height, weighing about twelve and a half stone. He was loose limbed and had tremendously strong wrists and fingers. It was claimed that he could flick a cricket ball from those fingers to smash a second storey window in a nearby building.
He began his career as a bowler of genuine pace always maintaining this speed throughout his career. From the start he had great accuracy and the ability to bowl vicious break back.
It was in this mode that Ireland first encountered him, when Jack Meldon's side toured North America in 1892. Though the visitors did well in the three matches, Bart took 16 wickets, giving his guests a foretaste of things to come. The following year a weary Austrlian side called in on their voyage home from a rather unsuccessful tour of England.
They lost the first of their two matches against Philadelphia by an innings, with Bart having a first innings "5 fer", including the great all rounder George Giffen and monumental stonewaller Alec Bannerman in his haul.
It was, however, on the England tour of 1897 that Bart came into his own.There had been two earlier tours in which the Americans had been of little more that good club standard. Now they were able to compete at first class level. Bart easily headed the bowling with 72 wickets at 23, no one else took more than 35. It was his discovery of the inswinger, which he termed "The Angler" that made the difference, setting him and his side on the road to greatness.
He was, of course, not the first man to swing a cricket ball. Others such as the Yorkshireman George Hirst had found that balls sometimes swung for them, but Bart was the first to set out systematically to achieve it.
Writing half a century later in A Century of Philadelphia Cricket edited by the captain of that tour JA Lester, Bart explained that he brought to cricket techniques he had learned as a baseball pitcher.
Further he had first mastered accuracy and change of pace, as well as moving the ball off the wicket, before he tried to swing it. As he deliverd the ball, held with what became a conventional inswinger grip, he gave a sharp downward flick of the wrist.
"I could swing the ball with the wind coming from any quarter but I preferred it coming from the batsman's off. I delivered the angler from the fullest height over my head, indeed at tmes from slightly over the left shoulder."
He always used the inswinger as a surprise weapon and it was very hard to detect. He also swung the ball away from the bat, though with a rather lower arm which was more detectable.
These methods made him one of the greatest bowlers of his day. CB Fry, never one to over praise any cricketer apart from himself, thought Bart the greatest swing bowler he ever saw. Ranji, whom Bart bowled first ball on thir initial encounter in 1897, and "Plum" Warner were others to share this view. Warner's experience of Bart dated from 1898 when he took a side to the USA hoping for some pleasant social cricket.
Against Philadelphia, his team were reduced to 0/4 by Bart before "recovering" to 65 all out, Bart finishing on 9/25. Many bowlers of the time, including Hirst freely admitted to studying Bart's methods.
Bart was also an excellent batsman described by Lester as having, "A keen eye, long reach, and powerful shoulders, the left leading the whole body into the pitch for those powerful sweeping straight drives."
He was for more than twenty years the dominant figure with bat and ball in the Halifax Cup, a competition among the Philadelphia Clubs. The cricket was of a very high standard, certainly matching the best English club cricket of the time.
Playing for three clubs between 1891 and 1916, Bart invariably had a five wicket haul, doubling this on two occasions and frequently taking seven, eight or nine. He often required little assistance from his fielders.
Thus for Belmont v Germantown in 1899 his career best 18.2 - 4 - 39 - 10, included seven clean bowled. These feats were often backed up by a half century, sometimes converted into three figures. He hit 39 hundreds in all cricket, his highest 344* for Belmont v Merrion B in 1906 established the North American record. Scored at great pace, it was not, however one of his best innings. The bowling was weak and he was missed four times.
He played 11 matches for USA V Canada, more than any of his contemporaries. He took 74 wickets at 8.13 in these matches, 8/17 in 11 overs at Staten Island in 1906, when he reduced Canada to 35/9 on a rain affected track.
He became known to English cricket through the tours of 1897, 1903 and 1908. On his first visit his outstanding performance was v Susssex, when, having bowled Ranji first ball, he proceeded to take 7/13. The county did rather better following on with the Jam Sahib hitting an elegant 74, but Bart with 6/102 was not to be denied and the visitors won by 8 wickets. He had also made a 58 in the first innings, second top score to Lester's 92.
In 1903 he took 78 wickets at 16.06 besides finishing second in the batting with 614 runs at 29.23. He played two superb innings against Surrey at The Oval.
Playing the full county side, the visitors rattled up 387, Bart top scoring with 98. His fellow swing bowler Percy Clark, who usually moved the ball towards the slips, then bowled the county out for 241. Batting again Bart hit a brilliant 113*, enabling Clark to bowl the hosts out again, despite 156* from the Test opener Tom Hayward.
Bart's best bowling on the tour was his 9/62 v Lancashire. Added to an impressive first innings return this gave him match figures of 14/108, setting up a 9 wicket victory.
His performances on the 1908 tour took him to the top of the first class averages for the season with 87 wickets at 11.01. These included a 14 wicket haul against Ireland in College Park, meaning that a three day match finished in four sessions. Bart had 7/40 and 7/23 to give his side an easy innings victory, despite some fine bowling by Tom Ross. An extra two day match was then played in which Bob Lambert scored an undefeated century, but Bart, captaining the visitors, did not put himself on to bowl.
The Americans then moved north to Ormeau to take on Ulster and record another innings victory. Bart shot the hosts out for 95 in the first innings but did not bowl in the second, when future Austrlian leg spinner HV Hordern, who was studying dentistry in USA took 6/64.
Bart's other encounters with Ireland came 100 years ago this month, when a weakened Irish side toured North America under the cptaincy of Frank Browning.The first match against Philadelphia began on 17 September with Ireland batting first.
They were all out for 111, with Bart having figures of 18.1 - 7 - 53 -10. Only one wicket required a fielder's assistance. Bart also clean bowled opener George Morrow, who carried his bat for a valiant fifty, with a no ball. Morrow did not escape in the second innings when Bart allowed Hordern to take the bulk of the wickets, contenting himself with 4/38 including the hat trick!
In the second match Bart was again the main reason for the hosts innings victory with 7/48 and 4/12.
In 1912 he again bowled Philadelphia to victory over the Australians with match figures of 9/78 in a two runs victory.
Many stories are told of Bart's brilliance as a cricketer and his sense of humour. One which recounts both may be related here. Bart always claimed that it was true and what follows is his version. There are others, including one set in the nets in College Park, but it seems best to ignore them.
In a Halifax Cup match between Belmont and Trenton, the visitors' captain, a well known batsman, was delayed, and arrived in time only to bat last, Bart having destroyed his team-mates. As he walked to the wicket, he announced loudly that such a state of affairs would not have happened if he had gone in in his normal place. Bart promptly sent all of his fielders, including the wicket keeper, off the field, apart from a short fine leg about 20 yards from the bat.
"What's he doing there? " asked the non striker.
Bart bowled the angler, hit the leg stump and stood watching as the ball came to rest at fine leg's feet.
"He's there to pick up the ball, " he said.
John Barton King lived to within two weeks of his 92nd birthday. He was universally popular and highly respected both as a man and a cricketer.. His place in cricket history is most important and must never be forgotten.
In 65 first class matches he took 415 wickets at 15.66 besides scoring 2,134 runs at 20.51. According to his obituary in The Cricket Quarterly, his figures in all cricket were 19,908 runs at 36.47 and 2008 wickets at 10.47.
Today it would seem that no swing bowler is complete in his or her art unless he or she has the ability to reverse the ball. I am unaware whether or not Bart ever produced such a ball but would conclude this piece by suggesting that readers adapt the story of Bart's English contemporary, the great bowler SF Barnes.
"Did you ever bowl a googly, Mr Barnes", his future biographer Leslie Duckworth once asked him.
"No, I never needed to."
Copyright: Cover Point
