James Southerton
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| Born |
16 November 1827 Petworth, Sussex |
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| Died | 16 June 1880 (aged 52) Mitcham, Surrey |
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| Batting style | Right-hand bat (RHB) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Round-arm right-arm slow | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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James Southerton (16 November 1827 – 16 June 1880) was a professional cricketer who played first-class cricket between 1854 and 1879. After a slow start, he became along with Alfred Shaw the greatest slow bowler of the 1870s.
Southerton began his cricketing life during the 1850s as a batsman, but apart from a few good scores in 1858, when he at times opened the batting and averaged 22 which in an era pre-dating the heavy roller was exceeded by only two players with more innings, he did little for Sussex in this role and played in none of the major first-class games in the following two seasons. In 1861, Southerton was engaged at Southampton and resided at the Antelope Ground until 1867. During this period Southerton, operating in a period before regulations prevented a player from turning out for more than one county in the same season, played for both Sussex and Hampshire.
It was not until 1865 that Southerton developed the slow bowling for which he was to gain belated fame and set many records. At a time when bowling was mainly fast round-arm, Southerton’s slower speed with its deceptive flight and sharp break was a challenge for batsmen that they did not adapt to easily. Southerton had much more than spin and flight, however. He was able to vary his pace and pitch very well, often deceiving batsmen by bowling a ball outside the off stump which turned on the under-prepared pitches of his time viciously into the right-handed batsmen. Southerton typically would then bowl a faster, straighter ball as a contrast, and was exceptionally strong at knowing what ball would be most difficult for each individual batsman. Like Lancashire’s Alec Watson, who was often called "the Southerton of the North", the fairness of Southerton’s delivery was sometimes called into question, though he was never criticised as severely as the powerful Lancashire attack of the early 1880s. He had hardly bowled at all up to 1864, but in August 1865 with six for 50 against Middlesex and seven for 45 aided by six dismissals from wicket-keeper George Ubsdell against the team for whom he was later to carry out most of his major bowling feats, Southerton established himself as a permanent fixture in top-class cricket at the age of thirty-eight.
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