Neville Knox
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| Bowling style | Right-arm fast | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Neville Alexander Knox (10 October 1884, Clapham, London – 3 March 1935, Surbiton, Surrey) was an English fast bowler of the late 1900s and effectively the successor to Tom Richardson and William Lockwood in the Surrey team. Because of his profession as a singer, Knox's career was short, but he was undoubtedly the fastest bowler of his time and one of the fastest bowlers ever to play for England – probably capable of speeds over 150 km/h (93 mph).
Knox attended Dulwich College. He played two matches for Surrey in 1904 without achieving a great deal, but the following year, aided by some fiery pitches at The Oval, advanced so much that he was an excellent backup to Walter Lees in a major Surrey revival. Although he was expensive on true pitches Knox took 129 wickets for less than 22 runs each, and his promise was clearly noted, though even then the length (over 20 metres – very long for the time) of his run-up was seen as taking a great deal of energy out of him and it was thought Knox would have trouble coping with arduous seasons.
The following season – one with hardly a day of rain in the Home Counties after early May – bore out almost all that was thought of Knox. When sound, he was clearly the fastest bowler seen for a long time in county cricket and, even on much truer Oval pitches, he was able to make the ball rise dangerously. He could also spin the ball back from the off as much as Richardson at his best. Early in the season, Knox’s bowling was beyond everything else the factor behind Surrey rising to the top of the table, and at times – notably against Leicestershire and Sussex at the Oval – his pace could bowl sides out cheaply on even the best of pitches. However, from the middle of June, the strain of bowling on such hard, sun-soaked pitches took its toll and Knox suffered constantly from shin strains. These strains kept him out of nine of Surrey’s last sixteen matches and according to Wisden, Knox “often played when he should have been resting.” Nonetheless, his twelve wickets for 174 against the Players at Lord's in July is still remembered as perhaps the fastest bowling ever seen in the history of Gentlemen v Players games: some of the professional batsmen were literally intimidated. Knox was rewarded for this and his superb early season form with nomination as a Cricketer of the Year by Wisden.
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