Bowley Thomas Image 1 Surrey 1890

Description

Old Basford, Nottinghamshire born right-arm fast bowler Thomas Bowler began playing for Nottinghamshire in 1879 and for Northamptonshire from 1881 to 1884. In 1884, against Essex, he took all the wickets for Northamptonshire apart from one run out in the first innings.

He made his first class debut for Surrey in 1885 and became a formidable member of the Surrey attack with George Lohmann and Jack Beaumont, taking 386 wickets for the County at just over 15 runs apiece. His bowling featured a rather low delivery, but he was accurate in length and direction, and clearly with an economy rate of 2.o1 he didn’t give away runs easily.

Bowley had a hand in changing the rules of cricket to allow declaration. In a match between Surrey and Sussex in 1887, Surrey had set up a big lead and wanted to have a go at Sussex on a deteriorating pitch while Sussex wanted to hang on for a draw. Bowley, last man in, tried to get stumped but the wicketkeeper refused, and Sussex prolonged the innings by sending down a succession of no-balls. Eventually, Bowley kicked down his own stumps. However enough time had been lost to let Sussex hold the draw.

One of Bowley’s best bowling performances was when he took six Derbyshire wickets for 13 runs at Derby in 1889. In his first clas career, he also played for The North, Players of the South and C.I. Thornton’s XI. He was also an umpire for North v South and Players v Gentlemen between 1883 and 1893.

Bowley was right-arm fast bowler and took 264 first class wickets at an average of 16.82 and a best performance of 7-64, with 9 five wicket innings and one ten wicket match in 83 first class matches. He was a right-handed batsman and played 111 innings at an average of 8.58 with a top score of 46.

In 1894 Bowley was appointed cricket coach at Sherborne School and held the position for seventeen years. During that time Bowley also played for Dorset in the Minor Counties Championship from 1897 to 1902.