Walter Morris Bradley (2 January 1875 – 19 June 1944), known as Bill Bradley, was an English amateur

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played in two

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

in 1899. He played for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

between 1895 and 1903.Bill Bradley
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-04.

Early life

Bradley was born at

Sydenham Sydenham may refer to: Places Australia * Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Sydenham railway station, Sydney * Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne ** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne un ...

in what was then part of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in 1875. He was the son of Walter George and Emma Amelia (Morris) Bradley; his father worked as a grocer, wine merchant and post master in Sydenham.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 84–87.
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 2020-12-21.) Bradley was equated at

Alleyn's School Alleyn's School is a 4–18 Mixed-sex education, co-educational, Independent school (United Kingdom), independent, Church of England, day school and sixth form in Dulwich, London, England. It is a registered charity and was originally part of Ed ...

Dulwich Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half of ...

where he was in the school cricket XI for two seasons.Walter Bradley
Obituary, ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'', 1945. Retrieved 2017-04-04. He worked as a clerk for

Lloyd's Register Lloyd's Register Group Limited (LR) is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and ...

and played cricket for the firm where he was spotted and asked to play for Kent after taking six wickets in six balls in a match in 1895.

Cricket

After taking nine wickets in a trial match for

The Mote Mote Park, also known as The Mote, is a cricket ground in Maidstone in the English county of Kent. It is inside the grounds of the Mote Park and is owned by The Mote Cricket Club.Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

Blackheath Blackheath may refer to: Places England *Blackheath, London, England ** Blackheath railway station **Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England *Blackheath, Surrey, England ** Hundred of Blackh ...

. After taking a single wicket on debut he was retained for the matches in

Canterbury Cricket Week Canterbury Cricket Week is the oldest cricket festival week in England and involves a series of consecutive Kent home matches, traditionally held in the first week in August. It was founded in 1842, although a similar festival week was first hel ...

, taking two

five-wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman. Takin ...

s in matches against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. He was awarded his county cap. According to his '' Wisden'' obituary, Bradley "became a protégé of

Lord Harris Colonel George Robert Canning Harris, 4th Baron Harris, (3 February 1851 – 24 March 1932), generally known as Lord Harris, was a British colonial administrator and Governor of Bombay. He was also an English amateur cricketer, mainly active f ...

", playing regularly for Kent between 1895 and 1903. Bradley appeared most regularly between 1899 and 1902, making at least 23 first-class appearances in each season. He took 536 wickets for Kent during his career, taking

10 wickets in a match In cricket, a ten-wicket haul occurs when a bowler takes ten wickets in either a single innings or across both innings of a two-innings match. The phrase ten wickets in a match is also used. Taking ten wickets in a match at Lord's earns the bow ...

10 times and taking three hat-tricks for the county.Milton H (2016) 'Bowling Records' in Reid J (ed) ''2016 Kent County Cricket Club Annual'', pp.216–224, Canterbury:

His final appearances for Kent were on the county's North American tour in September and October 1903 against the

Gentlemen of Philadelphia The Philadelphian cricket team was a team that represented Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in first-class cricket between 1878 and 1913. Even with the United States having played the first ever international cricket match against Canada in 1844, t ...

. A well built, attacking right arm fast bowler, Bradley bowled off a long run with a high action. He pitched the ball up and bowled long spells, attributes which earned him two Test caps in 1899. He excelled in his first, taking 5 for 67 against Joe Darling's Australians at Old TraffordFourth Test
England v Australia, ''

'', 1900. Retrieved 2017-04-04. but met with less success in his second, at the Oval. The most successful amateur bowler of that season, taking 156 wickets at 19.1 including two hat tricks, he took 624 wickets in 9 seasons at 22.64. An old fashioned tail ender, he scored only 906 first-class runs at just 6.09 with 67 coming in one innings against Yorkshire at Canterbury in 1897, an unbeaten innings amassed in just 45 minutes. Bradley is one of only twenty cricketers to have taken a wicket with his first ball in a Test match, dismissing Australian

Frank Laver Frank Jonas Laver (7 December 1869 – 24 September 1919) was an Australian cricketer and baseball player. He played in 15 Test matches between 1899 and 1909 and visited England as a player and team manager on four occasions. An accomplished ph ...

.Lynch S (2011
Well begun is half-done

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

, 2011-09-05. Retrieved 2017-04-04.Williamson M, Miller A (2006
Curse of the first ball

, 2006-06-06. Retrieved 2017-04-04. As well as his 123 appearances for Kent, Bradley played in first-class matches for a variety of other teams. He appeared in six

Gentlemen v Players Gentlemen v Players was a long-running series of English first-class cricket matches. Two matches were played in 1806, but the fixture was not played again until 1819. It became an annual event, usually played at least twice each season, exc ...

matches and made his final first-class appearance in 1904 for GJV Weigall's XI against

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

at Fenner's.

Family and later life

Bradley worked in property management for the rest of his working life, managing Brittanic House in Finsbury Circus. He was married to Alice Elizabeth Millyard in 1904; the couple had two sons, John Morris Bradley (b. 1905) and Robert Millyard Bradley (b. 1909). He was described by cricketer and journalist Edward Sewell as "a dedicated conversationalist" who retained his interest in club cricket and the Surrey Rifles Old Comrades Association. He watched cricket at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

regularly between the wars and had "an encyclopaedic knowledge of pubs, beer, brewers, opening times and pub landlords".Carlaw, p.66. Bradley suffered from heart problems in later life. He died at his home on

Wandsworth Common Wandsworth Common is a public common in Wandsworth, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, south London. It is and is maintained and regulated by Wandsworth Council. It is also a Ward of the London Borough of Wandsworth. The population of the ward ...

in South London in 1944 aged 69.Bill Bradley

. Retrieved 2020-07-07.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradley, Bill 1875 births 1944 deaths England Test cricketers English cricketers Kent cricketers London County cricketers People from Sydenham, London Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut Gentlemen of the South cricketers Gentlemen cricketers North v South cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers Home Counties cricketers A. J. Webbe's XI cricketers