Stephen Bruce Harris (4 January 1887 – 4 October 1960) was an English sports journalist, prominent from the 1930s to the 1950s, who wrote mostly on tennis and cricket.

Life and career

Bruce Harris was born in Londonderry and trained as a journalist in England, in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. He joined the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' in London in 1920 and turned his attention to sport."Obituary", ''

The Cricketer ''The Cricketer'' is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county and club cricket. The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cricket writer. Warner e ...

'', Winter Annual 1960, p. 500.John Kay (ed.) ''Cricket Heroes'', Phoenix Sports Books, London, 1959, p. 188. At first he specialised in tennis, but in 1932 the ''Evening Standard'' chose him ahead of his younger colleague E. W. Swanton, a cricket expert, to cover the forthcoming English cricket tour of Australia. He was the first journalist ever to have been sent on an overseas cricket tour by an individual newspaper.

E.W. Swanton Ernest William Swanton (11 February 1907 – 22 January 2000) was an English journalist and author, chiefly known for being a cricket writer and Sportscaster, commentator under his initials, E. W. Swanton. He worked as a sports journalist for ...

, ''Sort of a Cricket Person'', William Collins, London, 1972, pp. 17–19. On the voyage to Australia,

Douglas Jardine Douglas Robert Jardine ( 1900 – 1958) was an English cricketer who played 22 Test matches for England, captaining the side in 15 of those matches between 1931 and 1934. A right-handed batsman, he is best known for captaining the English ...

, England's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on the 1932-33 tour, was planning his

bodyline Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia. It was designed to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's leading batsman, ...

tactics, which he knew would be controversial. Harris was learning how to be a cricket writer. They soon won each other's confidence. Harris supported Jardine's tactics throughout the tour, and when the tour finished he wrote his first book, ''Jardine Justified'', for which Jardine wrote a grateful foreword.

Arthur Mailey Alfred Arthur Mailey (3 January 188631 December 1967) was an Australian cricketer who played in 21 Test matches between 1920 and 1926. Mailey used leg-breaks and googly bowling, taking 99 Test wickets, including 36 in the 1920–21 Ashes ser ...

, the former Australian

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

player, while deploring the closeness between Jardine and Harris, thought ''Jardine Justified'' full of "interesting and well-written passages" and better than most tour books. The reviewer for the ''

Brisbane Telegraph The ''Telegraph'' was an evening newspaper published in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was first published on 1 October 1872 and its final edition appeared on 5 February 1988. In its day it was recognised as one of the best news pictorial n ...

'' noted that apart from the behaviour of the cricket crowds, Harris evidently enjoyed Australia and wrote about it enthusiastically. The reviewer for ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' noted that the book included "several entertaining chapters relating to matters other than cricket". This "other-than-cricket" journalism became a feature of Harris's tour books. Of his book on the 1936-37 tour of Australia and New Zealand, the ''

New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

s reviewer wrote that between accounts of the matches Harris records "his journalist's impressions of Australia and its institutions. Gambling, life-saving on the beaches, hotel-closing, and immigration are discussed. Many a good story enlivens his pages." The ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'' reviewer of Harris's book on the 1946-47 tour praised his ability to rise above the partisanship that often mars cricket journalism, and said, "he is an agreeable companion in these pages, in which he shows that he has an eager capacity for observing the life and people around him as he passed 'sic''from place to place". The ''

Sydney Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', also nicknamed ''The Tele'', is an Australian tabloid newspaper published by Nationwide News Pty Limited, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of News Corp. It is published Monday through Saturday a ...

'' reviewer of the same book devoted most of his review to an appreciation of Harris's chapter on Australia's liquor licensing laws. Harris was the first journalist to accompany five touring English cricket teams to Australia, beginning with the 1932-33 tour and ending with the 1954-55 tour. He wrote a book about each Australian tour, as well as several about Test series in England in the 1950s. Harris was the secretary of the

Cricket Writers' Club The Cricket Writers' Club is an association for cricket journalists working in print, television or radio. It was established in 1947, and contains around 90% of those eligible for membership. During the 1946–47 Ashes series, the Australian and B ...

soon after its founding in 1947 and later served as the club's chairman. He died at his home in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was histor ...

after a long illness, aged 73.

Books

*''Jardine Justified: The Truth about the Ashes'' (1933) *''1937 Australian Test Tour'' (1937) *''With England in Australia: The Truth about the Tests'' (1947) *''In Quest of the Ashes, 1950-51'' (1951) *''Cricket Triumph: England versus Australia, 1953'' (1953) *''Ashes Triumphant: Australia versus England, 1954-5'' (1955) *''England versus South Africa, 1955'' (1955) *''Defending the Ashes, 1956'' (1956) *''West Indies Cricket Challenge, 1957'' (1957) *''The True Book about Cricket'' (1958)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Bruce 1887 births 1960 deaths 20th-century British journalists Cricket historians and writers Writers from Derry (city)