Frank Jonas Laver (7 December 1869 – 24 September 1919) was an Australian
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 and
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
player. He played in 15
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)
...
between 1899 and 1909 and visited England as a player and team manager on four occasions. An accomplished photographer and author, he wrote an illustrated account of his 1899 and 1905 tours of England, ''An Australian Cricketer on Tour''.
Cricket career
The son of Jonas Laver, grazier and timber merchant, and Mary Ann, née Fry, Frank Laver was the 78th player to represent Australia. He was a right-hand batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler. In his first season with the
East Melbourne Cricket Club
The Kingston Hawthorn Cricket Club is an Australian cricket club based at Walter Galt Reserve, situated in Parkdale, Victoria. They play in Victorian Premier Cricket, the highest competition in the state.
History
The club was originally known ...
, as a gangling six-footer from the country, he took 94 wickets and made three centuries, and held his place in the club for 25 years. In the
1892/93 season he scored more than 1000 runs for his club, including a record 352 not out. Batting with his friend and fellow Test player
Peter McAlister
Peter Alexander McAlister (11 July 1869 – 10 May 1938) was an Australian cricketer who played in eight Test matches from 1904 to 1909.
His undemocratic appointment as vice-captain-cum-treasurer of the Australian cricket team in England in 190 ...
in
1903/04 season, Laver scored 341 in a club record score of 2 for 744 in one afternoon's batting. Laver and McAlister later fell out over the management of overseas tours.
Pollard described Laver as "crude and unorthodox,
hocould thrash even classy attacks. He was a plucky fieldsman whose bowling was highly suited to the heavy atmosphere and damp pitches of England."
His first Test match was between
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
at
Trent Bridge
Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nottingham. Trent Bridge is also t ...
,
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
on 1 to 3 June 1899. This match, the first to be played at Trent Bridge, was drawn with England needing 135 runs to win and Australia requiring 3 wickets. Laver's contribution was a modest 3 runs in each innings and a catch. The match was also notable as being
W. G. Grace
William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He played first-class cricket for a record-equal ...
's last Test, and the first for
Victor Trumper
Victor Thomas Trumper (2 November 1877 – 28 June 1915) was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found ...
and
Wilfred Rhodes
Wilfred Rhodes (29 October 1877 – 8 July 1973) was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests, Rhodes took 127 wickets and scored 2,325 runs, becoming the first Englishman t ...
.
Laver's fortunes turned in the next Test match, 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 ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, where his three wickets in the second innings clinched an Australian victory by 10 wickets.
![Frank Laver c1905b](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Frank_Laver_c1905b.jpg)
In the 1905 tour of England, Laver was appointed player-manager by the
Australian Board of Control
Cricket Australia (CA), formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board (ACB), is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the 'Australian Board of Control for International Crick ...
, and finished second in the bowling averages, taking 115 wickets at an average of 18.19. Pollard described him as "a cricketer of character and perception,
hocould encourage aspiring players to great heights." He was again appointed player-manager for the 1909 tour of England. At the end of the tour Laver refused to produce his records of the trip, insisting that he kept books only for the players' benefit.
In the Test match at
Old Trafford
Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
on 26 to 28 July 1909, Laver had, in ''Wisden's'' words "a great day against England", taking 8 wickets for 31 runs in the first innings. "English batsmen considered him a very good but not an exceptional bowler, and often wondered why they fared so badly against him", said ''Wisden''. This was a record performance in a Test match at Old Trafford, equalled by
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman, (6 February 1931 – 1 July 2006) was an English cricketer who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and the England cricket team. He had professional status and later became an author and broadcaster.
Acknowled ...
in 1952, until
Jim Laker
James Charles Laker (9 February 1922 – 23 April 1986) was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club from 1946 to 1959 and represented England in 46 Test matches. He was born in Shipley, West Riding of York ...
's extraordinary 10 for 53 and 9 for 37 in 1956.
Laver's last Test match was between Australia and England at
The Oval
The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...
,
Kennington
Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between the ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
on 9 to 11 August 1909, another drawn match with England needing 208 runs with 7 wickets in hand. Laver was 8 not out in his only innings, and took 0 wickets for 13 runs in 8 overs.
When another manager was appointed to lead the Australians to England in 1912, six senior players declared that they were unavailable unless Laver was reinstated. The Board of Control remained unmoved and, in spite of a heated selectors' meeting in which punches were thrown, Laver remained out favour with the Board. "Any suggestion that the players could have a free hand in selecting the manager was so much poppycock", declared Moyes. However, he managed a non-Test tour of
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
in the
1913/14 season.
Altogether, Laver played 163 first-class matches in his career between 1891 and 1914.
Baseball career
Laver was a prominent baseball player and member of first ever
Australia national baseball team
The Australian national baseball team represents Australia in international baseball tournaments and competitions. It is ranked as the top team in Oceania, and is the Oceanian Champion, having been awarded the title in 2007 when New Zealand wi ...
. He participated in the
1897 Kangaroo Tour of the United States
Events
January–March
* January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City.
* January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a pun ...
, which was the first time an Australian baseball team had played in the US. He went on to become the president of the Victorian Baseball League (1915–19)
[http://baseballvictoria.com.au/Portals/34/2019/2017-18%20Annual%20Report.pdf ] and vice-president of the Victorian Baseball Union. He was recognised for his contribution to Australian baseball with his induction into the
Baseball Australia Hall of Fame
The Baseball Australia Hall of Fame or Australian Baseball Federation Hall of Fame is a group of baseball players, managers and coaches who have been recognised by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF) as having influenced baseball in Austral ...
in 2005.
Personal life
He married Katie Myrtle Adele Major at
Kiama, New South Wales
Kiama () is a coastal town 120 kilometres south of Sydney in the Illawarra. One of the main tourist attractions is the Kiama Blowhole. Kiama features several popular surfing beaches and caravan parks, and numerous alfresco cafes and restaurants ...
in 1914, and had two children. He died of a
cerebral haemorrhage
Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...
. At the time of his death he was living in
Kew, Victoria
Kew (;) is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 5 km east from Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Boroondara Local government areas of Victor ...
and his occupation was given as a manufacturer.
His nephew
Jack Laver
Jack Francis Lee Laver (9 March 1917 – 3 October 2017) was a Tasmanian cricketer who played 13 matches of first class cricket for Tasmania between 1946 and 1952.
Laver was an off-spin bowler and lower-order batsman. He made his highest first ...
played 13 first-class matches for
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
between 1946 and 1952. He is also related to tennis star
Rod Laver
Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player. Laver was the world number 1 ranked professional in some sources in 1964, in all sources from 1965 to 1969 and in some sources in 1970, spanning four years befor ...
.
See also
* His brother
Rudolph Laver
References
Sources
*
Moyes, A. G., ''Australian Cricket: A History'', Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1959.
*
Pollard, Jack, ''Australian Cricket: 1893–1917, The Turbulent Years''. Sydney, The Book Company, 1995. ()
*
Pollard, Jack, ''Australian Cricket: The game and the players''. Sydney, Hodder & Stoughton, 1982. ()
* ''
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 ...
'', 1920 edition (obituary)
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laver, Frank
1869 births
1919 deaths
Australia Test cricketers
Victoria cricketers
Australian cricketers
People from Castlemaine, Victoria
Cricketers from Victoria (Australia)
Australian baseball players