FRED ROOT

'Fred Root' ('Charles Frederick Root'; born 16 April 1890 in Somercotes, Derbyshire, died 20 January 1954 in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire) was an English cricketer.
Root played his early first-class cricket for that county, making his debut in 1910. He played for five seasons for Derbyshire before cricket was suspended in England because of World War I, doing very little apart from a couple of promising performances in 1913. Root was hit in the chest while serving as a dispatch rider, but recovered and resumed his cricketing career after the war.
Unwanted by Derbyshire after failing to establish himself even in the weakest of county teams, Root moved to Worcestershire in 1921. After a season and a half when he still failed to establish himself as an orthodox fast-medium bowler, Root became an exponent of the leg theory style of bowling, and achieved great success with it. His ability to swing the ball in and make it gain pace off the ground made him very difficult on anything like a fiery pitch, whilst his powerful physique and consequent amazing stamina made Root respected even on pitches giving bowlers no assistance. In 1923 he took 170 wickets for 20.53 each and 153 for less than 17 each in 1924, but spoilt his chances of going on that winter's Ashes tour with a poor performance for the Players at the Oval on a pitch that should have suited him. However, given that Root's powerful physique and ability to gain pace from the pitch were well-suited to the demanding Australian pitches of that time, his omission from that tour could easily be seen as a grievous error that left Maurice Tate with no support suited to the conditions.
Although Worcestershire were moving towards one of the bleakest periods any county team have ever had, Root's tireless, accurate and lively bowling only improved. In 1925 he took a record 207 wickets for the county and almost half of Worcestershire's wickets in county matches. Root would with absolute confidence have been chosen as a ''Cricketer of the Year'' but for ''Wisden's'' special portrait of Jack Hobbs upon him breaking the record for the number of centuries. (Even given Hobbs' special portrait in his best season, it is a wonder Root ''never'' gained selection as a ''Wisden Cricketer of the Year''). During the latter half of the 1920s, Worcestershire were effectively a "one man team", with Root's superb work standing out in an otherwise dreadfully weak county team - making his figures much better than they look.
The following year Root took 7 for 42 against the Australians on a pitch so dead as to be quite unsuited to him. Though he was very disappointing in county cricket (soft pitches may have played a part), Root played three Test matches for England against Australia that year. He did not do as well as in county cricket but the pitches were, again, consistently too soft for him.
The following year, although Worcestershire only won one game out of thirty, Root was the best bowler in England with 145 wickets for less than 18 each. Early in the season, though with extremely low totals to bowl at against strong batting sides, Root was at his absolute best, making the ball swing and lift better than ever before. But for some of the most appalling weather and softest pitches in county cricket history, Root might have bettered his 1925 record of 219 wickets. The following year, with Worcestershire reaching their lowest low - not a single win in thirty games - Root, seemingly overworked, disappointed as a bowler with only 118 wickets for 29.66, but surprisingly did the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets for the only time. He made his only first-class century against Kent that year. The dry summer of 1929 was admirably suited to him, and his tireless bowling brought Root 146 wickets when nobody else took over 50 for Worcestershire. In 1930 and 1931, Root maintained his form and stamina, with his 9 for 23 against Lancashire in the latter year representing the best bowling ever done for Worcestershire. Root famously bowled with a 'leg trap, in County Cricket and may have inspired Jardine's 'leg theory' on the Bodyline tour. He took five wickets in each innings against Essex in May 1931, employing a field of four leg slips and a short leg at times.
His rapid decline in 1932 was stunning: Root, losing his pace and life from the pitch, did not once take five in an innings and was dropped from the team before the season was over. Apart from one match for Sir L Parkinson's XI in 1933, Root retired from first-class cricket after this. He spent some time as coach to Leicestershire, and also continued to play club cricket in the Lancashire League. He also remained a keen observer of the international game, and was unimpressed by Australian protests against Bodyline, saying that their players should stick to playing with tennis balls if they could not learn how to play it. Root also wrote one well-known book about the life of professional cricketers, ''A Cricket Pro's Lot'' (1937).
Root died in a Wolverhampton hospital in 1954.

Contents

External links

External links

★ First-class bowling