Charlie 'The Terror' Turner — 283 Wickets in an English Summer, 1888

Australian cricket in the late 1880s rested on a small group of professional and quasi-professional bowlers, of whom Spofforth was the elder statesman and Turner the rising prodigy. NSW pitches and country wickets — uncovered, often unrolled — produced bowlers comfortable on any surface.

By the time Turner reached the Australian Test side in 1886-87 he had been demolishing intercolonial sides for two seasons. His pairing with the left-armer Ferris in his debut Test produced an 18-wicket partnership in a match Australia still managed to lose by 13 runs.

Turner was born at Bathurst, NSW, in 1862 and developed his bowling on rough country pitches in the Central West. He was a fast-medium right-armer with a relatively long, rhythmic run-up and a high action; what made him exceptional was a sharply turning off-cutter that broke back from a length on any pitch with the slightest moisture. On rain-affected wickets — the norm in 1880s Test cricket — he was unplayable.

In the Australian summer of 1887-88, against Shrewsbury's and Vernon's two touring sides, he took 106 first-class wickets in only 12 matches, the only time any bowler has reached 100 wickets in an Australian season. He took 17 wickets in the only Test, at Sydney, sharing the new ball with the young left-armer JJ Ferris.

His tour of England in 1888 was historic. In a sodden summer ideal for his methods, he took 283 first-class wickets — a figure 69 wickets ahead of Ted Peate's previous record from 1882 and one that has been bettered only twice since (Richardson 1895, Freeman 1928 & 1933). He took 21 Test wickets in three Tests, including 5/27 and 5/36 at Lord's where Australia won by 61 runs.

Turner played 17 Tests, taking 101 wickets at 16.53 — the lowest average of any specialist bowler with 100 Test wickets at the time. He reached 50 wickets in six Tests, a Test record that still stands. In February 1895, in his last Test, he became the second man (after Briggs three days earlier) to take 100 Test wickets.

He was named one of the first six Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1889 — all six being bowlers, all six having profited from the wet summer.

“On a sticky wicket Turner is the most difficult bowler I have ever seen.”

Turner left Test cricket abruptly after the 1894-95 series, dropped by selectors at 32 with his powers seemingly intact. He carried on in NSW domestic cricket and lived to see the inter-war Australian sides, dying in 1944 at the age of 81.