South Africa's First Test Tour of England — 1907 and the Googly Attack

South Africa had played seven Tests, all at home, between 1889 and 1906. They had won one (Johannesburg 1906) and lost six. The 1907 trip was funded principally by Bailey, the South African mining magnate, who had also financed the 1905-06 England tour to South Africa.

English cricket in 1907 was at full strength: Jessop, Tyldesley, Hayward, Fry, Hirst, Rhodes, Blythe and the aged-but-still-effective Trumble were available. Conditions in a wet summer favoured medium-pace; the matting-conditioned South Africans had to adapt fast.

South Africa's pre-Test results included victories against Sussex, Worcestershire, Hampshire and a strong London County, signalling the tourists' competitiveness. Wisden made it clear before the Tests that this was no warm-up exercise.

South African cricket had been admitted to Test status in 1888-89, but the early years were one-sided contests in South Africa with weak English touring sides. The 1907 tour, by contrast, was a fully-credentialled Test series in England, marking South Africa's arrival as a competitive third nation.

The touring party was led by Percy Sherwell and built around the most innovative bowling attack the world had then seen. Reggie Schwarz had learnt the googly from Bosanquet while playing for Middlesex; he had then taught it to compatriots Bert Vogler, Aubrey Faulkner and Gordon White on returning to South Africa. The four men — each capable of bowling the googly with different action and pace — gave the team an unprecedented variety on the matting wickets at home and now, in 1907, on English turf.

The first Test at Lord's (1-3 July) was drawn — South Africa, set 129 to win, finished on 24 for 6 in steady rain. The second at Headingley (29-31 July) saw England win by 53 runs after Vogler took 7 for 128 in the match and Colin Blythe's 15 wickets — including 8 for 59 in the first innings — settled it for the home side. The third Test at The Oval (19-21 August) was again drawn, England 130 for 6 with five minutes left.

The tour figures were remarkable: of 31 first-class matches, South Africa won 21, lost 4 and drew 6. Vogler took 119 wickets at 18.66, Schwarz 137 at 11.79, Faulkner 64 at 16.83. The Test series scoreline (1-0) flattered England.

“It was the bowling that made the South Africans formidable.”

Bailey wrote to MCC at the end of the tour proposing a triangular tournament between England, Australia and South Africa. The MCC rejected the immediate proposal but agreed to a conference at Lord's, which became the founding meeting of the Imperial Cricket Conference (now ICC) on 15 June 1909.

Back in South Africa, the googly attack continued to develop. Their next series — at home v England in 1909-10 — would be South Africa's first home series win.