Charles Frederick Root (16 April 1890 – 20 January 1954) was an English

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who played for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 1926 and for

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

between 1910 and 1920 and for

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

between 1921 and 1932.

Early career

Root was born in

Somercotes Somercotes is a village and civil parish in the district of Amber Valley in the English county of Derbyshire, close to the border with Nottinghamshire. It is a former mining village and was once surrounded by more than five pits. The village ha ...

, Derbyshire and initially served on ground staff of

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

before beginning his first-class career for Derbyshire, making his debut in the

1910 Events January * January 6 – Abé people in the French West Africa colony of Côte d'Ivoire rise against the colonial administration; the rebellion is brutally suppressed by the military. * January 8 – By the Treaty of Punakha, t ...

season.Wisden Fred Root
/ref> He played for five seasons for

before cricket was suspended in England because of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, doing very little apart from a couple of promising performances in 1913. During the war, Root was hit in the chest while serving as a dispatch rider, but recovered and resumed his cricketing career after the war.

Worcestershire

Root moved to

in 1921 after two seasons in league cricket. After a season and a half when he failed to establish himself as an orthodox right-arm fast medium bowler, Root became an exponent of the

leg theory A leg is a weight-bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single, linear element capa ...

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 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 The Oval, currently named 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 sinc ...

on a pitch that should have suited him. His character may be summed up by an event in a match against

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

. The batsmen, Arnold Dyson and

Eddie Bates Eddie may refer to: *Eddie (text editor), a text editor originally for BeOS and now ported to Linux and Mac OS X *Eddie (crater), a crater on Mars *Eddie (given name) *The Eddie, a surfing tournament Arts and entertainment * ''Eddie'' (film), a 1 ...

, had collided mid-pitch, and the ball was returned to Root, the bowler. Root didn't break the stumps, as both batsmen seemed injured. An amateur repeatedly shouted, "Break the wicket, Fred, break the wicket!" until Root said: "If you want to run him out, here's the ball: you come and do it." The amateur responded with the words, "Oh, I'm an amateur. ''I'' can't do such a thing."

England selection

Although Worcestershire were entering a period where they were the weakest of the County teams, Root's tireless, accurate and lively bowling only improved. In 1925, he took a record 207 wickets for the county, almost half of Worcestershire's wickets in first-class matches. During the late 1920s, Root was effectively the team's only penetrative bowler. In 1926, Root took 7 for 42 against the Australians on a pitch so dead as to be quite unsuited to him. Though he was less effective than previously in county cricket (soft pitches may have played a part), Root played three Test matches for

against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

that year. Unusually, he was unable to bat in any of the three tests, due to rain interruptions and the depth of the England batting. Root still holds the record for the most Test Matches in a career without ever batting.

Later years

In 1927, Root took 145 Championship wickets as the County won only one of thirty fixtures. The batsman's pitches of 1928 resulted in an expensive yield though he did achieve the double for the only time in his career. Root's 146 wickets in 1929 was almost triple the next best return by his teammates. In 1931, he took 9 for 23 against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, representing the best bowling ever achieved for Worcestershire. Root declined rapidly in 1932 and lost his place. 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

, and also continued to play

club cricket Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obse ...

in the Lancashire League. He also remained a keen observer of the international game, and was unimpressed by Australian protests against

Bodyline Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their English cricket team in Australia in 1932–33, 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia. It was designed to combat the extraordinar ...

, saying that their players should stick to playing with tennis balls if they could not learn how to play it. Root also wrote a well-known book about the life of professional cricketers, ''A Cricket Pro's Lot'' (1937).

As an umpire

Root stood as an

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French , , and , : (as evidenced in cricke ...

in 35 first-class matches between 1947 and 1949.

Bowling method

After Root joined Worcestershire, he changed his bowling style to deliver fast-medium in-swingers with a leg trap of up to five fielders. An illustration appears in the 1926 Cricketer of this employed against Australia. There is speculation that it may have influenced the thinking of

Douglas Jardine Douglas Robert Jardine ( 1900 – 1958) was a Scottish 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 ...

when he was contemplating the use of

bodyline Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their English cricket team in Australia in 1932–33, 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia. It was designed to combat the extraordinar ...

against

Don Bradman Sir Donald George Bradman (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. His cricketing successes have been claimed by Shane ...

. Current regulations render this illegal. Root died in a

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

hospital in 1954.

Notes

1890 births 1954 deaths Derbyshire cricketers England Test cricketers English cricketers Worcestershire cricketers English cricket umpires People from Somercotes Cricketers from Derbyshire Players cricketers English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 20th-century English sportsmen North v South cricketers Sir L. Parkinson's XI cricketers British military personnel of World War I Military personnel from Derbyshire {{England-cricket-bio-stub