NOTTINGHAM: A stone’s throw away from Trent Bridge is a pub named after two former England cricketers. Not unusual in a country where stars of the yesteryear are fondly remembered. What stands out about the Larwood and Voce pub on West Road is the name of the former.
A hero shunned by the establishment who became dismayed by the apathy shown to him and migrated to Australia where he died in 1995, Harold Larwood is one of the tragic stories in cricket.
Douglas Jardine’s trump card in the Bodyline series, he was the only bowler ever to make Don Bradman look ordinary. But the repercussions were severe.
Asked to apologise for following his captain’s order in the furore that the strategy caused afterwards, he stood defiant and was never selected for England again. Even his own county Nottinghamshire disowned him after a few years.
All that seems to have been forgotten. Larwood is a revered figure in the country he left as a bitter man and authorities at Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club have done their bit to make sure that the fast bowler who played 21 Tests from 1926 to 1932 gets a special place.
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His photographs are prominently visible in different places and the club’s museum has made efforts to secure a sweater and a pair of boots used by him. They have also got a small replica made of a Larwood statue which was installed in his native place of Nuncargate in 2002.
“While Bill Voce made peace with the authorities for his role in the Bodyline series and remained in the mainstream, Larwood didn’t, at the behest of his father.
"He got disgruntled by the treatment meted out to him. It was definitely very sad that some of the people who encouraged him to bowl like that in that series didn’t back him,” says cricket historian Peter Wynne-Thomas.
“But now people over here have accepted him. Even though he never returned to live in England, he visited the country and received an MBE in 1993. His five daughters got in touch with the club at different times and gave us the sweater and boots.”
The Larwood and Voce pub was opened by one of Larwood’s daughters and Voce’s widow, although they never had anything to do with it in terms of proprietorship.
Wynne-Thomas, who has authored a number of books and was awarded the British Empire Medal for his work last year, informs that Larwood bought five copies of a book published on him by the club for each of his five daughters.
In the pub named after the famous duo, there is a corner with a photograph of Larwood and Voce from their playing days and another clicked many years later. The name of the place is such that it draws crowds.
“May not be many, but people do drop in and ask what this place has got to do with Larwood and Voce,” says Matt, who works there.
At Trent Bridge, there is a stand named after Larwood and Voce. At the entrance of the Pavilion and Long Room, there is a clock named after Larwood.
Time, surely, has changed things at the Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club which did not renew his contract in 1938. Treated as a pariah at the peak of his powers, Larwood is a much-loved character at the place where he played.