Our second card, actually showed a spectacled sportsman, whereas the card above was from a time before Edgar Davids was diagnosed with glaucoma, though you can get later cards which show him with glasses on.
However this card was chosen because it actually says in the reverse text that our man "wears spectacles whilst playing". It appears that this was simply because he was nearsighted, which, as it says, makes items that are further away seem out of focus, they only become visible as they come nearer. The main problem with this is that to compensate without special glasses the sufferer ends up squinting, straining their eyes, and getting headaches.
So today we will have a chat about William Eric Bowes, who was born on the 25th of July 1908, in Elland, Yorkshire, the son of a railwayman. This meant the family travelled about the country, until 1914, when they settled in Leeds. Our man fell into cricket almost by accident. Like most small boys, play invariably turned to football or cricket, and it was sheer luck that the cricket team was closer to where he lived. He was a good cricketer though, even as a youngster and he was on the team of both his schools. However he still did not consider it as a career, and became an estate agent after leaving school, only playing for a church team, for which he served as the secretary. This would probably have continued, if it were not for an offer, out of the blue, to join a cricket club in another part of Leeds. When he started to play with them, it was soon realised that he was rather good, and one of the club members seems to have taken him in hand and coached him up.
The intention of this man was to get our man a trial at Yorkshire, but that proved impossible. In the end he got him a trial at Warwickshire, but some time in the distance. By that time, fate had stepped in, and our man had taken a job on the ground staff at Lords Cricket Ground in London, for £5 a week. This seems to have also included the chance to play for Middlesex Cricket Club, which is why when Yorkshire did ask him for a trial he turned it down, only accepting when they said that the could fit his appearances for them around his groundwork and any appearances for the M.C.C.
In May 1928, when he first turned out for Middlesex, he was just nineteen years old. The following year saw his first match for Yorkshire. The terms of his contract often saw the curious situation that sometimes he would be playing for M.C.C. against Yorkshire, but never the other way around.
In 1932 he played for England against Australia and New Zealand in his first Test, his claim to immortality being the dismissal of Donald Bradman with his first ball.
We think his first cartophilic appearance came during this test, in a set of cricketers issued with packs of Allen`s "Steam Rollers" peppermints, but several sets (with very similar, if not identical pictures) were issued in that year, including Barratt`s "Famous Cricketers", Boy`s Magazine`s "Zat Cards", De Beukelaer Biscuits` "All Sports", Godfrey Phillips` "Test Cricketers". Only Hoadley`s Chocolates of Melbourne`s "Empire Games and Test Teams" varies from this, not only showing him in a full length playing pose, but in colour!
During the mid to late 1930s he was one of the top players, despite several injuries, and we do not know how high his average would have risen, because play was stopped by the Second World War. Our man was commissioned to the Army, and served as a gunnery officer in North Africa, until he was captured at Tobruk. He was then shunted around between Italy and Germany in a succession of prisoner of war camps, and was starved and dehydrated. When he was released he had lost four stone in weight. This affected his muscle tone, and his cricket, for he could no longer run up at speed, nor bowl with such ferocity. And in 1946, after a tour of India, another hot country, which affected him badly, he decided to retire from the Tests, though he continued to play at County level until 1947, and then moved into coaching. He also got a job as a cricket correspondent for the Yorkshire Post newspaper, back in Leeds, and was a regular contributor to many books and magazines, until he died, on the 4th of September, 1987, aged seventy-nine.
This is a set of forty cards, and it does appear in our original British Trade Index, but not under Amalgamated Press, only at the back of the book with the anonymous issues, where it is listed as :
- SET ZB7-21. TEST MATCH FAVOURITES. Lg. 89 x 56. Green tinted. Unnd. (40). Issued in strips ... ZB7-21
England Australia 1. L.E.C. Ames 21. B.J. Barnett (sic) 2. A.H. Bakewell 22. D.G. Bradman 3. W.E. Bowes 23. E. H. Bromley 4. E. Clark 24. W.A. Brown 5. C. Duckworth 25. A. Chipperfield 6. W.E. Hammond 26. L.S. Darling 7. D.R. Jardine 27. H. Ebeling 8. James Langridge 28. J.H. Fingleton 9. H. Larwood 29. L. O`B. Fleetwood-Smith 10. M. Leyland 30. C.V. Grimmett 11. A.Mitchell 31. P.M. Hornibrook 12. The Nawab of Pataudi 32. H, Ironmonger 13. E.Paynter 33. A.F. Kippax 14. H. Sutcliffe 34. S.J. McCabe 15. L.F. Townsend 35. W.A. Gidfield 16. B.N. Valentine 36. W.J. O`Reilly 17. H. Verity 37. W.H. Ponsford 18. W. Voce 38. V.V. Richardson 19. C.F. Walters 39. T.W. Wall 20. R.E.S. Wyatt 40. W.M. Woodfull
As far as the entry in our updated British Trade Index, the entry has still not been restored to Amalgamated Press, and remains at the back of the book, listed as :
- TEST MATCH FAVOURITES. 89 x 56. Green tinted. Issued in strips. Unnd. (40). See HZ-5 ... ZAT-020
