One of cricket’s more remarkable tales is that Douglas Carr played club cricket until well into his thirties, before, at the age of 37, he unleashed the googly he’d been working on for years. At this point, the googly was a largely unknown and mysterious concept, and Carr’s rare ability to deliver it saw him fly through the ranks. A trial was offered by Kent County Cricket Club in May, and by August he was in England. On his Test debut, he would take a five-wicket haul, but he never played Test cricket again.
Douglas Carr was born on March 17, 1872, in Cranbook, Kent. His first-class record comprises 334 wickets at 16.72, including five wickets in an innings 31 times and 10 wickets in a match 8 times. Though Douglas Carr’s career was nonetheless extraordinary, his exploits saw him named one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1910. Douglas Carr’s career was short but sweet, with the googly howler all too aware that his newly developed skill gave him a short lifespan. I am quite certain of one thing,’ Carr remarked. and that is that in a very short time, everybody will be quite able to distinguish between the two breaks.” He was selected to play the last match at the Oval of the 1909 Ashes series.
Though 7 for 282 on the Test debut is not a bad start, 5 for 146 in the first inning, and 2 for 136 in the 2nd inning His effort could not avoid the series defeat, which meant his career was over. As a whole, Carr’s 1909 year was his best, as he took 95 wickets, including an analysis of 8/36 against Somerset from 28.1 overs. He was a very poor late batsman, playing only one fifty in 58 first-class games. He ended his cricketing career a few weeks later with the outbreak of World War I. Sadly, Carr passed away in the Devon village of Salcombe Hill at the age of 78.
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