Frank Foster

Who was Frank Foster?

Frank Rowbotham Foster was a Warwickshire and England all-rounder whose career was cut short by an accident during World War I. Nonetheless, his achievements during the early 1910s are sufficient to rank him as one of cricket's finest all-round players.

Foster was educated at Solihull School, in the West Midlands.

He was a fast-medium left-handed bowler and could manipulate the release so that the ball could, in the words of a later Wisden, "double its speed upon hitting the ground". He bowled from very wide of the bowling crease, but was very straight because of the swing inwards his easy body action generated, whilst his height allowed him to gain a lot of bounce. As a batsman, he was very aggressive and a fast scorer with a good range of strokes - most of his major innings were played at over a run a minute - but on difficult wickets his technique certainly had major flaws which he never was able to truly correct, and which cost him dearly at times.

Of Lincolnshire descent, and no relation to the famous Worcestershire Foster family, Frank Foster first played for Warwickshire in 1908. In five matches, he took 23 wickets cheaply, but it was thought he was trying to bowl too fast and was overdoing himself. The following year, he became a regular member of the team but was only modestly successful - though for the first time he showed traces of ability as a hard-hitting batsman.