Lance Gun
Personal information
Full name
Lancelot Townsend Gun
Born(1903-04-13)13 April 1903
Port Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Died25 May 1958(1958-05-25) (aged 55)
North Adelaide, South Australia
BattingLeft-handed
BowlingRight-arm fast-medium
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1924-25 to 1926-27South Australia
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 8
Runs scored 552
Batting average 46.00
100s/50s 2/3
Top score 136 not out
Balls bowled 88
Wickets 2
Bowling average 19.00
5 wickets in innings 0
10 wickets in match 0
Best bowling 2/38
Catches/stumpings 2/0
Source: Cricinfo, 2 November 2019

Lancelot Townsend Gun (13 April 1903 – 25 May 1958) was an Australian first-class cricketer and lawyer. He is believed to have been the first bowler to use bodyline tactics.

Law career

Lance Gun was educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide, and the University of Adelaide, where he studied law.[1] He was formally admitted to the legal profession in April 1925, joining his brother's law firm of Nelligan & Gun, which later became Gun & Gun.[1][2]

Cricket career

First match and bodyline bowling

Lance Gun was a left-handed batsman. He made his first-class debut at the age of 21 for South Australia in the Sheffield Shield match against New South Wales at the Adelaide Oval in January 1925. On the first day he batted at number seven, going to the wicket when South Australia were 5 for 122, and scoring 136 not out, taking the total to 389 all out.[3]

On the second day, when New South Wales batted, Les Gwynne (also making his first-class debut) and Tommy Andrews were building a steady partnership for the third wicket against mediocre bowling when South Australia's captain Vic Richardson asked Gun to bowl. Gun set a bodyline field of seven fieldsmen on the leg side, including five behind square and one at forward short leg. Bowling right-arm fast-medium over the wicket to the right-handed batsmen, he proceeded to bowl short-pitched deliveries at the batsmen or just outside the line of leg stump. Andrews disdained to play strokes against such deliveries, but was surprised by a fuller ball from Gun that bowled him off his pads. Despite not quite knowing how to treat Gun's bowling, Gwynne reached his century, but was later dismissed by Gun, caught after skying the ball. Richardson then took Gun off, and he never bowled again in first-class cricket.[4][5]

Later career

Gun's law career took precedence over his cricket, and his playing career was sporadic and brief.[1] He made one more century for South Australia: against Western Australia in 1925-26 he made 129, putting on 313 in less than four hours for the opening partnership with Arthur Richardson. It was a record opening partnership for South Australia.[6][7]

Other sports

Gun played Australian rules football for North Adelaide and Glenelg. He was also a champion contract bridge player.[8]

Personal life

Gun married Monica Flannagan in Adelaide in October 1928.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Where Is He Now?". The Advertiser. 20 February 1953. p. 6.
  2. ↑ "New Law Practitioners". The Register. 28 April 1925. p. 9.
  3. ↑ "South Australia v New South Wales 1924-25". Cricinfo. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  4. ↑ David Frith, Bodyline Autopsy, ABC Books, Sydney, 2002, pp. 27–29.
  5. ↑ "Gun's Second Barrel". The Advertiser. 12 January 1925. p. 9.
  6. ↑ "South Australia v Western Australia 1925-26". CricketArchive. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  7. ↑ "South Australia's Mammoth Score". The Register. 2 November 1925. p. 2.
  8. ↑ "Gun's New Barrel". Referee. 1 June 1932. p. 12.
  9. ↑ "Weddings". The Advertiser. 18 October 1928. p. 8.
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