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Johnny Briggs (born October 3 1862, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, England; died January 11, 1902, Heald Green, Cheadle, Cheshire, England) was a left arm spin bowler for Lancashire between 1879 and 1900 who still stands as the second-highest wicket-taker in the county's history after Brian Statham. In the early days of Test cricket, Briggs was one of the most successful bowlers, proving deadly whever wickets were affected by rain, whilst both for his county and country his batting - though at times too careless - was very useful.

Extremely short (less than five feet four or 162 centimetres) Briggs' skill lay in his ability to vary the flight of the ball as well as in achieving prodigious spin on the primitive pitches of the nineteenth century. As a batsman, Briggs was capable of hitting very effectively, but as time went by an eagerness to punish every ball set in and led to a decline.

Briggs first played for Lancashire in 1879, and established himself as a regular player by 1882 despite hardly bowling at all and doing little of significance with the bat. In 1883 and 1884 his batting improved so much that he was chosen to tour Australia with Alfred Shaw's team and played in all the Test matches, scoring an impressive 121 in Adelaide.

In 1885, Briggs developed amazingly as a bowler: having scarcely bowled at all in previous seasons, he took 67 wickets for 13.74 each, and in 1886, his bowling helped England achieve its last ever (to date) cleansweep of an Ashes Test series. His batting did not suffer: Briggs hit a career-best 186 against Surrey at Liverpool - adding a then-record 173 for the tenth wicket with Dick Pilling. In the exceptionally dry summer of 1887, Briggs took 100 wickets for the first time, whilst in the appalling summer of 1888 he was consistently deadly on the treacherous pitches. His 160 wickets cost only 10.49 each, and the following year he was ruthless on the matting in South Africa's first Test matches (only canonised as such much later), taking 15 for 28 in one game, of which fourteen were clean bowled.

In the following years, Briggs competed with Bobby Peel for the left-arm spinner's position in the England Test side, and accomplished more fine performances at Test level, notably at Adelaide in 1891/1892 and at The Oval in 1893. With the controversial speedster Arthur Mold, Briggs formed a deadly bowling combination for Lancashire from 1889 onwards: both bowlers took over 100 wickets every year from 1889 to 1896, frequently bowling almost unchanged through an innings and keeping Lancashire near the top of the Championship table even with almost no worthwhile support bowlers. His batting remained useful until 1894, after which his impatience tended to get the better of him and, despite rapidly improving pitches, he played few significant innings in his later years. Nonetheless, Briggs' superb bowling - though aided by a number of sticky wickets - won Lancashire their first official County Championship in 1897, but he was a disappointment in Australia the following winter and suffered a severe decline in his bowling the following year.

In 1899, Briggs was still thought good enough to play for England at Headingley, but before that he had suffered a blow over the heart from Tom Hayward. Though this injury was not thought severe, Briggs collapsed during the Test and did not play for the rest of the season. In 1900, he made a remarkable comeback, taking all ten wickets for 55 against Worcestershire and scoring over 800 runs, but soon afterwards it became clear he was suffering severely from mental illness. Confined to an asylum, Briggs never recovered and died early in 1902 at the age of just 39 - a tragic loss to cricket and especially Lancashire, who severely missed his bowling between 1901 and 1903.

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First-class bowling

• English bowlers
• English test cricketers
• Wisden Cricketers of the Year
• 1862 births
• 1902 deaths