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English cricketer

Frank Edward Woolley (27 May 1887 – 18 October 1978) was an English professional cricketer who played for Kent County Cricket Club between 1906 and 1938 and for the England cricket team. A genuine all rounder, Woolley was a left handed batsman and a left arm bowler. He was an outstanding fielder close to the wicket and is the only non wicket keeper to have held over 1,000 catches in a first class career, whilst his total number of runs scored is the second highest of all time and his total number of wickets taken the 27th highest. Woolley played for England in 64 Test matches from 1909 to 1934 and is generally regarded as one of cricket's greatest all rounders. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the 1911 edition of the almanack and was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009.

Woolley was born at Tonbridge in Kent in 1887, the youngest of four brothers. His father, Charles Woolley, owned a bicycle workshop in the town's High Street and Woolley was born above the business. Charles combined his workshop with a dyeing business he had inherited from his father, but had trained as an engineer at a railway works in Ashford; it was here that he had met and married his wife, Louise Lewis, the daughter of the owner of the railway works. In 1899 the ground became the base for the Tonbridge Nursery, a training centre established to train Kent's young professional cricketers. The cricketers who passed through the Nursery formed the basis of Kent's four County Championship winning sides during Woolley's early cricket career. Woolley was interested in cricket from an early age and he would play with his brothers behind his father's workshop; the brothers also watched matches on the Angel Ground from a tree which overlooked the ground. He was also a keen association footballer, good enough to play for Tonbridge and to sign for Tunbridge Wells Rangers F. C. in 1906. before being asked to join in a match to make up the numbers by Tom Pawley, Kent's manager. Woolley impressed McCanlis and the other Nursery coaches and throughout the season Woolley scored 960 runs and took 115 wickets playing for a variety of sides. Blythe had been Woolley's childhood hero

After a single Second XI match in May 1906, a match in which he played alongside his brother Claud, Woolley was drafted into Kent's First XI for the County Championship match against Lancashire at Old Trafford as a replacement for Blythe who had injured his hand fielding. In Kent's second innings however, he scored 64 runs and he retained his place in the side for most of the remainder of the season, only dropping out of the First XI during Canterbury Cricket Week, a significant social occasion when amateur batsmen were more likely to make themselves available to play. He had played 16 matches, scored 779 runs and took 42 wickets. It was to be the only time he did not score at least 1,000 runs in a season in his career. His total of 58,959 runs is the second highest of all time in first class matches, beaten only by Jack Hobbs,

As a bowler, Woolley was most effective before a knee injury in 1924–25. He took 132 five wicket hauls and took 10 wickets in a match 28 times. as a fielder are the most taken by any non wicket keeper. In total Woolley played in 978 first class matches, including a record 764 for Kent, in a career which lasted until 1938. He retired aged 51, scoring 1,590 runs in his final season. He was inducted into the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations Hall of Fame in 2000 and made an inaugural member of the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame when it was established in 2009.

Writing for Barclay's World of Cricket, Harry Altham described Woolley as a "tall and graceful" figure who, with "a quiet air" was "unhurried in his movements". As a batsman, he had a gift for timing his shots and made full use of his long reach; he was especially strong in driving off his back foot against balls that other batsmen might consider good length deliveries. He was equally graceful as a bowler, making full use of his height to extract additional bounce from his deliveries. Altham pointed out that, although Woolley lacked the subtlety of Wilfred Rhodes, he was nevertheless a formidable bowler on any pitch whose conditions helped him. and wrote that no other cricketer alive "had served the meadow game as happily and faithfully as Woolley", whilst in his obituary in The Daily Telegraph, EW Swanton described him as "as graceful a batsman as ever played". According to R. C. Robertson Glasgow "when you wrote about him, there weren't enough words. In describing a great innings by Woolley, and few of them were not great in artistry, you had to be careful with your adjectives and stack them in little rows, like pats of butter or razor blades. In the first over of his innings, perhaps, there had been an exquisite off drive, followed by a perfect cut, then an effortless leg glide. In the second over the same sort of thing happened; and your superlatives had already gone. The best thing to do was to presume that your readers knew how Frank Woolley batted and use no adjectives at all." He went on: "there was all summer in a stroke by Woolley, and he batted as it is sometimes shown in dreams." In his Wisden obituary, R. L. Arrowsmith wrote "his average rate of scoring has been exceeded only by Jessop and equalled by Trumper. His philosophy was to dominate the bowler. 'When I am batting,' he said, 'I am the attack'."

After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 the English cricket season continued, although public interest declined and the social side of the game was curtailed. Woolley was married in September and did not immediately join the armed forces, instead working in his father's workshop which had been converted to manufacture munitions. His three brothers all joined the Kent Fortress Royal Engineers in 1914, and in 1915 Woolley attempted to join them but failed his medical. efn|The minutes of the Kent Committee record the cause of Woolley's medical failure as compacted toes on both feet, whilst his biographer, Ian Peebles, says that it was due to problems with his eyesight and teeth. and made a number of appearances in exhibition matches, including making a century for a Lancashire side against Yorkshire during 1916. Before his retirement Woolley had bought a bungalow at Hildenborough on a site large enough for him to establish a cricket school. He coached cricket at The King's School, Canterbury, but after the break out of World War II the school was evacuated to Cornwall and Woolley moved to Cliftonville where he joined the Local Defence Volunteers. His only son, Richard, died whilst serving as a merchant seaman on SS Beaverford as part of Convoy HX 84 in November 1940,

During the war Woolley played in a number of exhibition matches designed to entertain the public and help boost morale. After the war, he moved to Tunbridge Wells, continuing to coach at The King's School for ten years as well as spending a summer coaching cricket at a Butlin's holiday camp during the early 1950s. He played twice for Old England sides, was elected a life member of both Kent and MCC, and served on the Kent General Committee between 1950 and 1961. Sybil died in 1962, and Woolley moved to live with one of his daughters at Longwick in Buckinghamshire. He remained active, regularly visiting the St Lawrence Ground during Canterbury Cricket Week, and in January 1971 he flew to Australia to watch the last two Tests of the 1970–71 Ashes series. Later in the year he married an American widow, Martha Wilson Morse and set up home in the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia. He died in 1978 at their home at Chester, Nova Scotia aged 91. A memorial service was held at Canterbury Cathedral and Woolley's ashes were scattered at the St Lawrence Ground.