Bill Lawry
Lawry was born in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury. He was given the names William Morris after the early Prime Minister of Australia, William Morris Hughes. His father Alfred played amateur cricket until the age of 51. Bill never saw his father play, who was aged 47 when Bill was born. Aged nine, he played competitive cricket for the first time with the Thornbury Presbyterian Church team. He spent three years there, as well as playing for Preston Technical School. When he was twelve, he entered Melbourne's district competition playing for Northcote's fourth team, working his way up to the First XI by the age of sixteen. At the time, he was apprenticed as a plumber and attending Preston Technical College. Lawry was selected for Victoria's Second XI at the age of seventeen. He made a duck against the South Australians and did not see any further action for the Seconds for the rest of the summer of 1954–55. The following season, Lawry was recalled to the Seconds and scored 183 against South Australia.
Tom Wills
The reforms enacted by Thomas Arnold, famed headmaster, made Rugby the crucible of muscular Christianity, a "cult of athleticism" into which Wills was inculcated. Wills took up cricket within a week of entering Evans House. At first he bowled underhand, but it was considered outdated, so he tried roundarm bowling. He clean bowled a batsman with his first ball using this style and declared: "I felt I was a bowler." Wills soon topped all of his house's cricket statistics. At bat he was a "punisher" with a sound defence; however, in an era when stylish stroke-play was expected of a gentleman cricketer, he was said to have no style at all. In April 1852, aged sixteen, Wills joined the Rugby School XI, and on his debut at Lord's a few months later, against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), he took a match-high 12 wickets. That year his bowling was vital in establishing Rugby as the greatest public school in English cricket. In a prelude to his colonial career, critics stated that Wills ought to be no-balled for throwing—an illegal bowling action. Rugby coach John Lillywhite, the umpire who famously no-balled professional Edgar Willsher, defended his protégé. Wills survived the scandal. He played with, and attracted praise from the leading cricketers of the age, including Alfred Mynn. William Clarke, his hero, invited him to join the All-England Eleven in 1854, but he remained at school. The next year, he became Rugby XI captain.
Rugby, like other English public schools, had evolved its own variant of football. The game in Wills' era—a rough and highly defensive struggle involving hundreds of boys—was confined to a competition amongst the houses. Spanning his school years, Wills is one of the few players who is named in the newspapers' brief match reports. His creative play and "eel-like agility" baffled the opposition, and his penchant for theatrics endeared him to the crowds. One journalist noted his use of "slimy tricks", a possible early reference to his gamesmanship. As a "dodger" in the forward line, he was a long and accurate shot at goal and served as his house's kicker. Wills also shone in the school's annual athletics carnival and his long-distance running ability in Hare and Hounds was unparalleled.