Cricket: The bouncer - feared and fascinating

Keith Miller, the great Australian all-rounder and character, may be the only bowler in tests laid low by bowling bouncers.

After being booed at Trent Bridge in 1948 for sending down a barrage against England, he sat down until the jeers subsided.

The Miller story is among many relating to the art of the bouncer. From the bodyline series to Michael Papps' problems at Eden Park, the short-pitched delivery has been a fearsome and fascinating part of cricket.

Papps, lump on forehead, is not a newcomer to the list of victims. He was already a member, thanks to a delivery from Northern Districts' Ian Butler a few seasons ago.

Australian paceman Brett Lee may not have just ended Papps' match. A question mark hangs over his career should there be even a hint of fear in his heart. And Papps would not be the first batsman undone by the fast bowler's prized weapon.

Yet unlike the boxer's knockout blow, a damaging bouncer is often followed by regret.

The late, great West Indian paceman Malcolm Marshall described his felling of English batsman Andy Lloyd during the 1980s as "sickening".

"I was close to breaking down," Marshall recalled at the sight of Lloyd being carted to hospital after his debut test innings of half an hour.

Lloyd, who had worn a flimsy prototype helmet, never played for England again and his vision was affected. He is also a quiz subject - who is the only test opener never to have been dismissed?

"In one day - in one hour - I experienced the greatest high and low of my playing career," Lloyd has said.

Glenn Turner, maybe the finest of New Zealand batsmen and a contemporary of Lloyd, is well versed in this subject.

His career not only included non-helmet days, but the era of unrestricted bouncers. During his stellar career at Worcestershire, Turner's long stays at the crease came when superb West Indian pacemen - with some others - were a dime a dozen.

Turner believes the arrows of Australian Dennis Lillee, the finest fast bowler of all time, were the most dangerous and superior to the erratic slings delivered by his partner, Jeff Thomson.

Lillee was an exception though, according to Turner.

"The most dangerous bouncers often come from short bowlers," says Turner, recalling a little-remembered West Indian, Uton Dowe.

"They bowl skidders which come on more quickly than those from taller bowlers, who get more of the balloon bounce. This is contrary to what most people might think.

"Brett Lee is of average height but gets quite low because of a long delivery stride so he is a bit of a skidder."

Dowe, dangerous but so erratic that his home Jamaican crowd once held banners "Dowe Shall Not Bowl" during a test against Australia in the early 1970s, never caught up with Turner.

But Turner was hit on the head twice.

Bernard Julien, not the most ferocious of West Indians, caught Turner in a county game with nine stitches the result. Turner - without a helmet - did not usually hook but having already scored a hundred made a late cross-bat decision and was pinned.

Englishman Bob Willis flipped Turner's helmet grill on another occasion.

Then the Marshall name pops up again.

During his international hiatus, Turner - as a TV commentator - blasted the 1980 West Indians when Colin Croft shoved umpire Fred Goodall and the tourists refused to return to Lancaster Park in protest at umpiring decisions.

When Turner next faced Marshall in England, he copped 12 consecutive bouncers.

"I said more or less to him 'When are you going to grow up'," recalls Turner, who was once told by Thomson he would have his "ears pinned to the sightscreen".

Marshall is an interesting study in bouncers thanks to his 1987 autobiography Marshall Arts.

He candidly defines how the bouncer was used to terrorise and for revenge.

He once found a piece of bone in the ball after striking England's Mike Gatting, who had worn a visor-less helmet. The sequel to this is cricket lore. On arriving at Heathrow Airport, Gatting - with his snout splattered - was asked by a journalist "where exactly on the nose" did the ball hit?

But this is rarely a subject of humour.

Marshall reckoned he had "never seen a man more scared of me" than New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman Ian Smith.

"Wait till you get to Barbados. Then I'll sort you out," he claims to have told Smith after a test in the mid-1980s.

"I can't say I have any regrets about resorting to psychological methods to sort out the New Zealanders," Marshall continues.

"We were out for revenge [for 1980] ... the hurt had stayed with us ... there was no question of us showing them any mercy."

While Richard Hadlee retaliated, Jeremy Coney ended up with a broken arm.

Bouncers can hurt friend and foe. During a Sheffield Shield game, Lillee once cracked the cheek of Max Walker - a good enough friend to have penned the foreword in a Lillee autobiography.

And bouncers come at all pace and rises.

The man Lillee rated as the best, West Indian Andy Roberts, had a sucker punch - a quick and slow bouncer. And Thompson was maybe the finest exponent of bowling bouncers that pitched just short of a good length.

As to the effects: some batsmen adjust even if they are forced off the front foot. Others, such as England's Graeme Hick, have careers blighted by failing against bouncers.

It was the follow-up which might scuttle a player like Hick - maybe a full-length delivery trapping him on the back foot with his mind in a fog.

For others, such as Lloyd, a brief moment is iconic. For others still, a terrifying incident pales - at least a little - over the years.

New Zealand No 11 Ewen Chatfield nearly died after being hit by England's Peter Lever at Eden Park in 1975.

Chatfield, on debut, stopped breathing, and was revived by an England physio. He went on to a long test career remembered for relentlessly accurate medium-fast bowling, although Chatfield had fewer claims than most to being a test batsman.

Revival is now the job for Papps, who has been rested by Canterbury this week.

Turner, who played with a messy eye just days after being smashed by Julien, says Papps must get back to the crease quickly.

"The very next team we played bowled a lot of bouncers at me because of what had happened," he says.

"That was good because it got me straight back into it.

"It's going to be interesting with Papps. He got pinned by Butler three or four years ago and that seemed to affect him.

"Our answer sometimes is to take someone away from something if they've lost that bit of form or confidence. The message I would have is it is better to face the music rather than dodging it.

"Any batsman worth his salt ... if he can't overcome that fear he's better off doing something else."