to take part in the third, “unless the Sussex bowlers bowl fair,
that is, abstain from throwing.” Five of them did play and
Sussex lost, but the new style of bowling had indicated its
existence. In 1844 the M.C.C.’s revised law reads, “The ball
must be bowled, not thrown or jerked, and the hand must not
be above the shoulder in delivery.” Round-arm bowling was
thenceforth legal. In 1862 Willsher (1828–1885), the Kent
bowler, was no-balled by the umpire (Lillywhite) for raising his
hand too high, amid a scene of excitement that almost equalled
a tumult. Overhand bowling was legalized on the 10th of June
1864 after strenuous opposition. In early days much importance
was attached to great pace, but the success of the slow lobbing
bowling (pitched up underhand) led to its cultivation; in both
styles some of the best performers delivered the ball with a
curious high action, thrusting the ball, as it were, from close under
the arm-pit. When the advantages of bias (or twist, or break)
were first known is not closely recorded, but we read of one
Lamborn who (about 1800) could make the ball break from leg
so that “the Kent and Surrey men could not tell what to make
of that cursed twist of his.” Whatever the pace of bowling,
accuracy is the essential point, or, more correctly, the power of
accurately varying pace, pitch and direction, so that the batsman
is never at peace. If the bowler is a mere machine, the batsman
soon becomes his master; but the question as to which of the
two is supreme depends very largely on the condition of the
turf, whether it be hard and true, soft and wet, hard and rough
or soft and drying: the first pair of conditions favour the batsmen,
the second pair the bowler.
The immense amount of labour and expense devoted to the preparation and care of cricket grounds has produced during the past quarter of a century a perfection of smoothness in the turf which has materially altered the character of the game. On the rough and fiery pitches of earlier days, on which a “long stop” was indispensable, the behaviour of the ball could not be reckoned upon by the batsman with any degree of confidence. The first ball of an “over” might be a “shooter,” never rising as much as an inch off the ground, the next might bound over his head, and the third pursue some equally eccentric course. But on the best grounds of to-day, subject to the well-understood changes due to weather, the bound of the ball is so regular as to be calculable with reasonable certainty by the batsman. The result has been that in fine weather, when wickets are true and fast, bowlers have become increasingly powerless to defeat the batsmen. In other words the defence has been strengthened out of proportion to the attack. Bowlers have consequently to a great extent abandoned all attempt to bowl the wicket down, aiming instead at effecting their purpose by bowling close to but clear of the wicket, with the design of getting the batsman to give catches. Many batsmen of the stubbornly defensive type, known in cricket slang as “stonewallers,” retaliated by leaving such balls alone together, or stopping them deliberately with the legs instead of the bat.
These tactics caused the game to become very slow; over after over was bowled without an attempt being made to score a run and without apparent prospect of getting a wicket. This not only injured the popularity of the game from the spectator’s point of view, but, in conjunction with the enormous scores that became common in dry seasons, made it so difficult to finish a match within the three days to which first-class matches in England are invariably limited, that nearly 70% of the total number of fixtures in some seasons were drawn. Cricketers of an older generation have complained that the cause of this is partly to be found in the amount of time wasted by contemporary cricketers. These critics see no reason why half of a summer’s day should be allowed to elapse before cricket begins, and they comment with some scorn on the interval for tea, and the fastidiousness with which play is frequently interrupted on account of imperfect light or for other unimperative reasons. Various suggestions have been made, including proposals for enlarging the wicket, for enabling the attack to hold its own against the increasing strength of the defence. But the M.C.C., the only recognized source of cricket legislation, has displayed a cautious but wise conservatism, due to the fact that its authority rests on no sanction more formal than that of prestige tacitly admitted by the cricketing world; and consequently no drastic changes have been made in the laws of the game, the only important amendments of recent years being that which now permits a side to close its innings voluntarily under certain conditions, and that which, in substitution for the former hard and fast rule for the “follow on,” has given an option in the matter to the side possessing the requisite lead on the first innings.
Early Players.—If the era of the present form of cricket can very properly be dated from the visit of the first Australian team to England in 1878, some enumeration must be made of a few of the cricketers who took part in first-class matches in the earlier portion of the 19th century. Among amateurs should be noted the two fast bowlers, Sir F. H. Bathurst (1807–1881; Eton, Hampshire), and Harvey Fellowes (b. 1826; Eton); the batsman N. Felix (1804–1876; Surrey and Kent), who was a master of “cutting” and one of the earliest to adopt batting gloves; the cricketing champion of his time Alfred Mynn (1807–1861; Kent); and the keen player F. P. Miller (1828–1875; Surrey). The three Marshams, Rev. C. D. Marsham (b. 1835), R. H. B. Marsham (b. 1833) and G. Marsham (b. 1849), all of Eton and Oxford, were as famous as the Studds in the ’eighties; and R. Hankey (1832–1886; Harrow and Oxford) was a great scorer. In the next generation one of the greatest bats of his own or any time was R. A. H. Mitchell (1843–1905; Eton, Oxford, Hants). A very attractive run-getter was C. F. Buller (b. 1846; Harrow, Middlesex); an all too brief career was that of C. J. Ottaway (1850–1878; Eton, Oxford, Kent and Middlesex); whilst A. Lubbock (b. 1845; Eton, Kent) was a sound bat, and D. Buchanan (1830–1900; Rugby and Cambridge) a destructive bowler, as was also A. Appleby (1843–1902; Lancashire).
Of the professionals, Fuller Pilch (1803–1870) and E. G. Wenman (1803–1897) were great bats; T. Box (1808–1876) the most skilled wicket-keeper of his time; W. Lillywhite (1792– 1854), one of the first round-arm bowlers, renowned for the accuracy of his pitch, and W. Clark (1798–1856) possessed wonderful variety of pace and pitch. It was the last-named who organized the All England Eleven, and he was not chosen to represent the players until he had reached the age of forty-seven. George Parr (1826–1891), the greatest leg-hitter in England, had no professional rival until the advent of Richard Daft (1835– 1900). J. Dean (1816–1891) was the finest long-stop, Julius Caesar (1830–1878) a hard clean hitter, as was G. Anderson (1826–1902), and T. Lockyer (1826–1869) seems to have been the first prominent wicket-keeper who took balls wide on the leg-side. Of bowlers, E. Willsher (1828–1885) would seem to have been the most difficult, W. Martingell (1818–1897) being a very good medium-paced bowler, and J. Wisden (1826–1884) a very fast bowler but short in his length. Four famous bowlers of a later date are George Freeman (1844–1895), J. Jackson (1833–1901), G. Tarrant (1838–1870) and G. Wootton (b. 1834). With them must be mentioned the great batsmen, T. Hayward (1835–1876) and R. Carpenter (1830–1901), as well as two other keen cricketers, H. H. Stephenson (1833–1896) and T. Hearne (1826–1900).
Since the first half of the 19th century the sort of cricket to engage public attention has very greatly changed, and the change has become emphasized since the exchange of visits between Australian and English teams has become an established feature of first-class cricket. First-class cricket has become more formal, more serious and more spectacular. The contest for the county championship has introduced an annual competition, closely followed by the public, between standing rivals familiar with each other’s play and record; an increased importance has become attached to “averages” and “records,” and it is felt by some that the purely sporting side of the game has been damaged by the change. Professionalism has increased, and it is an open secret that not a few players who appear before the public as amateurs derive an income under some pretext or other from the game. Cricket on the village green has in many parts of the country almost ceased to exist, while immense crowds congregate
