John and James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Companion 1882

33 that the dodge and invention of B boadbridok made him even more ilangerou still. The round-arm style, with hand nearly horizontal, is against nature. L i l l y w h i t k ’ s muscular system, as to arm and shoulder, was peculiar, 1 ID bowling and his throwing were much the same. It was a joke to send him to long-field to see him bowl up the ball. C aldecourt , the best umpire, and tlie best judge of ail the professionals of his day, agreed with me that, had not L illy wh ite been a very short man, his high delivery would have been called in question ; “ but," he said, “ even now it is not as high as he would like : as to what I think of L illy ' s bowling, let me say, if you let L illy get his hand where lie likes he would bowl a hundred times better than any man ever did bowl fairly. Sometimes in a country match he meets with an umpire who thinks whatever L illyw iiite does must be right, and then it is cruel to see how he will rattle away among their stumps.” Now, my young friends, some will tell you, as R ichard D aft told me he had heard, that L illy wh ite was true, but not difficult. True lie was indeed, for look to the score books, and you will see him credited with his full share 7 * of wickets, whoever bowled with him at the other end, even till his last match in the fifty-sixth year of his age. Long before this he had survived, as all elderly men do, the lightness and freedom of hand which gives that abrupt rise and erratic spin which characterised his bowling in Sussex. I say in Sussex, because he was never engaged or much known at L ord ’ s till liis later years. Then, though past his best and inferior to his former self, he was still undeniable for every first-rate match, for his exact length and knowledge of the game made him second to none, if taken for ten years together. R edgate , for two years combining spin with pace (for pace usually annihilates spin), was better than any one in L illy wh ite ' s time if not since. It was a sight to see L illy w h ite ' s bowling to P ilcii : he would pitch up inch by inch till P ilch could reach him forward no more, and then with change of pace and altered curve, especially, he would say to C al decourt , “ Billy, I shall catch him between two minds soon, and that’s my chance /’ One dodge of L ill yw h ite ' s I have watched for in vain among the slow bowlers of this day, though I can hardly believe that it is not practised, and suppose I must have overlooked it. He was aware that a ball pitched a little shorter, if with a higher elevation, seemed by an ocular delusion nearer. Mr. B oudier , one of the best men of the old Etonian and Cambridge Elevens, told me that old as L illyw iiite was when lie knew him, lie was more afraid of him than of any other bowler of the day, as he could bowl so true a ball, wholly unaffected by any change of pace or elevation. A young bowler once said to L illyw h ite , “ I can pitch every time on a bit of paper/’ “ Can you shift the paper and then pitch on i t ? ” was the reply. L illyw iiite could bowl as slowly as he pleased, yet his best pace when he desired to surprise a man was by no means to be despised. While the round-arm bowling was a novelty, the question arose as to its comparative efficiency. Eventually three grand trial matches were arranged under the name of Sussex against A ll England, for it was at first called “ the Sussex bowling/’ In the two first matches Sussex won. The All England side was then chosen for batting chiefly, and so reinforced they won the third match. My old friend, R ichard C iiesltn , got up this match, and backed the Sussex side. R ichard C iieslyn began life in the Guards, and ended it in the office of collector o f taxes—an appointment found him by his county 3