Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

The matches were played at Sheffield, Lord’s and Brighton and enjoyed by large crowds. Round-arm bowling was here to stay and finally MCC backed down and simplified the Law in time for the start of the 1828 season, so that it now read: ‘The ball shall be bowled. If it be thrown or jerked, or if any part of the hand or arm be above the elbow [my italics] at the time of delivery, the umpire shall call “No Ball”.’ Batsmen were now expected to cope with this limited form of round-arm bowling on a regular basis and run-getting was reduced dramatically. Only Fuller Pilch could compare with the older generation of batsmen. Warsop’s figures show that in the seven years from 1828 to 1834 there were only eleven annual batting averages over 20, with Fuller Pilch claiming more than half of them. And in the nine years from 1835 to 1843, after all restrictions to round-arm bowling were lifted when the word ‘elbow’ was changed by MCC to ‘shoulder’ in Law 10, there were only 15 averages over 20, seven of them from Fuller Pilch, while only Felix featured twice. Those averages may seem low to the modern reader but it should be remembered that, throughout Fuller Pilch’s career, team innings totals rarely exceeded 200, frequently never reached three figures, and that runs came slowly at between 150-200 per day, mainly in singles, with twos, threes and, before boundary lines existed, all-run fours, fives or more, celebrated by the spectators as excitedly as sixes are cheered in today’s T20 run-fests. Bowling revolution 13