Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

assembled at an early hour, and shortly after ten o’clock the machine was brought into play. After a number of batsmen had tested themselves against the machine and had their stumps sent flying, frequently by the first ball they received, it was time for Fuller to step up and the report continued: Much interest was excited on that celebrated batsman taking his stand against the bowling of the machine, which, by means of a screw, was made to imitate the fast bowling of Redgate. For some time all the balls were directed to the middle stump, but Pilch kept them away, demonstrating that the only method of preventing all straight balls from displacing the stumps was by playing either forward or back with an ‘upright bat’. Caldecourt then tried various manoeuvres to get in a ball by varying the style of bowling; and although the striker might, perhaps, more than once have been caught out had he been playing in a match, yet, by the masterly manner in which he batted, he kept all the balls away from his wicket for a long time. Fuller Pilch would be successful at keeping balls away from his wicket for the next seventeen years and his style of batting, admired and emulated whenever possible, became the benchmark for all new batsmen as they came forward into the game. He was the batting genius who truly bridged the gap between the old style cricket of Hambledon and the modern game of W.G.Grace. Batting evolution 17