Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

20 Methods that he was at times unplayable. It is interesting that he generated movement through spin, rather than swing. This seems to have been the technique in use through most of the nineteenth century, with right-arm bowlers spinning the ball from the off and left-arm bowlers like Willsher spinning it from the leg. The innovation of swing, or ‘swerve’ as it was known, does not really appear to have taken off until the last years of the century, although curiously Edmund Hinkly is said by Caffyn to have been one of its early exponents. So Edgar had pace, bounce and movement, but allied to all these were phenomenal accuracy and consistency. Year after year he wheeled away à la Derek Shackleton (although the Hampshire man was never fast ), hardly bowling a bad ball and sending downmaiden after maiden. His most extraordinary feat of economy was for the All-England Eleven against an eighteen of Manchester Broughton in 1861, when he bowled 100 consecutive balls for just one run. Shackleton is renowned for taking 100 wickets in a season twenty times in a row between 1949 and 1968, but he played during an era of many more county matches than were available to Willsher. At the peak of his career between 1857 and 1871, the latter played about the same number of first-class matches 6 in a season as a twenty-first century county professional, and 50 wickets is now deemed to be the modern equivalent of a 100-wicket season’s haul. Over that period, he only twice took fewer than 50 wickets in a season, and in one of those, 1858, he made just six first-class appearances. Whilst figures can never tell the whole story, the statistician does have some useful tools at his disposal. With regard to a bowler’s accuracy, runs conceded per 100 balls (economy rate) is the standard measure, while potency can be assessed by looking at the number of balls bowled per wicket (strike rate). Using these parameters, Willsher had an economy rate of close to 31 and a strike rate of just over 41. Bat now dominates ball to a much greater extent than in that far-off era, so a good economy rate for any style of bowler (including spinners) is considered to be anything less than 50, while a strike rate of under 50 in Test cricket is outstanding. Returning to our earlier example, Shackleton, like Willsher operating in the days of uncovered wickets, and therefore in less batsman-friendly conditions than exist today, managed a similar economy rate (34), but a strike rate of only 56. The most useful comparisons are of course with Willsher’s 6 In compilations based on the ACS list of first-class matches.