Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

35 ‘Willsher’s Hand is Very High’ Christina having to bowl round-arm to him because of her fashionably voluminous skirts is quite possibly true, but what is certain is that, having decided to bowl round-arm himself, John was not going to give up for anyone, attested to by his storming out of the Kent v MCC match at Lord’s in 1822 after his mode of delivery was objected to. His contribution to cricket was not quite at an end, however, as a few years later he spotted the young Alfred Mynn playing locally and immediately recognised his talent, just as Mynn himself discovered Willsher two decades later. There were to be several more links in the chain, though, before Willsher finally brought bowling to something like its modern state. Curiously, John Willes was an amateur, almost a traitor to the cause of tradition upheld by the gentlemanly membership of the MCC, but it was two professionals who continued to carry the torch for round-arm as the century wore on. William Lillywhite and Jem Broadbridge were at the forefront of the ‘march of intellect’, as the case for progress came to be known, and in 1827 it was finally agreed that a series of big matches would be used to test what, if any, advantage the new style gave the bowler. At the end of the second match, the reformers looked to be losing the argument, as nine of the England players signed a declaration to the effect that they would not play the final trial match ‘unless the Sussex bowlers bowl fair – this is, abstain from throwing.’ Fortunately, they later withdrew their complaint and England went on to win the final match, thus proving that round-arm did not offer too much of an advantage to the bowler. Ironically, one of the signatories, Tom Marsden of Sheffield, was himself no-balled for throwing while bowling at Nottingham at the end of August. The Sheffield Independent reported that, on leaving the field in protest, the Sheffield players ‘were stoned and abused by the crowd.’ Double standards were a constant theme running through the disputes of the period, and the big issue that was largely ignored by the powers that be was the standard of wickets, especially at the game’s headquarters. Naturally bowlers wanted to exploit any unevenness in the surface, whilst batsmen, both amateur and professional, were not keen on any development that might lead to greater risk of injury. Therefore, even after the law was finally changed in 1835 to allow bowling up to shoulder height, the rumblings of discontent continued. Lillywhite especially continued to push the boundaries of what was allowable, and was no-balled for ‘bowling too high’ for England v MCC at Lord’s in 1839. No repercussions followed, and he presumably modified his action after the incident, as he continued to bowl throughout the