Lives in Cricket No 24 - Edgar Willsher

45 Chapter Nine Overarm at Last At first, events moved fairly swiftly in the autumn of 1862. At the meeting of the influential Surrey committee on 17 October, it was resolved that ‘a letter should be written by the secretary asking them [the MCC] to see a deputation regarding Law 10.’ As far as the Law itself was concerned, the committee was of the opinion that ‘with respect to bowling that a man should deliver as high as he liked so that he did not throw or jerk.’ The letter clearly worked, for on 31 October the MCC decided ‘that a Circular be drawn up and forwarded to the secretaries of the Principal Cricket Clubs respecting Law 10.’ Although there was to be no Surrey deputation at Lord’s, the counties were duly canvassed, and they voted by a majority of seven to three to remove all restrictions on the height of the arm. This was still not enough to sway the MCC, who came up with two unworkable compromises at a vital committee meeting in April 1863. Since neither of these was passed, and no other alternatives were produced, the Law was left to fester in its own juices for the whole of the 1863 season, with umpires under strict instructions to uphold it, and players warned to bowl high at Lord’s at their peril. Naturally, Willsher was under particular scrutiny, and great anticipation surrounded his first appearance at headquarters since ‘the incident’. The occasion could not have been grander, as the game was the annual clash between the AEE and the UEE in May. When the UEE took first innings, the tension mounted when the ball was tossed to Willsher for the first time. Bell’s Life takes up the story: The first ball delivered gave sufficient proof that he was not breaking the laws of the Marylebone Club; he was quite low, and no doubt lower than we shall see him again. He was also straight, in fact ‘all there’ … this must have been most gratifying to the renowned Kent bowler and his friends. The crucial test had been passed, allowing Edgar to breathe more easily, and six cheap wickets gave the lie to those who claimed he could only be a threat when he ‘cheated’. Even Thomas Beagley, an ex-Hampshire professional from the ‘old school’, grudgingly