Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

38 the axis of the ball would then be perpendicular, so the ball would float away owing to there being greater pressure on one side than the other’, like slicing or pulling a golf ball but with less effect. ‘He would not have the same amount of dip as the leg-spinner for the simple reason that there was not so much top-spin.’ Batsmen did not, however, look for the drop in the wrist to distinguish the ball floating away from the off break because the amount of the drop was small. Further variety came from his willingness and ability to use the whole width of the crease, going close to the stumps or from just inside the bowling crease or anywhere in between and switching from over to round the wicket and vice versa, going round in particular when the ball was turning and he had a greater chance of obtaining an lbw decision with his off breaks (in his later years he largely eschewed bowling over the wicket even when bowling principally leg breaks). All these further variations he usually accomplished without any lapses in length or direction. The posed picture of him bowling shows a grip with thumb and first three fingers all slightly separated from one another in a line on the seam, the little finger being more apart, stretched out and wrapped farther around the ball. This grip (was it his usual?) could conceivably have been used for both off and leg break, but in either case would have involved considerable turning of the wrist. Dawkes, who as a wicketkeeper kept a close eye on the bowler’s hand, gave specific details. The first finger was used for the off break and the third for the leg break, while the googly was bowled out of the back of the hand, although Cowdrey recalled him as coach at Tonbridge bowling leg breaks in that manner. The top-spinner relied on the rolling of the first finger over the ball, a little faster than for the off break. His leg break and googly were obviously easy for a batsman to tell apart, but a young batsman new to Astill’s wiles may have anticipated a googly being in fact a leg break delivered out of the back of the hand if The Bowler A cartoon of Astill by A.W.Baldwin dated 1928, perhaps giving clues to Astill’s grip?