EARLY HISTORY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 12 February 1927, Page 10

EARLY HISTORY.

ORIGIN OF L.B.W. (Continued.) An indication as to how the laws gradually grew is giA 7 en by an occurrence associated with a great professional, Ring, a mighty hitter of Kent. The story goes that this professional was in the habit of. placing his legs before the Avieket, and the fact led to the rule l.b.Av. being added to the laws. "The laws of the noble game of cricket as established at the Star and Garter Pall Mall by a committee of Noblemen and Gentlemen,” appears at the top of the broadsheet containing them in enumeration and published dlrst in 1785. MARYLEBONE CLUB. In the year 1789 the seed was planted out of which grcAV the famed Marylebono Club (the M.C.C.), to become in the course of a century and a half the greatest poAver in the world of cricket. Its foundation was the of disaffection felt by a number of those men connected with the organisation of ■ matches on a common ground. The first attempt at a new pitch was on a site near London, where their groundsman, Thomas Lord, secured a fairly long lease of land from the Duke of Dorset, the then owner. It was here the great sporting matches of the next feAv years took place. At the expiration of the lease the location of playing ground was altered from time to time until the area at St. John’s Wood Avas secured to become later the famous Lords’ Ground, named after the former ground man. LIVELY EVENTS AT MATCHES. It is on record that matches were often A 7 ery lively, and that besides bets being freely taken, "booths were set up on the level and everything resembled a Avake.” Another match described in the Sporting Magazine of 1792 was betAveen eleven girls from two adjacent villages in Leicester, when the whole countryside turned out to view "the novel and interesting contest,” at the end of which the bowlers of the conquering party were placed in a sort of triumphal car, preceded by music and flying streamers, and thus conducted home by the youths of the village, amidst "the acclamations of pleased spectators. ’ ’ Matches are recorded for 500 guineas find for 1000 guineas—which latter amount was quite common—between the M.C.C. and teams chosen by members of the aristocracy and the old counties.

Tlio custom of staking large sums on the match was at that time “raging fast and furious. ’’ It occurred, so it is related, even in a match between Eton and Westminster, two most exclusive scholastic centres. And notices of matches in the Sporting Magazine of those days show this tendency, which makes them reminiscent of horse racing. In 1805 in a notice of a grand cricket match in Kent, “eight of Bexley and three of England played eleven of County Kent for 500 guineas—six to four on Bexley at starting. ’ ' WILD CONDITIONS.

Conditions surrounding cricket were pretty AvikL in those days, as will bo recognised by a report of one of those famous single wicket matches which Avere then so much in imgue. The report states that “His Lordship (Lord Beauelerk) was winning the game, and with no chance of getting him out, Beldham, .his opponent, took up a lump of wet dirt and sawdust and stuck it on the ball, which pitching favourably, made an extraordinary twist and took the wicket. ’ ’ In a match between All England and twenty-three of Kent, in which the “straight-arm bowling was first introduced, “ this did not find any favour Avdth the crowd, proving a great obstacle against getting runs in comparison with Avhat may have been got by straightforward "bowling. It met Avitli such opposition that the originator of the boAAding “avus frequently barred and he would continue till the ‘ring’ closed on the players, the stumps were lawlessly pulled up, and all came to a standstill.’' LADY PLAYERS. Lady cricketers are continuously mentioned, and one report of 1811 tells of “eleven females of Surrey backed against eleven of Hampshire by two noblemen for 500 guineas a side. Hants won. ’ ’ COUNTY MATCHES BEGIN. June 22, 1814, is a memorable date for on that day was begun the “first recorded county match played at St.

John’s Wood (Lords). It was between M.C.C. and Herts.’’

A notice often seen about a match in current papers said that “admission was 6d. Good stabling on the ground.’’ County cricket ei r en in those early .days showed the same variations of* fortune as now, and one reads of Surrey in 1815 having a doAvnward trend and a lean time for thirty years, while Sussex, Suffolk and Middlesex were particularly strong. The rise in Sussex was due largely to the appearance of the great Lillywhite and Broadbridge, and that in Suffolk to the advent of Fuller Pilch, Blake and others. A curious decision Avas giA r en by an

umpire in a famous Notts match in which Bently, in the All England side, whilst playing well Avas given “run out,” haA T ing run round his wicket. “Why,” said Beldham, a famous contemporary, “he has been home long enough to take a pinch of snuff.” “They changed the umpire,” says a chronicler, “bit the blunder lost the match.” In 1822 an effort Avas again made by John Willes, originator of round arm bowling, to bring it in at a match betiveen Kent and M.C.C., “but the umpires ivould have none of it,” and Willes vowed he would never play again. INTERESTING FACTS. Lords’ pavilion Avas burnt to the grpund on July 29, 1825. Besides the building, records, etc., a large stock of AA’ine, the property of the subscribers along Avith their cricketing apparatus, AA r as consumed. A couple of years later two matches were recorded which were of outstanding interest, the first of the long line of matches between Oxford and Cambridge, and a match in which Sussex beat All England easily, “owing to the

round-arm boivling of Lillywhite and Broadbridge, Avhieh fairly staggered the northern players.” Several players in a subsequent match declined to bat again if this “throwing” were to be permitted. The introduction of round-arm bowl- . ing caused a great stir in the cricket w camp, and although strongly opposed at first, Avas ultimately sanctioned. In a souiCAvliat acid controversy, some writers Avcnt so far as to opine that the days cf eriokot were doomed “because of the singular, novel and unfair style of boAvling, by the ‘overcast’ from the arm instead of the -graceful ‘underhand’ of the old school.

In an endeavour to bring in the new style a series of matches between All England and Sussex, for 1000 guineas a side, was arranged, but the matches did not aehicA T o the desired effect, for after two had been played, a declaration signed by the majority of the All England team announced “their resolve to play no more unless the Sussex bowlers ‘bowl fair: that is abstain, from throwing.” (What developments have been chronicled since that date, in the century intervening!) At length the “noAV bowling” triumphed, and the M.C.C. sanctioned the free admission of the delivery of the ball “up to the level of the shoulder.” THREE CELEBRATED PLAYERS. In 1832 a man made his debut in the cricketing world whose name stood out prominently as that of a giant in the game for a number of years, Alfred Mynn, of Kent, who, -with Fuller Pilch and John Lillywhite, were the * outstanding , men in the world of cricket. Their names, especially that of the last mentioned, have long been held in high honour. Lillywhite was practically the pioneer of the much discussed new style of bowling. (To be continued.)