History of Cricket.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12480, 17 September 1904, Page 4 (Supplement)

History of Cricket.

The " St. James's Gazette" rays that though cricket- may be traced bacit to the time of Edward 1., the game, as we know it, is proved to be of modern ..origin by the implements in use in it. The first description of the wicket was about 1700, when it consisted of two stumps a foot high and a foot broad, -with a bail placed acrsss them on top. Beneath and between the stumps a hole was dug, and to run a man out the ball had to be placed in it. To prevent himself' being run out the batsman had to ground his bat in this hole. Just about 200 years ago this primitive wicket was improved. The two stumps were raised to a height of 22in., and planted only 6in. apart. The crease was cut in the turf, and not whitewashed on to it.

In 1775 a third stump was added, because the straightest balls of the bow.er went through the wicket without disturbing the bail. In 1798 the wicket was increased to 24in. high and 7in. broad. In 1816 it was heightened by 2in. In 1817 it assumed its present size—27in. high and Bin. broad. At •the same time the bail was divided into two halves.

In the beginning of the eighteenth century the bat was only a hockey stick, curved at the bottom, and adapted for hitting ground balls. Gradually it grew heavier into the form of a crooked club, somewhat resembling an old-fashioned, curved butterknife. The straight bat, according to a vague statement by Nyren, came in "some years after 1746." Each player practically shaped his bat according to his own fancy though the Hambledon Club placed restrictions on the width. About 1880 Fennex first showed cricketers how to play forward. Until then no one had dreamt of reaching out to smother or hit a ball on its pitch. The new method materially influenced the form of the bat-, but it does not seem to have finally assumed its blade-like shape with a central handle until about 1828, ;when Mr. Felix inaugurated cutting and off-driving. Batting-gloves came in about 1825, when the introduction of round-arm- bowling compelled the batsman to protect his hands from rising balls. Pads for the legs had then probably been in use for some time. The first balls were solid wooden spheres, about the size of a modern tennis-ball. In a print of " Miss Wicket," dated 1770, the ball is represented about the present size, with heavy cross-seams. The red hue of the modern ball is unique, and a trade secret. Various experiments have been ;made with other colours, green and brown cricket balls having been pnt on the market. In each case they have been found. wanting, for the standard shade of red is the exact complementary colour to the green of the turf. No other tint is so easily followed by the eye against -the background of grass. It is in the delivery of the ball, perhaps, that the modernity of cricket is most strikingly seen. Overarm bowling is less than 40 years old, and until 1827 anything but lobs was illegal. Until well alter the middle of the eighteenth century, bowling was little more than a very fast trundling of the ball along the ground at the wicket. David Harris invented length bowling, or " three-quarter balls," as they were first called. Instead of bowling the b:ills with half a dozen bounds and hops along the ground, he pitched the ball three-quarters , of the length of the wicket, so that it came .to the batsman and the stumps at one { bound. About the same time the off-b: ojk was iuvented. Twisting the ball in itom le« . taeins to have been known very e.,rly. To meet the new bowling, with its trie clea; hop from wicket to wicket, the bit grew - broader at the bottom. The attempt to introduce rouud-arm bowling was firs! ; made in 1790. It was forbidden, and, de- . spite constant efforts to use it, in 1816 the 'M.C.C. declared that "the ball must be delivered with the hand below the elbow." Not until 1828 was round-arm bowling legalised. For nearly 30 years later to bowl overarm was as illegal as throwing is now. In 1845 there was an emphatic reenactment of the law making all balls delivered'with the hand above the shoulder ■no-balls. With the legalisation of overarm bowling in 1865 modem cricket began. '• As early as 1774, when the first rules of the game were drawn up, provision was made for no-halls (for getting the foot over the crease) and byes. Wides were not recorded and penalised until 1828. Before then, a bowler could bowl as many wides as he liked without losing runs for his side. Leg-byes were first distinguished as such by the M.C.C. in 1850, though they had been recognised before in some parts -of the country. Umpires have been a necessity for nearly 200 years. Until well into the 18th century runs were -recorded by cutting notches in a stick, with an extra deep notch for every tenth lun. All the runs were notched_ together, and there was no keeping of individual scores. Until 30 years ago every hit was run out. When Dr. Grace began playing there were no boundaries, and he remembers dashing through the crowd, knocking spectators aside in pursuit of the ball. Spectators were thus frequently injured, and it was for their -protection that- boundaries, with a standard four runs for a hit to them, was instituted. One thing alone in cricket is as it was in the crude beginning 200 years ago. The wicket has always been 22 yards long.