William Lillywhite - the greatest bowler of his times … perhaps one of the greatest regardless of eras. Pradip Dhole looks back at his life and times.
“I bowls the the best ball in England, and I suppose if I was to think every ball, they’d never get a run.”
- Frederick William Lillywhite, quoted from The Slow Men by David Frith
The story of the introduction and gradual implementation of the round-arm form of bowling in cricket is set in an eventful and often tempestuous phase of the development of the game, and is very instructive for keen students of the game.
The induction into cricket of the “round-arm” style of bowling had generated, on the one hand, a fair amount of controversy, and, on the other, several stories, some of them thought to be apocryphal. The Hambledon man, Tom Walker, known as “Old Everlasting”, was thought to be the real progenitor of this genre of bowling in the 1790s, releasing the ball some way away from the body, and at an appreciable angle from the vertical so that it came at varying angles to the batsman, causing new and perplexing problems that contemporary batsmen had never encountered before.
There was an immediate outcry against the legitimacy of this style. A story, apocryphal perhaps, but often told in this context, concerns one John Willes of Kent, who is reported to have resorted to this style of delivery, using it quite extensively in the early 1800s. The story goes that Willes had been inspired by his sister Christiana, who had supposedly been in the habit of bowling to her brother in their garden with a bowling arm almost waist-high, and with a wide angle of delivery to avoid her voluminous dress, releasing the ball from about the level of the hip. Being a batsman himself, Willes soon realized that the concept of the ball being delivered from about shoulder height and from wide of the body was likely to present batsmen with a different set of challenges, and he wasted no time in trying to perfect the new technique with assiduous practice.
The story is told of how Willes had tried to popularize his innovative style of round-arm bowling, to the consternation of the orthodox and the anger of the spectators who felt that they were witnessing an ungainly and inelegant, even illegal, mode of delivery. The Morning Herald reported in 1821 that his persistence with this new style would often cause considerable acrimony when used in match play and would sometimes be the cause of play being suspended.
Matters came to a head at Lord’s on15 Jul 1822, with Kent taking on MCC. Willes was repeatedly no-balled by the umpire, supposedly at the behest of Lord Frederick Beauclerk (the Kent and Hampshire autocrat, said to be descended from King Charles II through a mistress, Nell Gwyn), much to his annoyance, causing him to call for his horse and ride away from the match. Willes gradually became a morose and disillusioned man and was later shunned by his friends and fellow cricketers and was literally hounded out of the game.
It was felt at the time that Willes was contravening the law promulgated by MCC in 1816 that stated, “The ball must be bowled (not thrown or jerked), and be delivered underhand, with the hand below the elbow. But if the ball be jerked, or the arm extended from the body horizontally, and any part of the hand be uppermost, or the hand horizontally extended when the ball is delivered, the Umpires shall call, ‘No Ball’. "
Being unable to reach any sort of consensus on the issue of what would be deemed to be legitimate bowling, MCC amended their own laws in 1828, allowing the arm to be raised to elbow height, but that did not solve the vexing problem and the schism between the advocates of under-arm and round-arm bowling not only continued but gradually intensified. Matters reached an impasse with both camps refusing to concede their points of view.
It is with the backdrop of these momentous historical happenings in the world of contemporary cricket that we pause our narrative to introduce our hero, Frederick William Lillywhite, more commonly known as William Lillywhite or as “Old Lilly”, a man of ingenuity and exceptional skill and the patriarch of a famous cricketing family.
The Early Days
Frederick William Lillywhite was born on 13th June 1792, at Westhampnett, Sussex, the son of a brick maker who was in charge of two large brick fields belonging to the Duke of Richmond. He was himself a brick maker in his growing years, learning the trade from his father. He was married on the 15th of Jul/1822, and moved to Brighton on Dec/12 of the same year, moving on again to Hove a short while later. With time, he became the manager of a large group of brick makers in the area and, in God’s good time, fathered 12 children. Though only about 5’ 4” tall, he was, by all accounts, a powerfully built man, having been brought up doing manual labour.
During his 15 years at Hove, he would often be persuaded by the locals, who were admirers of his bowling skills, to turn out for several local teams, often dragging him away from the brick fields. He took to waking up in the dead of night to complete his scheduled tasks by sunrise so he could play in the important cricket matches.
In the archives, he is described as being a right hand bat and a right arm, slow-medium, round-arm bowler, one of the great pioneers of this form of bowling, and one of the most vigorous champions of the cause of the round-arm revolution in cricket. In a relatively long first-class span of 1825 to 1853, he played 237 matches, scoring 2350 runs in 416 innings, with a highest of 44 not out. He also took 141 catches. Bowling being his stronger suite, he bowled 15,265 deliveries in all, taking 1576 wickets, and conceding 2435 runs in the process. His bowling average was 10.36, and he took 5 wickets in an innings 155 times and 10 wickets in a match 55 times. The statisticians tell us that his career strike rate was 28.21 and his career economy rate was 1.96. He was one of the bowling greats of the contemporary game, and one of the noted game-changers in the long history of organized cricket.
Entry into the game
William Lillywhite appears to have first graced a cricket field on Jul 11 1822 in a local match at Goodwood Park against Midhurst. One learns from the archives that William Lillywhite played his first game of senior cricket for East Sussex against West Sussex in a 2-day game at Petworth over 5 and 6 Jul/1824, at a relatively advanced age of 32 years. He remained not out on 26 in the only innings he batted in, in a team score of 61 all out. He took 4 wickets in the West Sussex 1st innings and 1 wicket in the second. East Sussex won the match by 9 wickets
In addition to turning out for numerous other teams, he played first-class cricket principally for Sussex from 1825 to 1853, making his debut with Sussex against Kent in a match at Brighton on 13 and 14 Jun/1825, a 3-day match that was completed in 2 days, Sussex winning by 243 runs. His performance was a modest one, 41 and 1 with the bat and 2 wickets in the Kent 1st innings and only 1 more in the Kent 2nd innings. He was 33 years when he made his first-class debut, quite unusual for the era.
It was in Aug/1826, against a combined team of Hampshire and Surrey that this Sussex player picked up his first haul of 10 or more wickets in a match, claiming 7 wickets in the opponents’ first innings and 9 in the second. Owing to the fact that the technique of scoring a cricket match was in its infancy in that age, it is not known how many runs he had conceded in the match.
The New York Clipper of Jun 1 4 1856 states that, “In 1827, he had, with J(ames) Broadbridge, caused a complete revolution in the practice of the game, in reference to bowling, and such complete masters were they over the batsmen, that their round-arm bowling was thought by many to be unfair.” In 1827, in the wake of this raging debate in England about the legitimacy of the new shoulder-level bowling style, there were 3 matches arranged through the medium of the press between Sussex and a team designated as England to ascertain the relative merits of under-arm, as opposed to round-arm bowling. These three matches were to be played for a purse of 1000 guineas, a considerable sum at the time
The first of these was played at Sheffield on 4, 5, and 6 Jun 1827. Playing for Sussex, Lillywhite (5) and his team-mate and fellow round-arm bowler, James Broadbridge (2) took 7 wickets to dismiss England for 81 in the 1st innings. In the Sussex 1st innings, Lillywhite, surprisingly called upon to open the innings, contributed 14 runs in a total of 91 all out. In the England 2nd innings of 112 all out, it was Lillywhite (2) and Broadbridge (5) who were the main wreckers again. Sussex won the match by 7 wickets. The match notes state that “At one period, 83 balls (were bowled) without getting a single run.”
The next match was held at Lord’s, Lillywhite’s first experience of the hallowed turf. In the England 1st innings of 152 all out, Lillywhite captured 2 wickets and Broadbridge only 1. In the England 2nd innings, it was 3 wickets for Broadbridge and 1 for Lillywhite. Sussex won this match also, by a margin of 3 wickets. The success of the round-arm style was fast becoming something of a concern for the established batsmen of the time, with the ball coming at them from unaccustomed heights and angles.
At the conclusion of the above-mentioned match, the following declaration was signed, “We, the undersigned, do agree that we will not play the third match between All England and Sussex, which is intended to be played at Brighton in July or August unless the Sussex bowlers bowl fair - this is, abstain from throwing” signed by T. Marsden, W. Ashby, W. Mathews, W. Searle, J. Saunders, T. C. Howard, W. Caldecourt, F. Pilch and T. Beagley. This declaration was, however, later retracted; the cynical mind may be forgiven for conjecturing that the handsome purse of 1000 guineas may have had something to do with the change of heart.
The third match of this particular series was played at Brighton on 23, 24, and 25 Jul/1827, a match that England, at long last, won by 24 runs. Even so, England were dismissed for a mere 27 in the first innings, Lillywhite (3) and Broadbridge (2) causing much of the damage. Sussex were all out for 77 in their 1st innings, with Lillywhite again opening the batting and scoring 8. England managed 169 all out in their 2nd innings, with Lillywhite and Broadbridge being known to take 1 wicket each. In this innings, however, there is no identification available for the takers of 7 of the wickets that fell, the corollary being that these two may well have taken more wickets each. England won this last trial match by dismissing Sussex the second time round for 95.
The upshot of all this was that the authorities of MCC were once again in a dilemma and after much debate, deliberation, and soul-searching, they decided to make another change in the laws in 1835 to allow the bowling arm to be raised to the level of the shoulders, in a sense, legalizing round-arm bowling officially. However, it was an uneasy truce, for another contentious issue soon surfaced when bowlers of the day began to gradually raise the bowling arm above shoulder height, and forced MCC to revise their laws yet again in 1845 to place the onus on the umpires and to empower them to take final and irrevocable decisions regarding the legitimacy or otherwise of the height of the bowling arm. That there was still much that was not clear about the interpretations of the law was demonstrated at a later date in a match played in 1862, of which we shall speak later.
Crowning achievement
Perhaps “Old Lilly’s” crowning achievement as a bowler came in a match for the Players against the Gentlemen XVI, an “odds” match, played at Lord’s, London, on 17 and 18 Jul/1837, in a 3-day match that was completed in 2 days. He captured 8 wickets in the Gentlemen 1st innings of 74 all out and 10 wickets in the 2nd innings of 42 all out. Unfortunately, for this match also, the runs conceded columns are only represented by question marks.
William Lillywhite’s best bowling performance in a 11-a -side (or “evens”) game came in a match in which he represented England against Kent at Lord’s on 6 and 7 Jul/1840, a 3-day game that was completed in 2 days. Let us examine the Kent XI for the match in batting order: William Stearman, William Hillyear, wicketkeeper William Clifford, Fuller Pilch, Nicholas Felix, Thomas Adams, Alfred Mynn, Walter Mynn, John Fagge, Charles Harenc and Charles Whittaker, in a sense, the cream of contemporary cricket in England. He captured 7 wickets in the Kent 1st innings and 8 in the 2nd innings with his customary round-arm style, stamping his authority over the leading batsmen of the day in no uncertain manner with his accuracy and variations of pace and length. The round-arm innovation had been well and truly tested against the finest of the land, and had come out on top.
From 1844, he became one of the mainstays of the Marylebone Cricket Club also, and, in the following 4 years, fforming a deadly combination with William Hillyear, won almost all the matches for the Club against all comers with his by now trademark round-arm style of bowling. One match in particular against the hapless undergraduates of Cambridge University tickles the sensibilities. Played at Parker’s Piece, Cambridge, on 13 and 14 May 1845, we find William Lillywhite not only opening the batting for MCC in the 1st innings, but also carrying the bat for 18 not out in a team score of 38 in 49.3 (4-ball) overs. A young Cambridge bowler, Thomas Hughes, covered himself with glory by capturing 7 wickets in this innings and 5 in the 2nd. Old Lilly, not to be outdone by a beardless youth, picked up 7 wickets of his own in the only Cambridge University innings of 143 all out.
Last days of cricket
It became more and more clear that age could not wither him nor custom stale his infinite variety, to borrow an expression from William Shakespeare. His mastery of the round-arm variety of bowling, slowly gaining popularity in England, increased by leaps and bounds, and his bowling feats in the later stages of his career became the stuff of legends. The archives show the amazing fact that “Old Lilly” had taken 5 or more wickets in an innings a staggering 77 times after the age of 50 years, a record that no one has ever come even close to achieving. His last 5-wicket haul came in the match Over 36 v Under 36, at Lord’s, on 29, 30, and 31 Jul/1850, Lillywhite being a sprightly 58 years and 46 days old on the day the match began. He took 6 wickets in the Under 36 1st innings total of 144 all out and 2 more in the 2nd innings of 151 all out. Not for nothing did his contemporaries refer to him as the “Nonpareil”
His benefit match was his last first-class game of all, fittingly played at Lord’s, while turning out for Sussex against England, on 25, 26, and 27 Jul/1853; by then he was 61 years of age. He had to retire due to an injury after bowling only 11 overs for no wickets in the England 1st innings. He took no further part in the match and was replaced by Hamilton Hoare for the duration of the game. Old Lilly, however, had the satisfaction of having his kin, John and James Snr, playing alongside him during his final appearance.
“Old Lilly” hung up his boots with 1049 bowled dismissals and 40 lbw dismissals in his kitty. His other wickets consisted of 405 caught, 21 hit wicket and 58 stumped dismissals. In many ways, William Lillywhite was the torch-bearer of the round-arm revolution and perhaps its staunchest champion in first- class cricket.
Legacy
Let us now call a roll of the cricketing relatives of this 5’ 4” tall, stocky patriarch with his smiling countenance adorning a frame that would look as appealing in a red coat and cap, with a bell in his hand, and riding a sleigh drawn by Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer.
Brother: Richard Lillywhite – no first-class cricket, but one 2-day match for East Sussex against West Sussex in Jul/1935
Son: James Lillywhite, Snr – 20 first-class matches between 1850 and 1860, and an umpire in later years
Son: John Lillywhite – 185 first-class matches between 1848 and 1873
Son: Fred Lillywhite – no first-class matches, but one “Miscellaneous” match in Oct/1851
Son: Harry Lillywhite – no first-class match, but 6 “Miscellaneous” matches in USA and Canada
Nephew: James Lillywhite, Jnr – 256 first-class matches and the man who was to lead the 4th English team to Australia, playing the first 2 Test matches of all, both at Melbourne Cricket Ground, in 1877
Nephew: John Lillywhite – no first-class matches, but 4 “Miscellaneous” matches in England and Ireland between 25/May/1868 and 13/May/1875
Apart from being a player of exceptional quality, history also portrays him as being a shrewd businessman. We learn that in 1837, he became the genial host of the Royal Sovereign Inn and the owner of a cricket ground, known, among other titles, as Lillywhite’s Ground. In 1844, he had started a shop selling cricket gear from his own doorstep in Buckingham Street, near King’s Cross. He established his own Scoring Tent at Lord’s cricket ground and began selling his own version of blank scorecards. In 1844, he published his magnum opus, Lillywhite’s Illustrated Handbook of Cricket
While two of his sons followed him on the cricket field, his namesake, Fred, took up the scorecards and publishing business and soon established Lillywhite’s as a popular and marketable commodity. In 1849, Fred brought out the first edition of the Guide to Cricketers, thought to be the fore-runner of the Wisden. In 1859, Fred was partly instrumental in organizing the first tour by an English team abroad, to North America and Canada, under George Parr, but that is another story
In his later years, then, “Old Lilly” had the satisfaction of seeing the next generation of his family being firmly entrenched in whatever enterprise that each chose individually. History tells us that William Lillywhite contracted cholera in the early morning of 21/Aug/1854 and passed away at about 7 o’clock the same evening, leaving behind his grieving family. He was buried at the Highgate Cemetery in London.
The only inscription on his tombstone was LILLYWHITE because the MCC committee, who had arranged for it, felt that that word itself embodied everything there was to be said about the champion bowler. In case there was ever any doubt in anybody’s mind about the issue, Lillywhite has himself left behind his own version of what the ideal cricket situation should be, “Me bowling, (Fuller) Pilch batting and (Thomas) Box keeping wicket”, the final verdict, as it were.
It was, perhaps, one of the ironies of cricketing history that it was the son of “Old Lilly”, John Lillywhite Snr, who, upholding the law passed by MCC in 1845, had persistently called Edgar “Ned” Wilsher for bowling overarm (a logical extension of the round-arm style perfected so painstakingly by his father) for England against Surrey at The Oval on Aug/26/1862, calling him 6 times in the Surrey 1st innings.
To dust William Lillywhite did eventually return, as is the normal course of human habitation upon the earth, but he will always be very fondly remembered for his various wondrous deeds, not the least of which were his 77 five-wicket hauls after the age of 50 years.
An anecdote mentioned by David Frith in The Slow Men perhaps symbolises Old Lilly’s cricket philosophy best. “‘Three balls out of four straight is what we calls mediocrity,’ said Lillywhite, who hammered home his point when someone boasted that he could land the ball on a piece of paper: ‘Yes, but I could shift the paper and still hit it.’” Which of his contemporaries would dare to challenge the statement?