September 25, 1771. A petition was drafted by the Hambledon cricketers, signed by their captain, leading bowler and leading batsman. It led to the Laws of Cricket being modified to introduce a limit on the breadth of the bat. Arunabha Sengupta looks back at the events that led to this landmark change.
In view of the performance of one White of Ryegate on September 23rd
that ffour (sic) and quarter inches shall be the breadth forthwith.
this 25th day of September 1771
Richard Nyren
T Brett
John Small
Thus ran perhaps the most important communique in the history of cricket.
This document, currently in possession of the MCC, is a slip of paper cut from a larger sheet — believed to be one of the major items of discussion recorded in the minutes of the Hambledon Club meeting.
Of course, as often happens with documents of such historic value, there are counter theories that the original document has been washed away in the stream of time and what remains is a clever forgery. However, even in the hazy obscurity of the pastone can reconstruct the heated events that led to that innocent looking stipulation found in modern Laws of Cricket — the bat shall be no more than four and a quarter inches wide at its broadest part.
The match, in which the sensational events took place, was played between Chertsey and Hambledon at Laleham Burway, Surrey, on September 23 and September 24, 1771.
It was a spectacular game of cricket, contested with every bit of keenness as has ever been witnessed on the pitch. Big names had come down from Hambledon for the game, including captain Richard Nyren, and the master batsman John Small. Thomas Brett, the other man whose signature is listed in the landmark notice, was a fast bowler who opened the proceedings for the historic side, largely regarded as the second best bowler of England after the famed Lumpy Stevens.
Chertsey werea strong side as well, and had in their midst Thomas ‘Daddy’ White, a proficient all-rounder from Reigate, Surrey, at the very peak of his powers.
The match, billed as a Great Cricket Match as was customary for big games in those days, generated a huge amount of interest. Initially the game was played for £50 a side, and soon large stakes were bet on the outcome.
By all accounts, it was a cliff-hanger of a game. Batting first on Monday, Hambledon managed 218 in their two innings, and Chertsey finished their second innings on Tuesday afternoon totalling 217 in their efforts. Scorecards were not maintained in 1771, and neither were there newspaper reports, but in Cricket scores, notes &c. from 1730-1773, HT Waghorn states:
“Great sums were depending on this match, which was very strongly contested by both parties, the winners heading their opponents only by a single notch, viz:-
Hambledon (both innings) 218; Chertsey 217.”
The monster bat
It was during the first Chertsey innings that Thomas White walked in with a bat as wide as the wicket. It could have been a deliberate attempt to use the loophole in the Laws of Cricket for the benefit of the side . Or it could have been just a prank played by the all-rounder. The actual reasons are unclear as one looks back across time. The only accurate conclusion one can draw is that the Hambledon men were far from amused.
There remains a slight controversy regarding the identity of the player who used the monster bat. Some accounts attribute it to ‘Shock’ White, of unknown first name, and somewhat contemporary of Thomas ‘Daddy’ White. The confusion arises because of the curious wording of the memo — ‘one White of Ryegate’. Clearly, the incensed players of Hambledon were furious enough to refer to White by the last name only. But, we do know now that Shock White played for Hampton, and hailed from Brentford, Middlesex, and had no connection to Surrey or Chertsey.
The aggrieved complaint of the Hambledon players obviously had the required effect. In 1774, the Laws of Cricket introduced the clause of the maximum width.
In 1833, John Nyren, son of the Hambledon captain and the famed cricket chronicler, published hisYoung Cricketer’s Tutor. In the volume he recalled, “Several years since (I do not recollect the precise date) a player, named White, of Ryegate (sic), brought a bat to a match, which being the width of the stumps, effectually (sic) defended his wicket from the bowler: and, in consequence, a law was passed limiting the future width of the bat to 4¼ inches.” Later, he added a footnote: “I have a perfect recollection of this occurrence; also, that subsequently, an iron frame of the statute width, was constructed for, and kept by the Hambledon Club; through which any bat of suspect dimensions was passed, and allowed or rejected accordingly.”
Nyren, romantic and effusive about cricket, has to be taken with the requisite pinch of salt. He was just seven when the match took place, and more than 60 years later his ‘perfect recollection’ is as dubious as his spelling of Ryegate and his inability to recall the date of the match and the first name of White. It is doubtful whether the seven-year-old Nyren had been taken to the match at Chertsey at all — the journey was a long and not very easy one for a child. It is much more likely that he listened to his father recount the event, with the choicest epithets reserved for White that perhaps eclipsed the all-rounder’s first name. The father was almost sure to have followed it up by demonstrating the use of the iron frame.
It is believed much of the confusion regarding Thomas White and ‘Shock’ White was created by Nyren’s accounts. Indeed in the book he calls ‘Shock’ White one of the four leading bowlers who played against Hampshire in the 1770s, when he was obviously referring to Thomas White. His books often had such errors, prone to take on glaring proportions on closer scrutiny.
From curved to straight to narrow
The game of cricket had just been graced with the straight bat. Before 1760, the willow was curved, much like the hockey stick of the modern day, great for playing the shooter, the grubber or the daisy-cutter. But, the late 1750s and the early 1760s had seen the rise of a young man from Send, Surrey, by the name of Lumpy Stevens. This youth, first great bowler in the history of the game,literally added a couple of new dimensions to the game, giving the ball flight, varying its pace, length, trajectory and also imparting spin. The hockey stick like bat could not cope with the novel vagaries and the willow became straight to counter the new-fangled deviousness.
While the curved bat, due to the requirements of shape, could not really be made too broad, the straight, rectangular bat could be of enormous proportions. Thus the Laws drafted in 1744 were found to be limited.
Thus with his trick, technique or prank, whatever we choose to call it, Thomas White did serve the purpose of plugging this serious loophole in the game. In 1774, the Laws of Cricket had to be changed to insert the stipulation about the width of the bat.
From 1772, we have the more detailed scores of the First-Class matches. We know that Thomas White went on to play 33 matches for Surrey, Kent and England, scored 907 runs with five half centuries and captured 23 wickets. However, his contribution to the game be remembered for the deeds influenced by his broad bat.
Brief scores:
Hambledon (both innings) 218 beat Chertsey (both innings) 217 by one run.