In the year 1778, Harris, the best bowler ever known, began playing in the first matches; and from the vast superiority of his style, the hitting increased both in safety and severity, particularly in Hampshire and Surrey, where the players had an opportunity of practising against the bowling of this remarkable man. He had a very high delivery of the balls, and was as steady to a length. This obliged the striker to play forward, otherwise, from the rapidity of the balls rising from the ground, he was sure to be caught out at the point of the bat. I consider cricket to have been at its zenith at the time that Harris was in prime play.
After his death a childish mode of bowling was adopted—very slow and high, and scarcely passing the wicket. By some the ball was delivered with a straight arm, nearly approaching to a gentle throw. That practice, however, (of throwing), was set aside by a resolution of the Mary-le-bone Club.[1]
[Here follow some general instructions to the bowler and striker; they are, however, brief, and at the same time bear so closely upon those already given in previous pages of this little work that the inserting of them would amount almost to a verbal repetition.
The following hints to the directors and managers of a match will amuse some readers, and not be wholly unworthy the attention of those who are ambitious of playing a keen and manoeuvring, rather than a plain and straightforward game.]
- ↑ Tom Walker was the first to introduce the system of throwing; and it was to provide against such an innovation that the law was passed, and which Taw is still in force, although it is daily infringed, and will, in all probability, become a dead letter. J. N.
