Through the 1810s the Yorkshire squire George Osbaldeston was bowling underarm so fast that wicketkeepers reportedly stuffed straw down their shirts as makeshift body padding before facing him. There were no protective gloves, no helmets, no chest guards in 1815 cricket; the underarm ball, skidding low off Lord's pitches at speeds estimated to be the equivalent of a modern medium-pacer, could break ribs and crack collarbones. Osbaldeston's bowling produced more bruised wicketkeepers than any other in his era and gave Regency cricket one of its most enduring slapstick images.
Cricket equipment in the 1810s was minimal. Pads and gloves had been experimented with at Lord's from about 1810 onwards but were not widely adopted; wicketkeepers stood up to the stumps without any specialised protection. Bowlers' speeds varied widely: Beauclerk was a slow underarm, Lambert was medium, Osbaldeston was the fastest of the leading amateurs.
Osbaldeston had been bowling fast underarm since his senior debut in 1808. By 1815-16, with his physical peak coinciding with the post-Waterloo cricket revival, he was at his most dangerous.
Underarm bowling at speed was perfectly capable of being dangerous. The classical Hambledon-era bowlers had been mostly slow or medium, relying on flight and accuracy; Osbaldeston, in keeping with his temperamental aggression, sent the ball down as fast as the underarm action allowed. Modern reconstructions of fast underarm action suggest a release speed equivalent to a present-day medium-pacer — perhaps 65-70 mph at the crease — but with the ball skidding rather than rising, which made it harder to play and harder to take cleanly. Wicketkeepers in 1815 had only their bare hands and a thin coat; pads and gloves were unknown. Several contemporary accounts — collected later by William Denison and others — reported that Osbaldeston's regular wicketkeepers, including in private matches at Lord's, would line their shirts with straw or rolled-up cloth before standing up to him. The image of grown amateur wicketkeepers stuffing themselves with straw before walking out to face the Squire's underarm became a piece of Regency cricket folklore. Osbaldeston himself was unrepentant; he had the same view of the wicketkeeper's job as he did of the fox-hunter's groom — to take what came. His 34 senior matches between 1808 and 1830 produced 43 wickets and an unknown but considerable number of bruises.
Osbaldeston's underarm release speed estimated equivalent to modern medium pace
Ball skidded low off Lord's pitches
Wicketkeepers had no gloves, pads or chest guards in 1815
Wicketkeepers begin stuffing straw or cloth into their shirts before standing up to him
Several broken ribs and collarbones recorded among his wicketkeepers in the 1810s
Story repeated by Denison, Pycroft and other early historians
1808
Osbaldeston's senior debut
1810s
Reaches peak as fastest underarm bowler at Lord's
Wicketkeepers begin lining shirts with straw before facing him
Folklore of the period
1818
Resigns from MCC; underarm career largely ends
1820s
Pads and gloves begin to be adopted; equipment catches up
“Several stuffing their garments with straw when the Squire was unleashing another scorcher.”
Pads (1820s) and gloves (1830s) made wicketkeeping a more survivable occupation. Osbaldeston's underarm career ended in 1818 when he resigned from MCC and was barred. By the time he returned to occasional cricket in the 1820s the equipment had improved and the straw-stuffing routine was no longer needed.
A genuinely fast underarm bowler in an era without protective equipment, whose wicketkeepers' straw-stuffing routine became one of the most retold jokes of pre-Victorian cricket.
The image of Squire Osbaldeston's wicketkeepers padding themselves with straw is a staple of Regency cricket anecdote. It appears in Pycroft's The Cricket Field, in Denison's writings and in every later popular history of the sport. As a literal medical fact it underlines the genuine dangers of pre-protective-equipment cricket; as a comic image it is one of the lasting cartoons of underarm cricket.
Zimbabwe vs England
1996-12-22
The first Test between Zimbabwe and England at Bulawayo in December 1996 ended in a draw with the scores level — the first ever in Test history. Coach David 'Bumble' Lloyd, frustrated by Zimbabwe's defensive tactics, told a press conference 'we flippin' murdered em'. He was reprimanded by the ECB.
England vs Australia
4 August 1975
On 4 August 1975, during the second Ashes Test at Lord's, a 24-year-old merchant seaman from Liverpool named Michael Angelow leapt the boundary fence wearing only socks and trainers, hurdled both sets of stumps to the amusement of the players, and was wrestled to the ground by police. He had taken a £20 bet from his shipmates. He was fined £20 in court the next morning, and the BBC commentary by John Arlott — "we have got a freaker, not very shapely, and it is masculine — and I would think it has seen the last of its cricket for the day" — became one of the most replayed pieces of cricket commentary of the decade.
Australia
1981-12-12
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