On 10 June 1864 the Marylebone Cricket Club rewrote Law 10 to permit a bowler to deliver the ball with his arm at any height, provided the action was not a throw. The change ended a half-century of legislative cat-and-mouse over how high a bowler could carry his hand and turned overarm — already the dominant style in practice — into the only style cricket would know.
The trajectory of bowling laws since 1816 had been a steady ratchet upward: underarm to roundarm (1828), roundarm at shoulder height (1835), and now overarm (1864). Each change had followed a public confrontation in which a leading bowler defied the existing limit and umpires were forced into a choice they did not want to make.
The Willsher walk-off of August 1862 had made the issue unavoidable. The 1863 season saw further informal challenges, with several bowlers openly delivering above shoulder height and going uncalled. The MCC sub-committee's draft was circulated in the spring of 1864.
Bowling had been underarm by law until 1828, when Law 10 first permitted the hand to be raised to elbow height — the so-called 'roundarm' style championed by John Willes and William Lillywhite. In 1835 the limit was raised to the shoulder. By 1862 most professional bowlers were already exceeding that limit, and the public no-balling of Edgar Willsher at the Oval in August had made the contradiction between law and practice impossible to ignore. The MCC's response was a sub-committee chaired by Lord Methuen that drafted a new clause for the 1864 season. Approved at the committee meeting of 10 June 1864 and incorporated into the laws printed in time for the rest of the season, the new wording removed any restriction on the height of the bowling hand and instead specified only that the ball must not be thrown or jerked. The umpires were given the duty of judging fair delivery on that basis. The change caused little disruption — most bowlers were already bowling overarm — but it was the most important law change of the nineteenth century. Bowling speeds rose sharply over the next decade; the 'fast' bowler in the modern sense, with a high arm and a long run-up, dates from this moment.
26 Aug 1862: Willsher no-balled at the Oval; players walk off
1863: MCC sub-committee meets to draft new law
Spring 1864: Draft circulated to county clubs
10 June 1864: New Law 10 approved by MCC committee at Lord's
1864 season: Bowlers no longer constrained by hand-height rule
Late 1860s: Average pace of fast bowling rises sharply
1816
Law confines bowling to underarm
1828
Hand permitted to elbow height (roundarm)
1835
Hand permitted to shoulder height
1862
Willsher walk-off forces the issue
10 Jun 1864
Overarm bowling legalised
“The ball must be bowled. If thrown or jerked the umpire shall call no ball.”
“Cricket has now become a much more scientific game than it used to be in the days of slow underhand.”
The change passed into use without controversy. Most professional bowlers — Willsher, Wootton, Tarrant, Jackson, Wisden himself before retirement — had already been bowling above the shoulder. The new generation, including James Southerton and Alfred Shaw, built actions deliberately for overarm and accelerated the development of length and seam bowling. By 1870 underarm and roundarm were curiosities seen only in club cricket.
The single most important law change of the nineteenth century, ratifying a generation of professional practice and creating modern fast bowling.
The 1864 law shaped everything that followed. Test cricket, born in 1877, was an overarm game from the first ball. The faster bowling of the 1870s and 1880s, the leg-breaks and off-breaks of the 1890s, the swing bowling of the Edwardians, the bouncer wars of the modern era — all of them depend on the freedom granted in June 1864. The only further refinement of significance — the 15-degree elbow tolerance for throwing — came 140 years later.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.