By the early 1840s William Lillywhite, the Sussex bricklayer who had pushed roundarm bowling into the law book in 1828, was past 50 but still the most accurate bowler in England. Engaged at Lord's as practice bowler from 1844, he played first-class cricket until 1853 and, in his final decade, embodied the bridge between the underarm cricket of the eighteenth century and the overarm game his son John would help bring in.
Roundarm bowling, with its pivotal change to bowling action, demanded technique that few bowlers mastered fully. Lillywhite combined a high arm with absolute control of length and was widely held up as the model of the action that the law had legalised.
By the early 1840s Lillywhite had been the leading Sussex bowler for two decades. His engagement at Lord's in 1844 brought him into daily contact with the next generation of cricketers.
William Lillywhite was born at West Hampnett in Sussex in 1792, the son of a brickmaker. He bowled medium-pace roundarm with a high arm and immaculate length and was, with John Willes, the principal advocate of the legalisation of roundarm at the elbow (1828) and shoulder (1835). By 1840 he was 48 and physically slowing, but his accuracy was undimmed; contemporaries considered him the most economical bowler in the country. Engaged as practice bowler at Lord's in 1844, he became a fixture of metropolitan cricket and was a member of the inaugural All-England Eleven of 1846, where his line and length were the perfect counterpoint to Clarke's lobs and Mynn's pace. He played his last first-class match in 1853, aged 61, and died the following year. His four sons — John (later the umpire who no-balled Willsher in 1862), Frederick, James and the younger William — carried the Lillywhite name through cricket for another half-century, producing the Lillywhite annuals and the Lillywhite cricket equipment business. The nickname 'Nonpareil' — meaning 'unrivalled' — was bestowed by the press in the 1830s and stuck.
1792: Lillywhite born at West Hampnett, Sussex
1820s: Becomes leading roundarm bowler in England
1828: Roundarm legalised at elbow height (Lillywhite influential)
1835: Roundarm permitted at shoulder
1844: Engaged as practice bowler at Lord's
1846: Member of inaugural All-England Eleven
1853: Last first-class match at age 61
1854: Lillywhite dies
1792
Lillywhite born at West Hampnett
1828
Roundarm legalised at elbow
1835
Roundarm permitted at shoulder
1844
Engaged at Lord's
1846
Joins inaugural All-England Eleven
1853
Last first-class match
1854
Lillywhite dies
“Length is everything; pace is for boys.”
His son John Lillywhite's no-balling of Edgar Willsher in 1862 — and the legalisation of overarm bowling that followed in 1864 — completed the arc of legislative change that William had begun nearly forty years earlier.
The accuracy benchmark of pre-overarm bowling and the patriarch of cricket's most consequential publishing family.
The Lillywhite cricket annuals (Frederick Lillywhite's Guide to Cricketers from 1849, John Lillywhite's Companion from 1865, James Lillywhite's Annual from 1872) dominated cricket publishing until Wisden overtook them. Lillywhite's, the sports-equipment business, traded into the twentieth century. The 'Nonpareil' nickname is the lasting epithet attached to the founder of the dynasty.
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.