Death of William Lillywhite 'The Nonpareil' — August 1854

Roundarm bowling — the arm swung sideways with the hand at shoulder height — had been illegal until 1835. Lillywhite's persistent use of it, dating back to the early 1820s, forced the MCC to confront the issue and eventually legalise it. Without him the game's bowling history would have been different.

William Lillywhite was born at Westhampnett, Sussex, in September 1792, the son of a farmer. He learned cricket at Goodwood and by the 1820s was the most accurate roundarm bowler in England — the key figure in the campaign, alongside John Willes, to have the shoulder-height bowling action legalised, which the MCC agreed to in 1835. Through the late 1820s and 1830s he was the leading wicket-taker in England, playing 257 first-class matches and taking 1,576 wickets at a time when batting statistics were not routinely kept. He continued playing until his early 60s; his last first-class match was in 1853, the year before his death. His contemporaries rated him the most accurate bowler who ever lived — a reputation for hitting the same spot on the pitch repeatedly that his successors could not match. He was also a licensed publican and a devoted family man; the Lillywhite cricketing dynasty — his son Fred, grandson James and great-nephew John — would continue his name in the game for another three decades.

“The most accurate bowler that ever lived — he could hit the same spot twenty times running.”

Lillywhite's death was mourned widely in Sussex and beyond. His son Fred Lillywhite continued the family's cricket publishing business, launching the first cricket annual — Fred Lillywhite's Guide to Cricketers — in 1849.