#tonford

2 incidents tagged

John Willes Pioneers Roundarm — The Kent Trial Games of the 1810s

Kent and various private XIs

1816-07-15

Through the 1810s the Kent gentleman cricketer John Willes of Tonford persisted with a delivery action that broke the laws of cricket: the arm raised level with the elbow, often higher, in defiance of the underarm law. According to Arthur Haygarth, Willes had picked up the action from his sister Christiana, who bowled to him in their garden when he was unwell. Through trial games for Kent and private elevens he forced the issue match by match, was no-balled repeatedly, and laid the foundation for the eventual legalisation of roundarm in 1828 and overarm in 1864.

#john-willes#christiana-willes#roundarm-bowling

⭐Mild

Christiana Willes — The Sister Who Bowled Roundarm in the Garden, 1810s

n/a (private practice and family cricket)

1814-06-15

Christiana Willes (1786-1873) was the younger sister of John Willes of Tonford, the Kent gentleman who pushed roundarm bowling into senior cricket. According to a 1907 memoir by her son Edward Hodges and earlier testimony recorded by Arthur Haygarth, Christiana bowled to her brother in a barn at Tonford during the 1810s, and the higher arm action she used in those practice sessions was the prototype that John adopted in matches. The story has been embellished — particularly the popular claim that her wide skirts forced her to bowl roundarm — but the underlying record places Christiana at the technical origin of one of cricket's most consequential bowling reforms.

#christiana-willes#john-willes#roundarm-bowling