Page:The Crisis in Cricket and the Leg Before Rule (1928).djvu/18

10 appearance, and the general public could have known little about the matter, as l.b.w. cases were not reported at all and the first recorded instance is to be found in 1795, when, in Scores and Biographies, we find "Hon. J. Tufton, l.b.w., b. Wells, 3." It was probably owing to that lack of information that Beldham was wrong in saying that there was no l.b.w. rule, because the first one was passed in 1774, when he was eight years old, but he was very likely right when he said the law was not much wanted till Ring brought the question up by what Beldham called "shabby" play. How was Ring's play shabby? He was born in 1758, and was therefore subject to the 1774 rule. It is a reasonable supposition that to be shabby his conduct must have been of a nature that defeated the law. It is also probable that the 1774 rule was interpreted in the sense that it is now, viz: to get a batsman l.b.w. the ball must pitch between wicket and wicket, and the shabby play of Ring and Taylor consisted of using the legs to save the wicket when the ball pitched outside the wicket. If Ring and Taylor had got in front to balls pitched between wicket and wicket, they would have been given out, and they might have been called bad players, but not shabby, for they paid the penalty.

Ring and Taylor's shabby play very likely was the reason why the rule was altered, and it is needless to discuss all the changes that have been made in the l.b.w. law; it is sufficient to say that from 1774 to the present day the law has been changed ten times and not once has a satisfactory definition of a straight ball been given; the question has been simply shirked. The present law stands as follows: The striker is out "if with any part of his person he stops