Page:The Crisis in Cricket and the Leg Before Rule (1928).djvu/20

12 great matches from 1836 to about 1845, told me that about the years 1836-9, during a match at Lords, there was a difference of opinion between Dark and Caldecourt, the two leading Umpires of the day, on the interpretation of the l.b.w. rule. The question was referred to the M.C.C. Committee, who decided then and there that for the batsman to be given out l.b.w. the ball must pitch in the bowler's territory, i.e. between wicket and wicket. Lord Bessborough further added that somwhere in the archives of the M.C.C. some record would be found of this incident, but things were not done so systematically in those days, and no record exists. But he was positive about the facts and I remember the whole conversation distinctly. Moreover, Lord Bessborough's statement is corroborated by what fol lows, and may be taken as true. At the first meeting of the County Cricket Council, a report of which will be found in Wisden's Almanack of 1888, there was a great discussion about l.b.w. Lord Bessborough was not present, but Lord Harris, the Chairman, in an interesting and important speech, said that Lord Bessborough was in favour of an alteration in the l.b.w. rule, and later on read a portion of his letter, "in which the writer suggested a return to the old law of fifty years ago." This remark of Lord Bess­ borough's is very interesting. First it tells us that Lord Bessborough was in favour of an alteration of the law as it stood in 1887, and as it still stands, and secondly, Lord Bessborough "suggested a return to the old law of fifty years ago." This suggestion of Lord Bessborough's was made in 1887, and fifty years before that was 1837, which was the approximate date of the Dark and Caldecourt