Editing Underarm bowling (section)

==History==
For centuries, bowling in cricket was performed exactly as in the sport of [[bowls]] because the ball was rolled or skimmed along the ground.  The bowlers may have used variations in pace but the basic action was essentially the same.  There are surviving illustrations from the first half of the eighteenth century which depict the bowler with one knee bent forward and his bowling hand close to the ground, while the ball trundles (if slow) or skims (if quick) towards a batsman armed with a bat shaped something like a large hockey stick and guarding a two-stump wicket.

Cricket's first great bowling revolution occurred probably in the 1760s when bowlers started to pitch the ball instead of rolling it along the ground.  The change was evolutionary and has been described as the event that took cricket out of its "pioneering phase" into what may be termed its "pre-modern phase" (i.e., which ended when [[overarm bowling]] ushered in the modern game in 1864) and effectively created a different code of cricket, just as there are now two different codes of [[rugby football]].

The pitched delivery was well established by 1772 when detailed scorecards became commonplace and the straight bat had already replaced the curved one by that time. There is no doubt that the straight bat was invented to contest the pitched delivery. It has been said that the inventor was [[John Small (cricketer)|John Small]] of [[Hambledon Club|Hambledon]] but it is unlikely that he actually invented it; rather, he was the first great batsman to master its use.

The 1760s are one of cricket's "Dark Ages"; a good deal more is known about the decades 1731–1750 than of 1751–1770. This has largely to do with the impact of the [[Seven Years' War]] of 1756–1763 which not only claimed the sport's manpower but also its patronage. Pitching may have begun during that period, but little is known about it for it seems to have been introduced and widely accepted without the huge controversies that surrounded the later implementations of roundarm and [[overarm bowling|overarm]].

The first known codification of the [[Laws of Cricket]], created by the [[London Cricket Club]] in 1744, makes no mention of prescribed bowling action and does not say the ball must be delivered at ground level, which suggests a pitched delivery would not be illegal. The rules for bowlers in the 1744 Laws focus on the position of the hind foot during delivery (i.e., it had to be behind the bowling crease) and overstepping is the only specified cause for calling a no-ball. The umpires were granted "discretion" and so presumably would call no-ball if, say, a ball was thrown by the bowler.

One of the first great bowlers to employ the pitched delivery to good effect was [[Edward "Lumpy" Stevens]] of Chertsey and Surrey. There is a surviving rhyme about him to the effect that "honest Lumpy did allow he ne'er would pitch but o'er a brow". In those days, the leading bowler on each side had choice of precisely where the wickets would be placed and Lumpy was adept at finding a spot where the turf was uneven on a good length so that he could use his repertoire of shooters, twisters and risers. Lumpy was a true professional who studied the arts and crafts of the game to seek continuous improvement as a bowler. He is known to have observed the flight of the ball and experimented for long hours with variations of line, length and speed of delivery until he had mastered the art of pitching.

Other great bowlers of the late 18th century were [[Thomas Brett (cricketer)|Thomas Brett]] and [[David Harris (Hambledon cricketer)|David Harris]], both of the [[Hambledon Club|Hambledon]] club. They were fast bowlers whereas Lumpy relied on variety of pace. A notable bowler of the time was [[Lamborn (Hambledon cricketer)|Lamborn]] who spun the ball in an [[Off-break|unorthodox]] fashion and may have been the first unorthodox spinner.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wilde |first1=Simon |title=The history of mystery |url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/153565.html |website=ESPNcricinfo |publisher=Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1999 |access-date=19 October 2023}}</ref>

Underarm bowling was effective while pitch conditions were difficult for batsmen due to being uneven and uncovered. In time, especially after the opening of Lord's and the development of groundsmanship, pitches began to improve and batsmen were able to play longer innings than previously.  In the 1780s and 1790s, one of the best batsmen around was [[Tom Walker (cricketer)|Tom Walker]], who was also a very useful slow bowler. Walker was another improviser like Lumpy and he began to experiment by bowling with his hand away from his body. It is not clear how high he raised his hand but it could have been waist height. He was accused of "jerking" the ball and so delivering it in an unfair and improper manner. He was censured for his trouble and was forced to return to his normal underarm lobs, but he had sown the seeds of bowling's next revolution.

This was roundarm, so called because the hand is held out from the body (i.e., between waist and shoulder height) at the point of delivery. The roundarm style was promoted successively by [[John Willes (cricketer)|John Willes]], [[William Lillywhite]] and [[Jem Broadbridge]] until it was finally legalised, amid furious controversy, in 1835 with an amendment to the rule in 1845.

Roundarm did not mean the end of underarm, which continued well into the [[overarm bowling|overarm]] era that began in 1864. [[William Clarke (cricketer, born 1798)|William Clarke]], founder of the [[All England Eleven]] in 1845, remained a highly effective underarm bowler long after roundarm began. Others who sometimes bowled underarm into the overarm era were [[James Grundy (cricketer)|James Grundy]] and [[James Southerton]].

By the beginning of the twentieth century, underarm had more or less disappeared and was rarely seen thereafter, although exceptions did occur. There were cases where a bowler had been injured and so completed his over with underarms. In more controversial circumstances, there were instances of bowlers who had been no-balled for throwing who decided to bowl underarm to get through the over.

[[George Simpson-Hayward]] was an England hero of the 1909–10 series in South Africa with his underarm bowling.  Reference books often refer to him as the "last great lob bowler", but other descriptions suggest he was a ferocious under-arm spinner of the ball, getting immense turn off the pitch through a fairly low trajectory, rather than being a true "lobster".