Editing Underarm bowling (section)

== Lob bowling ==
[[File:Digby Jephson Vanity Fair 22 May 1902.jpg|thumb|"The Lobster" Jephson as caricatured by [[Leslie Ward|Spy]] in ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', May 1902]]
In cricket, '''lob bowling''' is a largely disused style of bowling. It has become illegal under Law 21.1 to use underarm bowling without prior agreement before the match, an amendment to the laws of cricket that was made following [[Underarm bowling incident of 1981|the notorious incident in the 1980–81 World Series match]].

It was used in the game in the 19th century, where [[trajectory]] was the most important consideration. Lob bowlers, both right and left-handed, sometimes attempted 'donkey drops', attempting to pitch the ball on the stumps from as great a height as possible, preferably with the ball descending behind the batsman standing at the crease.

The last regular bowler of lobs in international cricket was [[George Simpson-Hayward]], in the period before the [[First World War]]. He bowled with a much lower trajectory than most earlier lob bowlers, imparting great spin to the ball with constant variation of pace as well.

Others famous "lobsters" include [[Digby Jephson]]. As an underarm bowler he had an action a little like setting a wood in [[bowls|crown green bowling]].

The last specialist lob bowler to play first-class cricket in England was [[Trevor Molony]] who made three appearances in the [[County Championship]] for [[Surrey County Cricket Club|Surrey]] in 1921, by which time the style was already essentially defunct.

[[Charles Palmer (cricketer)|Charles Palmer]] (1919–2005), who played for Worcestershire and Leicestershire, sometimes used donkey-drops to good effect.

Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] wrote a story about a similar style of bowling called ''The Story of Spedegue's Dropper''.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Story of Spedegue's Dropper|isbn=1-4254-7720-8|year=1928|author=Conan Doyle, Arthur|publisher=Lightning Source Inc}}</ref>

Today the laws pertaining to the bowling of "[[beamer (cricket)|beamers]]" would be likely to render that kind of bowling illegal, and it would probably be deemed a [[no-ball]]. In accordance with Law 41.7.1, a ball that passes the batsman's waist height on the full is a no-ball.

Lob bowling is still sometimes found in low-level village cricket; these deliveries are known as donkey-drops. More usually these are over-arm deliveries;{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}} but round-arm is also possible and would more closely approximate a traditional lob.