Note 35 — Chapter XI · THE UNIVERSITY CRICKET MATCH. (By the Hon. R. H. Lyttelton.)

The difficulty of getting accurate facts about this unique over has been immense. The author has before him the written statement of Mr. Hill, a copy of the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News containing a letter of Mr. Yardley, who was keeping wicket and was therefore in a position to judge, and a letter from Mr. Cobden and Mr. Belcher. In the first edition of this book Mr. Stewart is said to have been bowled off his legs; this is inaccurate, and the author apologizes for the blunder. Mr. Cobden complains of the account generally, and says that all three balls were of a good length, and that he never bowled better balls in all his life. The author in the above has written what he believes to be accurate, relying chiefly on the written evidence of Messrs. Hill, Yardley, and Belcher, and in a less degree from what he has heard from some spectators. It was not Stewart that was bowled off his legs, but Belcher; and in order that the public may form their own judgment, the written statements of Messrs. Hill, Yardley, and Belcher are here inserted. Mr. Hill writes:—‘Belcher was bowled with a yorker (half-volley?) and Stewart with a half-volley, but whether off his leg or not I do not remember.’ Mr. Hill also writes that on meeting Cobden some years later, Cobden repeated that they were three of the best balls he ever bowled, to which Mr. Hill replied that they were all half-volleys, and that he believed that if he had had any one of them he could have won the match with a fourer. Now Mr. Yardley, in allusion to the author’s statement that the ball that Butler was caught off was straight and well up on the off stump, writes: ‘As a matter of fact the ball in question was a very long hop, extremely wide on the off, so much so that I have no hesitation in stating that if Mr. Butler had made no attempt to strike at it the umpire would have called a wide. The batsman, however, was possessed of an exceptionally long reach, and just managed to strike the ball with the extreme end of his bat to cover-point, where it was beautifully caught by Mr. Bourne.’