Edgar Willsher — Kent's Left-Arm Fast Roundarm Bowler Emerges, 1855

Left-arm roundarm bowling was rare and difficult to play, since the ball moved away from right-handed batsmen rather than toward them. Willsher's accuracy and pace made him doubly dangerous.

Edgar Willsher was born at Rolvenden in Kent in November 1828 and made his first-class debut for Kent in 1850, but his effectiveness grew through the mid-1850s as he mastered the fast left-arm roundarm action that was his trademark. He delivered from close to the stumps on a good-length off stump and moved the ball enough to trouble the best right-hand batsmen. By 1855 he was a regular in the Kent eleven and in representative south of England sides; by 1857 he was appearing for the AEE after Clarke's death ended the ban on UAEE players. He took 1,393 first-class wickets at 13.49 — one of the best averages of his era — and his 8 for 11 for the AEE against an eighteen of Hastings in 1855 was described by Wisden as the finest bowling he had ever seen from a left-hander. His overarm bowling controversy in 1862 — when he was no-balled six times by umpire John Lillywhite — would accelerate the MCC's decision to legalise overarm, but in the 1850s he was simply the most feared left-arm bowler in England.