William Ashby (12 January 1786 – 10 April 1847) was an English cricketer who played mainly for Kent teams.[3][4] He was considered one of the best slow bowlers of his era and one of the pioneers of roundarm bowling.[1]
Ashby was born in 1786 at Linton, Kent, the son of Thomas and Frances Ashby. He was a carpenter by trade who worked on the Sutton Valence estate of John Willes, a Kent landowner and cricketer and an influential proponent of the roundarm method of bowling in the early 19th century.[c] Ashby already had a reputation as a fine cricketer and is first known to have played for the county side in 1807 alongside Willes, developing a reputation as the best slow bowler in Kent.[1][6][7]Scores and Biographies described Ashby's bowling action as "not very high in delivery" and with what it described as an "unusual bias",[8] although William Denison writing in 1846 in his Sketches of the Players, records that his bowling action later saw his arm raised above his elbow.[9]
Later in 1807 Ashby made his first-class cricket debut, playing for an England side. He went on to make 45 appearances in top-class matches, most of them for Kent or England XIs.[d][e] He also appeared for Hampshire, Sussex and Surrey sides as well as for MCC teams and played nine times for the Players against the Gentlemen.[1][4] He played in the 1822 Kent match against MCC at Lord's when Lord Frederick Beauclerk, a leading MCC member, contrived to have Willes no-balled for throwing in an attempt to have roundarm bowling outlawed.[f] Willes famously left the match although Ashby, whose bowling action was probably lower than Willes', continued to play.[1][12][13] He also played in one of the roundarm trial matches of 1827 and was one of the signatories of the petition against the way that the Sussex bowlers in the matches had bowled.[14][15]
Ashby played his last first-class match in 1830, but continued to play club cricket. He was employed as a professional at the Clarence Cricket Club in Camberwell in 1836 and played there for 10 years.[1]
Ashby married Sarah Whatson in 1819 and had two children, a son and a daughter. He died of bronchitis at Lambeth in 1847 aged 61.[1][3]
Notes
^ abcIn the period Ashby played, the number of balls delivered by a bowler and the runs conceded from them were generally not recorded. As a result, it is impossible to know how many balls he delivered, his best bowling figures or his bowling average.
^In the period Ashby played, wickets taken by bowlers were normally only recorded if they were bowled. Other means of dismissal were not credited to any bowler.[2] As a result the number of wickets he took is uncertain, with the total of 164 being a minimum. This also makes the calculation of an accurate bowling average impossible.
^Roundarm bowling involves delivering the ball from below the level of the shoulder. At the time Ashby and Willes began to play, the normal form of delivery was underarm bowling, either rolling or pitching the ball. Roundarm bowling, which gave the bowler an advantage, was specifically outlawed in 1816. Although Willes is often credited with the invention of the roundarm style, it had been in use since at least the 1780s, although it had been outlawed at the time by the Hambledon Club, an influential cricket club based in Hampshire.[5]
^Ashby played 14 times for both Kent sides and England sides in first-class matches.[4]
^During the time Ashby played, England sides were not representative of the country. Instead, they were sides composed of players from a range of locations brought together to play against another side.[10] So when Ashby made his first-class debut for an England XI in 1808 he played against a Surrey side in a team made up of players from other parts of the country, including Hampshire, Middlesex and Kent.[11]
^Beauclerk was a leading opponent of roundarm bowling.[1]
