William Attewell

Who was William Attewell?

William Attewell was a cricketer who played for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and England. Attewell was a medium pace bowler who was renowned for his extraordinary accuracy and economy. On the many sticky or crumbling pitches encountered in his prime Attewell could get on a great deal of spin so as to always beat the bat, whilst his accuracy would make slogging – the only way to make runs under such conditions – very difficult. He was responsible for the development of "off theory" – bowling wide of the off stump to a packed off-side field to frustrate batsmen on the rapidly improving pitches of the 1890s. At times Attewell was a useful batsman for his county, and he scored 102 against Kent in 1897.

It is true that against the extremely fleet-footed Australian batsmen of his time, Attewell was fairly ineffective. Moreover, with bowlers such as Lohmann and J.T. Hearne available who could do all Attewell could, he had trouble maintaining his place at Test level despite all he did for Nottinghamshire and the Marylebone Cricket Club.

Attewell first played for Nottinghamshire in 1881 as a result of a strike by senior players such as Alfred Shaw and Fred Morley. He bowled very well but did not establish himself until 1884 after Morley had died, when he took 100 wickets for less than thirteen runs each. From then on, Attewell was always in the front rank of English bowlers, and after Shaw dropped out of the Nottinghamshire eleven in early 1887 he became the undisputed leader of the county's attack. His first Ashes tour was modest, partly owing to the dry weather, but he continued improving in England – taking 9 for 23 against Sussex at Trent Bridge in 1886 – and toured Australia again in 1887/1888. He proved deadly in a wet La Niña season in minor games, but had no opportunity of showing his deadliness on a sticky wicket at the highest level because Lohmann and Briggs were so effective. However, Attewell's skill and economy, along with the brilliant batting of Shrewsbury, allowed Nottinghamshire to maintain their position as one of the top counties in first-class county cricket right up to the end of 1892.