🎬 CUTTING ROOM FLOOR: How A Woman Invented Overarm Bowling In Cricket! (Podcast Exclusive)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Here's John and the man. There's cutting fall. The man's
cutting the room fall on the cutting room floor. Today,
something I saw that was very interesting.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Alyssa Healy, an Australian cricketer, was discussing overarm bowling and
that seems like a natural movement to get speed behind
the ball, et cetera. Yep, well, she said, and this
is true that a female actually invented overarm bowling. Until
then everyone bowled under arm. This female, Christiana Willis, frustrated

(00:43):
with her underarm bowling action because it kept snagging on
her big skirts. She allegedly starting throwing the ball over
her head, leading to the development of overarm bowling in
the eighteen hundreds. Really hiss because if she bowled under arm,
her skirts got in the way. So she suggested it
to her husband, and fifteen years later he apparently decided

(01:04):
this is the best way to go about it, and
everyone started bowling over arm.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Well, it took a while to come across with that
fifteen years later, and then he pretended it was his idea.
I bet, of course, that's such a man thing to do.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
But all you have to do is say to any
New Zealander under arm bowling and you will ignite a fire.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
It's like mentioning. Rainbow Warrior is the other one. They
are the two things to set off a kiwi.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Also, if you say the Australia invented the Pavlova, three things,
actually there's probably ten things.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Crowded house, I don't care whose they are. Let it go,
but let's go back to the under arm bowling. A
trigger warning for any kiwi's listening. This was I'll set
the scene.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
It was February nineteen eighty one at the MCG the
third final of the Benson and Hedges World Series Cup.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Now New Zealand had managed.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
To get really close to the Australian tally. They just
needed a six off the last ball to tie the game.
And here's what happened two hundred and.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Twenty nine and New Zealand's only hope now is a
sixth off the last ball for a tie. Well at Wisterias,
if they're going to bowl under arm off the last ball,
they're going to volt and under armed wherever believed it.

(02:20):
That's a disappointing finish, disappointed crime affecting the crowd who
it's all over. The fifty overs is here on eight
two hundred and twenty nine.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
The skipper everyone was covered in ignomy, not glory. The
skipper was Greg Chapel. He instructed the bowler, who happened
to be his brother, Trevor Chapel, to bawl under arm
and the Australia hated it. New Zealand hated it. It
was everything that people didn't like about cricket. Where was
the sportsmanship and how did they get to that point?

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Whether they could bowl the ball under om? Is that
a well known rule? What was the rule here?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Actually, Richie Bernard, because they were wondering it was unethical
but it was legal here it is being discussed afterwards
by Richie Bernard.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Now one of the New Zealanders are disappointed, and none
of them more disappointed than their skipper. Jeffrey Howe. There
he is now, and I know exactly the reason he's
out there. He's played his cricket over in the United
Kingdom with Surry for a number of years and the
Benson hedges domestic competition. There is a series of rules
designed to make the game flow freely and to avoid

(03:31):
incidents such as the one that happened here today. Now
there is the relevant rule on page two and it
says that no bowler shall be permitted to bowl under amen.
That's what Jeffrey Howse is out there talking to them about.
It is not in the Australian Benson Hedges World Series
Cup rules because the administrators.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Didn't put it in.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
I hope they put it in by tomorrow morning, otherwise
there'll be a lot of criticism for what was a
disgraceful performance out there today.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Red tape and now let's discuss who invented the Pavlova. Okay, kids,
that's it today. Come back to Mark Bore, Charlsey and Avandiston.