[7] Crossland's performances for Enfield drew the attention of Lancashire County Cricket Club, for whom he was qualified on the basis of residency.

[18] Playing a match for Liverpool and District against the touring Australians, he took his best bowling figures in an innings that season, claiming seven wickets for 72.

[19] Crossland took a pair of five-wicket hauls against Surrey in late August to finish with eleven wickets in the match.

[22] Crossland's delivery was the cause for much discussion throughout his most successful year of 1882, but despite a commonly held view that he threw the ball, umpires never called a no-ball against him for throwing in first-class matches.

[8] His bowling action during the match against Surrey at the Oval was the subject of significant complaints from the crowd, who accused him of throwing.

During his bowling spell, he was heckled by the crowd, with shouts of "well-thrown" and "take him off", and he was later surrounded by Surrey supporters when he returned to the changing rooms.

[24][25] The Times addressed the issue in their match report, with a reminder that the umpires are the "judges of fair or unfair play",[26] while the gossip columnist in Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game suggested that it was "very obvious and frequent infringement of the laws defining bowling", and that it was clear that umpires lacked the expertise and the bravery to no-ball a bowler.

[29] An article written for The Argus, a Melbourne-based daily newspaper, by an unnamed member of the Australian side in 1882 reported that Crossland bowled; "with a delivery so like a throw that I feel sure it would not be allowed in Australia; but, as we all know, throwing in England is just as common as bowling – more's the pity",[30] and it was speculated that the Australian team would have protested had Crossland been chosen for the Test match.

[32] During the previous season, a letter had been written to Cricket magazine suggesting that Crossland's qualification for Lancashire was invalid, as they claimed that although he was engaged on the Old Trafford ground staff for the summer, he continued to reside in Sutton-in-Ashfield during the winter.

[33] Crossland was summoned to Lord's over the matter, but the Lancashire committee refused to send him, stating that he was playing for them that day.

The match against Derbyshire featured one of the most highly regarded umpires, Thomas Brownhill from Yorkshire, and Crossland bowled without censure.

[34] In June that season, Crossland travelled as part of the Lancashire team to Lord's, to play against the Marylebone Cricket Club.

The umpires for the match had been advised to be strict in applying the law on throwing, and it was noted in the press that Crossland had modified his bowling action, and no complaints could be made against it.

"[46] The proposal was essentially a gentlemen's agreement to try and prevent unfair bowling, necessitated by the umpires' refusal to intervene.

[42] Crossland was strong again, and claimed ten wickets in a match on three occasions,[13] first against Oxford University in late May–early June.

[55] Crossland was named in the initial twelve-man squad for the first Test against Australia, which was played at Lancashire's Old Trafford ground.

As a result, Lord Harris was withdrawn from the team and replaced by Tim O'Brien, although in the end Crossland did not play either.

[59] Lord Harris had hoped that this indicated that Lancashire were making efforts to "of [their] own free will, and without agreement with other counties, to place [their] eleven in an irreproachable position",[46] though Lancashire later clarified that Crossland had only missed the match as he was suffering from a shoulder injury; while Nash's bowling was not suited to the hard pitches those matches were played on.

[61] Towards the end of that season, the London Truth reported that during a club match in his home town of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Crossland was no-balled by an umpire on account of throwing.

Hats and coats were thrown up" according to the Manchester Guardian, which also observed that some felt Crossland had achieved his revenge against Lord Harris.

[8] Nash retired from county cricket at the end of 1885 due to criticisms about his own action, and fixtures between Lancashire and Middlesex, Nottinghamshire and Kent resumed in 1886.

[3] At his peak in 1882, Crossland was considered one of the fastest bowlers in England, and his yorker was described as W. G. Grace as being "exceedingly difficult to play.

[72] Throwing in cricket came to a head in the early part of the twentieth century when the careers of a number of professional bowlers came to a close, most notably those of Lancashire's Arthur Mold, Somerset's Ted Tyler and Leicestershire's Frederic Geeson.