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.

Attewell first played for Nottinghamshire in 1881 as a result of a strike by senior players such as Alfred Shaw and Fred Morley.

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.

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.

Even when Attewell became the MCC's chief bowler and increased his aggregate of wickets to around 150 from 1889 to 1892, he did not cement his Test spot, and improving pitches and a severe shortage of support bowling caused Attewell's average to blow out to 21 in 1893 – and his record of 111 wickets at 17.54 in 1894 was disappointing given how much the pitches helped a bowler of his type.