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diff --git a/old/52022-0.txt b/old/52022-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8ff98b3..0000000 --- a/old/52022-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6687 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Cricket Field, by James Pycroft - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: The Cricket Field - Or, the History and Science of the Game of Cricket - - -Author: James Pycroft - - - -Release Date: May 7, 2016 [eBook #52022] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRICKET FIELD*** - - -E-text prepared by MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team -(http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by -Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original illustrations. - See 52022-h.htm or 52022-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52022/52022-h/52022-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52022/52022-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/cricketfieldorhi00pycr - - - - - -[Illustration: H. Adlard sc. - -THE BOWLER. - -_William Clarke. The Slow Bowler & Sec’y to the All England Eleven._ - -London. Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans.] - - -THE CRICKET FIELD: - -Or, - -The History and the Science of the Game of Cricket. - -by - -The Author of “The Principles of Scientific Batting,” -“Recollections of College Days,” -etc. etc. - - - “Gaudet … aprici gramine campi.” - - - “Pila velox, - Molliter austerum studio fallente laborem.”--HOR. - - -Second Edition. - - - - - - - -London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans 1854. - - - - “’Twas in the prime of summer time, - An evening calm and cool, - And five and twenty happy boys - Came bounding out of school. - Away they sped with gamesome minds - And souls untouched with sin; - To a level mead they came, and there - They drove the wickets in.” - - HOOD. - - LONDON: A. and G. A. SPOTTISWOODE, New-street-Square. - - DEDICATED TO J. A. B. MARSHALL, ESQ., AND THE MEMBERS OF THE - LANSDOWN CRICKET CLUB, BY ONE OF THEIR OLDEST MEMBERS AND - SINCERE FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. - - - - -PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. - - -This Edition is greatly improved by various additions and corrections, -for which we gratefully acknowledge our obligations to the Rev. R. T. -King and Mr. A. Haygarth, as also once more to Mr. A. Bass and Mr. -Whateley of Burton. For our practical instructions on Bowling, Batting, -and Fielding, the first players of the day have been consulted, each on -the point in which he respectively excelled. More discoveries have also -been made illustrative of the origin and early history of Cricket; and -we trust nothing is wanting to maintain the high character now accorded -to the “Cricket Field,” as the Standard Authority on every part of our -National Game. - - J. P. - - _May, 18. 1854._ - - - - -PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. - - -The following pages are devoted to the history and the science of our -National Game. Isaac Walton has added a charm to the Rod and Line; -Col. Hawker to the Dog and the Gun; and Nimrod and Harry Hieover to -the “Hunting Field:” but, the “Cricket Field” is to this day untrodden -ground. We have been long expecting to hear of some chronicler aided -and abetted by the noblemen and gentlemen of the Marylebone Club,--one -who should combine, with all the resources of a ready writer, -traditionary lore and practical experience. But, time is fast thinning -the ranks of the veterans. Lord Frederick Beauclerk and the once -celebrated player, the Hon. Henry Tufton, afterwards Earl of Thanet, -have passed away; and probably Sparkes, of the Edinburgh Ground, and -Mr. John Goldham, hereinafter mentioned, are the only surviving -players who have witnessed both the formation and the jubilee of the -Marylebone Club--following, as it has, the fortunes of the Pavilion and -of the enterprising Thomas Lord, literally through “three removes” and -“one fire,” from White Conduit Fields to the present Lord’s. - -How, then, it will be asked, do _we_ presume to save from oblivion the -records of Cricket? - -As regards the Antiquities of the game, our history is the result of -patient researches in old English literature. As regards its changes -and chances and the players of olden time, it fortunately happens -that, some fifteen years ago, we furnished ourselves with old Nyren’s -account of the Cricketers of his time and the Hambledon Club, and, -using Bentley’s Book of Matches from 1786 to 1825 to suggest questions -and test the truth of answers, we passed many an interesting hour -in Hampshire and Surrey, by the peat fires of those villages which -reared the Walkers, David Harris, Beldham, Wells, and some others of -the All England players of fifty years since. Bennett, Harry Hampton, -Beldham, and Sparkes, who first taught us to play,--all men of the -last century,--have at various times contributed to our earlier -annals; while Thomas Beagley, for some days our landlord, the late Mr. -Ward, and especially Mr. E. H. Budd, often our antagonist in Lansdown -matches, have respectively assisted in the first twenty years of the -present century. - -But, distinct mention must we make of one most important Chronicler, -whose recollections were coextensive with the whole history of the -game in its matured and perfect form--WILLIAM FENNEX. And here we -must thank our kind friend the Rev. John Mitford, of Benhall, for his -memoranda of many a winter’s evening with that fine old player,--papers -especially valuable because Fennex’s impressions were so distinct, and -his observation so correct, that, added to his practical illustrations -with bat and ball, no other man could enable us so truthfully to -compare ancient with modern times. Old Fennex, in his declining years, -was hospitably appointed by Mr. Mitford to a sinecure office, created -expressly in his honour, in the beautiful gardens of Benhall; and -Pilch, and Box, and Bayley, and all his old acquaintance, will not be -surprised to hear that the old man would carefully water and roll his -little cricket-ground on summer mornings, and on wet and wintry days -would sit in the chimney-corner, dealing over and over again by the -hour, to an imaginary partner, a very dark and dingy pack of cards, -and would then sally forth to teach a long remembered lesson to some -hob-nailed frequenter of the village ale-house. - -So much for the History: but why should we venture on the Science of -the game? - -Many may be excellently qualified, and have a fund of anecdote and -illustration, still not one of the many will venture on a book. -Hundreds play without knowing principles; many know what they cannot -explain; and some could explain, but fear the certain labour and cost, -with the most uncertain return, of authorship. For our own part, we -have felt our way. The wide circulation of our “Recollections of -College Days” and “Course of English Reading” promises a patient -hearing on subjects within our proper sphere; and that in this sphere -lies Cricket, we may without vanity presume to assert. For in August -last, at Mr. Dark’s Repository at Lord’s, our little treatise on the -“Principles of Scientific Batting” (Slatter: Oxford, 1835) was singled -out as “the book which contained as much on Cricket as all that had -ever been written, and more besides.” That same day did we proceed to -arrange with Messrs. Longman, naturally desirous to lead a second -advance movement, as we led the first, and to break the spell which, we -had thus been assured, had for fifteen years chained down the invention -of literary cricketers at the identical point where we left off; for, -not a single rule or principle has yet been published in advance of -our own; though more than one author has been kind enough to adopt -(thinking, no doubt, the parents were dead) our ideas, and language too! - -“Shall we ever make new books,” asks Tristram Shandy, “as apothecaries -make new mixtures, by pouring only out of one vessel into another?” No. -But so common is the failing, that actually even this illustration of -plagiarism Sterne stole from Burton! - -Like solitary travellers from unknown lands, we are naturally desirous -to offer some confirmation of statements, depending otherwise too -much on our literary honour. We, happily, have received the following -from--we believe the oldest player of the day who can be pronounced a -good player still--Mr. E. H. Budd:-- - -“I return the proof-sheets of the History of my Contemporaries, and -can truly say that they do indeed remind me of old times. I find one -thing only to correct, which I hope you will be in time to alter, for -your accuracy will then, to the best of my belief, be wholly without -exception:--write _twenty_ guineas, and not _twenty-five_, as the sum -offered, by old Thomas Lord, if any one should hit out of his ground -where now is Dorset Square. - -“You invite me to note further particulars for your second edition: the -only omission I can at present detect is this,--the name of Lord George -Kerr, son of the Marquis of Lothian, should be added to your list of -the Patrons of the Old Surrey Players; for, his lordship lived in the -midst of them at Farnham; and, I have often heard Beldham say, used to -provide bread and cheese and beer for as many as would come out and -practise on a summer’s evening: this is too _substantial_ a supporter -of the Noble Game to be forgotten.” - -We must not conclude without grateful acknowledgments to some -distinguished amateurs representing the science both of the northern -and the southern counties, who have kindly allowed us to compare notes -on various points of play. In all of our instructions in Batting, we -have greatly benefited by the assistance, in the first instance, of -Mr. A. Bass of Burton, and his friend Mr. Whateley, a gentleman who -truly understands “Philosophy in Sport.” Then, the Hon. Robert Grimston -judiciously suggested some modification of our plan. We agreed with -him that, for a popular work, and one “for play hours,” the lighter -parts should prevail over the heavier; for, with most persons, a little -science goes a long way, and our “winged words,” if made too weighty, -might not fly far; seeing, as said Thucydides[1], “men do find it such -a bore to learn any thing that gives them trouble.” For these reasons -we drew more largely on our funds of anecdote and illustration, which -had been greatly enriched by the contributions of a highly valued -correspondent--Mr. E. S. E. Hartopp. When thus the science of batting -had been reduced to its fair proportions, it was happily undertaken by -the Hon. Frederick Ponsonby, not only through kindness to ourselves -personally, but also, we feel assured, because he takes a pleasure in -protecting the interests of the rising generation. By his advice, we -became more distinct in our explanations, and particularly careful of -venturing on such refinements of science as, though sound in theory, -may possibly produce errors in practice. - - “_Tantæ molis erat CRICETANUM condere CAMPUM._” - -For our artist we have one word to say: not indeed for the engravings -in our frontispiece,--these having received unqualified approbation; -but, we allude to the illustrations of attitudes. In vain did our -artist assure us that a foreshortened position would defy every attempt -at ease, energy, or elegance; we felt bound to insist on sacrificing -the effect of the picture to its utility as an illustration. Our -principal design is to show the position of the feet and bat with -regard to the wicket, and how every hit, with one exception, the Cut, -is made by no other change of attitude than results from the movement -of the left foot alone. - - J. P. - - _Barnstaple, - April 15th, 1851._ - -[1] B. i. c. 20. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - Page - CHAP. I. - Origin of the Game of Cricket 1 - - CHAP. II. - The general Character of Cricket 16 - - CHAP. III. - The Hambledon Club and the Old Players 40 - - CHAP. IV. - Cricket generally established as a National Game - by the End of the last Century 56 - - CHAP. V. - The First Twenty Years of the present Century 82 - - CHAP. VI. - A dark Chapter in the History of Cricket 99 - - CHAP. VII. - The Science and Art of Batting 110 - - CHAP. VIII. - Hints against Slow Bowling 176 - - CHAP. IX. - Bowling.--An Hour with “Old Clarke” 187 - - CHAP. X. - Hints on Fielding 204 - - CHAP. XI. - Chapter of Accidents.--Miscellaneous 234 - - - - -[Illustration: H. Adlard sc. - -THE BATSMAN. - -_Fuller Pilch._ - -London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans.] - - - - -THE CRICKET FIELD. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -ORIGIN OF THE GAME OF CRICKET. - - -The Game of Cricket, in some rude form, is undoubtedly as old as the -thirteenth century. But whether at that early date Cricket was the name -it generally bore is quite another question. For Club-Ball we believe -to be the name which usually stood for Cricket in the thirteenth -century; though, at the same time, we have some curious evidence that -the term Cricket at that early period was also known. But the identity -of the game with that now in use is the chief point; the name is of -secondary consideration. Games commonly change their names, as every -school-boy knows, and bear different appellations in different places. - -Nevertheless, all previous writers acquiescing quietly in the opinion -of Strutt, expressed in his “Sports and Pastimes,” not only forget -that Cricket may be older than its name, but erroneously suppose -that the name of Cricket occurs in no author in the English language -of an earlier date than Thomas D’Urfey, who, in his “Pills to purge -Melancholy,” writes thus:-- - - “Herr was the prettiest fellow - At foot-ball and at _Cricket_; - At hunting chase or nimble race - _How featly_ Herr could prick it.” - -The words “How featly” Strutt properly writes in place of a revolting -old-fashioned oath in the original. - -Strutt, therefore, in these lines quotes the word Cricket as first -occurring in 1710. - -About the same date Pope wrote,-- - - “The Judge to dance his brother Sergeants call, - The Senators at _Cricket_ urge the ball.” - -And Duncome, curious to observe, laying the scene of a match near -Canterbury, wrote,-- - - “An ill-timed _Cricket Match_ there did - At Bishops-bourne befal.” - -Soame Jenyns, also, early in the same century, wrote in lines that -showed that cricket was very much of a “sporting” amusement:-- - - “England, when once of peace and wealth possessed, - Began to think frugality a jest; - So grew polite: hence all her well-bred heirs - Gamesters and jockeys turned, and _cricket_-players.” - - Ep. I. b. ii., _init._ - -However, we are happy to say that even among comparatively modern -authors we have beaten Strutt in his researches by twenty-five years; -for Edward Phillips, John Milton’s nephew, in his “Mysteries of Love -and Eloquence” (8vo. 1685), writes thus:-- - - “Will you not, when you have me, throw stocks at my head and - cry, ‘Would my eyes had been beaten out of my head with a - _cricket-ball_ the day before I saw thee?’” - -We shall presently show the word Cricket, in Richelet, as early as the -year 1680. - -A late author has very sensibly remarked that Cricket could not have -been popular in the days of Elizabeth, or we should expect to find -allusions to that game, as to tennis, foot-ball, and other sports, in -the early poets; but Shakspeare and the dramatists who followed, he -observes, are silent on the subject. - -As to the silence of the early poets and dramatists on the game of -cricket--and no one conversant with English literature would expect -to find it except in some casual allusion or illustration in an old -play--this silence we can confirm on the best authority. What if we -presumed to advance that the early dramatists, one and all, ignore -the very name of cricket. How bold a negative! So rare are certain old -plays that a hundred pounds have been paid by the Duke of Devonshire -for a single copy of a few loose and soiled leaves; and shall we -pretend to have dived among such hidden stores? We are so fortunate as -to be favoured with the assistance of the Rev. John Mitford and our -loving cousin John Payne Collier, two English scholars, most deeply -versed in early literature, and no bad judges of cricket; and since -these two scholars have never met with any mention of cricket in the -early dramatists, nor in any author earlier than 1685, there is, -indeed, much reason to believe that “Cricket” is a word that does not -occur in any English author before the year 1685. - -But though it occurs not in any English author, is it found in no rare -manuscript yet unpublished? We shall see. - -Now as regards the silence of the early poets, a game like cricket -might certainly exist without falling in with the allusions or topics -of poetical writers. Still, if we actually find distinct catalogues and -enumerations of English games before the date of 1685, and Cricket is -omitted, the suspicion that Cricket was not then the popular name of -one of the many games of ball (not that the game itself was positively -unknown) is strongly confirmed. - -Six such catalogues are preserved; one in the “Anatomy of Melancholy,” -a second in a well-known treatise of James I., and a third in the -“Cotswold Games,” with three others. - -I. For the first catalogue, Strutt reminds us of the set of rules from -the hand of James I. for the “nurture and conduct of an heir-apparent -to the throne,” addressed to his eldest son, Henry Prince of Wales, -called the ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΟΝ ΔΩΡΟΝ, or a “Kinge’s Christian Dutie towards God.” -Herein the king forbids gaming and rough play: “As to diceing, I think -it becometh best deboshed souldiers to play on the heads of their -drums. As to the foote-ball, it is meeter for laming, than making able, -the users thereof.” But a special commendation is given to certain -games of ball; “playing at the catch or tennis, palle-malle, and _such -like other_ fair and pleasant _field-games_.” Certainly cricket may -have been included under the last general expression, though by no -means a fashionable game in James’s reign. - -II. For the second catalogue of games, Burton in his “Anatomy of -Melancholy,” “the only book,” said Dr. Johnson, “that ever took me out -of bed two hours sooner than I wished to rise,”--gives a view of the -sports most prevalent in the seventeenth century. Here we have a very -full enumeration: it specifies the pastimes of “great men,” and those -of “base inferior persons;” it mentions “the rocks on which men lose -themselves” by gambling; how “wealth runs away with their hounds, and -their fortunes fly away with their hawks.” Then follow “the sights and -shows of the Londoners,” and the “May-games and recreations of the -country-folk.” More minutely still, Burton speaks of “rope dancers, -cockfights,” and other sports common both to town and country; still, -though Burton is so exact as to specify all “winter recreations” -separately, and mentions even “foot-balls and ballowns,” saying “Let -the common people play at ball and barley-brakes,” there is in all this -catalogue no mention whatever of Cricket. - -III. As a third catalogue, we have the “Cotswold Games,” but cricket is -not among them. This was an annual celebration which one Captain Dover, -by express permission and command of James I., held on the Cotswold -Hills, in Gloucestershire. - -IV. Fourthly: cricket is not mentioned in “The compleat Gamester,” -published by Charles Browne, in 1709. - -V. “I have many editions of Chamberlayne’s ‘State of England,’” kindly -writes Mr. T. B. Macaulay, “published between 1670 and 1700, and I -observe he never mentions cricket among the national games, of which he -gives a long list.” - -VI. The great John Locke wrote in 1679, “The sports of England for -a curious stranger to see, are horse-racing, hawking, hunting, and -Bowling: at Marebone and Putney he may see several persons of quality -bowling two or three times a week: also, wrestling in Lincoln’s Inn -Fields every evening; bear and bull-baiting at the bear garden; -shooting with the long bow, and stob-ball, in Tothill Fields; and -cudgel playing in the country, and hurling in Cornwall.” Here again we -have no Cricket. Stob-ball is a different game. - -Nevertheless we have a catalogue of games of about 1700, in Stow’s -“Survey of London,” and there Cricket is mentioned; but, remarkably -enough, it is particularised as one of the amusements of “the lower -classes.” The whole passage is curious:-- - -“The modern sports of the citizens, _besides drinking_(!), are -cock-fighting, bowling upon greens, backgammon, cards, dice, billiards, -also musical entertainments, dancing, masks, balls, stage-plays, and -club-meetings in the evening; they sometimes ride out on horseback, and -hunt with the lord mayor’s pack of dogs, when the common hunt goes on. -The _lower classes_ divert themselves at foot-ball, wrestling, cudgels, -nine-pins, shovel-board, _cricket_, stow-ball, ringing of bells, -quoits, pitching the bar, bull and bear baitings, throwing at cocks, -and lying at ale-houses.”(!) - -The lawyers have a rule that to specify one thing is to ignore the -other; and this rule of evidence can never be more applicable than -where a sport is omitted from six distinct catalogues; therefore, -the conclusion that Cricket was unknown when those lists were made -would indeed appear utterly irresistible, only--_audi semper alteram -partem_--in this case the argument would prove too much; for it would -equally prove that Club-ball and Trap-ball were undiscovered too, -whereas both these games are confessedly as old as the thirteenth -century! - -The conclusion of all this is, that the oft-repeated assertions that -Cricket is a game no older than the eighteenth century is erroneous: -for, first, the thing itself may be much older than its name; and, -secondly, the “silence of antiquity” is no conclusive evidence that -even the name of Cricket was really unknown. - -Thus do we refute those who assert a negative as to the antiquity of -cricket: and now for our affirmative; and we are prepared to show-- - -First, that a single-wicket game was played as early as the thirteenth -century, under the name of Club-ball. - -Secondly, that it might have been identical with a sport of the same -date called “Handyn and Handoute.” - -Thirdly, that a genuine double-wicket game was played in Scotland -about 1700, under the name of “Cat and Dog.” - -Fourthly, that “Creag,”--very near “Cricce,” the Saxon term for -the crooked stick, or bandy, which we see in the old pictures of -cricket,--was the name of a game played in the year 1300. - -First, as to a single-wicket game in the thirteenth century, whatever -the name of the said game might have been, we are quite satisfied with -the following proof:-- - -“In the Bodleian Library at Oxford,” says Strutt, “is a MS. (No. 264.) -dated 1344, which represents a figure, a female, in the act of bowling -a ball (of the size of a modern cricket-ball) to a man who elevates -a straight bat to strike it; behind the bowler are several figures, -male and female, waiting to stop or catch the ball, their attitudes -grotesquely eager for a ‘chance.’ The game is called Club-ball, but the -score is made by hitting and running, as in cricket.” - -Secondly, Barrington, in his “Remarks on the More Ancient Statutes,” -comments on 17 Edw. IV. A.D. 1477, thus:-- - -“The disciplined soldiers were not only guilty of pilfering on their -return, but also of the vice of gaming. The third chapter therefore -forbids playing at cloish, ragle, half-bowle, quekeborde, _handyn and -handoute_. Whosoever shall permit these games to be played in their -house or yard is punishable with three years’ imprisonment; those who -play at any of the said games are to be fined 10_l._, or lie in jail -two years.” - -“This,” says Barrington, “is the most severe law ever made in any -country against gaming; and, some of those forbidden seem to have -been manly exercises, particularly the “handyn and handoute,” which I -should suppose to be a kind of _cricket_, as the term _hands_ is still -(writing in 1740) retained in that game.” - -Thirdly, as to the double-wicket game, Dr. Jamieson, in his Dictionary, -published in 1722, gives the following account of a game played in -Angus and Lothian:-- - -“This is a game for three players at least, who are furnished with -clubs. They cut out two holes, each about a foot in diameter and seven -inches in depth, and twenty-six feet apart; one man guards each hole -with his club; these clubs are called Dogs. A piece of wood, about four -inches long and one inch in diameter, called a Cat, is pitched, by a -third person, from one hole towards the player at the other, who is to -prevent the cat from getting into the hole. If it pitches in the hole, -the party who threw it takes his turn with the club. If the cat be -struck, the club-bearers change places, and each change of place counts -one to the score, _like club-ball_.” - -The last observation shows that in the game of Club-ball -above-mentioned, the score was made by “runs,” as in cricket. - -In what respect, then, do these games differ from cricket as played -now? The only exception that can be taken is to the absence of any -wicket. But every one familiar with a paper given by Mr. Ward, and -published in “Old Nyren,” by the talented Mr. C. Cowden Clarke, will -remember that the traditionary “blockhole” was a veritable hole in -former times, and that the batsman was made Out in running, not, as -now, by putting down a wicket, but by popping the ball into the hole -before the bat was grounded in it. The same paper represents that the -wicket was two feet wide,--a width which is only rendered credible -by the fact that the said hole was not like our mark for guard, four -feet distant from the stumps, but cut like a basin in the turf between -the stumps; an arrangement which would require space for the frequent -struggle of the batsman and wicket-keeper, as to whether the bat of the -one, or the hand of the other, should reach the blockhole first. - -The conclusion of all is, that Cricket is identical with Club-ball,--a -game played in the thirteenth century as single-wicket, and played, if -not then, somewhat later as a double-wicket game; that where balls were -scarce, a Cat, or bit of wood, as seen in many a village, supplied its -place; also that “handyn and handoute” was probably only another name. -Fosbroke, in his Dictionary of Antiquities, said, “club-ball was the -ancestor of cricket:” he might have said, “club-ball was the old name -for cricket, the games being the same.” - -The points of difference are not greater than every cricketer can show -between the game as now played and that of the last century. - -But, lastly, as to the name of Cricket. The bat, which is now straight, -is represented in old pictures as crooked, and “cricce” is the simple -Saxon word for a crooked stick. The derivation of Billiards from the -Norman _billart_, a cue, or from _ball-yard_, according to Johnson, -also Nine-pins and Trap-ball, are obvious instances of games which -derived their names from the implements with which they are played. Now -it appears highly probable that the crooked stick used in the game of -Bandy might have been gradually adopted, especially when a wicket to be -bowled down by a rolling ball superseded the blockhole to be pitched -into. In that case the club having given way to the bandy or crooked -bat of the last century, the game, which first was named from the club -“club-ball,” might afterwards have been named from the bandy or crooked -stick “cricket.” - -Add to which, the game might have been played in two ways,--sometimes -more in the form of Club-ball, sometimes more like Cricket; and the -following remarkable passage proves that a term very similar to Cricket -was applied to some game as far back as the thirteenth century, the -identical date to which we have traced that form of cricket called -club-ball and the game of handyn and handoute. - -From the Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. lviii. p. 1., A.D. 1788, we extract -the following:-- - -“In the wardrobe account of the 28th year of King Edward the First, -A.D. 1300, published in 1787 by the Society of Antiquaries, among the -entries of money paid one Mr. John Leek, his chaplain, for the use of -his son Prince Edward in playing at different games, is the following:-- - -“‘Domino Johanni de Leek, capellano Domini Edwardi fil’ ad _Creag’_ et -alios ludos per vices, per manus proprias, 100 s. Apud Westm. 10 die -Aprilis, 1305.’” - -The writer observes, that the glossaries have been searched in vain -for any other name of a pastime but cricket to which the term Creag’ -can apply. And why should it not be Cricket? for, we have a singular -evidence that, at the same date, Merlin the Magician was a cricketer! - -In the romance of “Merlin,” a book in very old French, written about -the time of Edward I., is the following:-- - -“Two of his (Vortiger’s) emissaries fell in with certain children who -were playing at _cricket_.”--Quoted in Dunlop’s “History of Fiction.” - -The word here rendered _cricket_ is _la crosse_; and in Richelet’s -Dict. of Ant. 1680, are these words: - -“_Crosse_, à Crosier. Bâton de bois courbé par le bout d’en haut, dont -on se sert pour jouer ou pousser quelque balle.” - -“_Crosseur_, qui pousse--‘_Cricketer_.’” - -Creag’ and Cricket, therefore, being presumed identical, the cricketers -of Warwick and of Gloucester may be reminded that they are playing -the same game as was played by the dauntless enemy of Robert Bruce, -afterwards the prisoner at Kenilworth, and eventually the victim of -Mortimer’s ruffians in the dark tragedy of Berkeley Castle. - -To advert to a former observation that cricket was originally confined -to the lower orders, Robert Southey notes, C. P. Book. iv. 201., that -cricket was not deemed a game for gentlemen in the middle of the last -century. Tracing this allusion to “The Connoisseur,” No. 132. dated -1756, we are introduced to one Mr. Toby Bumper, whose vulgarities are, -“drinking purl in the morning, eating black-puddings at Bartholomew -Fair, boxing with Buckhorse,” and also that “he is frequently engaged -at the Artillery Ground with Faukner and Dingate _at cricket_, and -is esteemed as good a bat as either of the Bennets.” Dingate will be -mentioned as an All-England player in our third chapter. - -And here we must observe that at the very date that a cricket-ground -was thought as low as a modern skittle-alley, we read that even - - “Some Dukes at Mary’bone _bowled_ time away;” - -and also that a Duchess of Devonshire could be actually watching the -play of her guests in the skittle-alley till nine o’clock in the -evening. - -Our game in later times, we know, has constituted the pastime and -discipline of many an English soldier. Our barracks are now provided -with cricket grounds; every regiment and every man-of-war has its club; -and our soldiers and sailors astonish the natives of every clime, both -inland and maritime, with a specimen of a British game: and it deserves -to be better known that it was at a cricket match that “some of our -officers were amusing themselves on the 12th June, 1815,” says Captain -Gordon, “in company with that devoted cricketer the Duke of Richmond, -when the Duke of Wellington arrived, and shortly after came the Prince -of Orange, which of course put a stop to our game. Though the hero -of the Peninsula was not apt to let his movements be known, on this -occasion he made no secret that, if he were attacked from the south, -Halle would be his position, and, if on the Namur side, WATERLOO.” - - - - -CHAP II. - -THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. - - -The game of cricket, philosophically considered, is a standing -panegyric on the English character: none but an orderly and sensible -race of people would so amuse themselves. It calls into requisition -all the cardinal virtues, some moralist would say. As with the Grecian -games of old, the player must be sober and temperate. Patience, -fortitude, and self-denial, the various bumps of order, obedience, -and good-humour, with an unruffled temper, are indispensable. For -intellectual virtues we want judgment, decision, and the organ of -concentrativeness--every faculty in the free use of all its limbs--and -every idea in constant air and exercise. Poor, rickety, and stunted -wits will never serve: the widest shoulders are of little use without -a head upon them: the cricketer wants wits down to his fingers’ ends. -As to physical qualifications, we require not only the volatile spirits -of the Irishman _Rampant_, nor the phlegmatic caution of the Scotchman -_Couchant_, but we want the English combination of the two; though, -with good generalship, cricket is a game for Britons generally: the -three nations would mix not better in a regiment than in an eleven; -especially if the Hibernian were trained in London, and taught to enjoy -something better than what Father Prout terms his supreme felicity, -“Otium cum dig-_gin-taties_.” - -It was from the southern and south-eastern counties of England that the -game of Cricket spread--not a little owing to the Propaganda of the -metropolitan clubs, which played chiefly first at the Artillery Ground, -then at White Conduit Fields, and thirdly at Thomas Lord’s Grounds, (of -which there were two before the present “Lord’s,”) as well as latterly -at the Oval, Kennington, and on all sides of London--through all the -southern half of England; and during these last twenty years the -northern counties, and even Edinburgh, have sent forth distinguished -players. But considering that the complement of the game is twenty-two -men, besides two Umpires and two Scorers; and considering also that -cricket, unlike every other manly contest, by flood or field, occupies -commonly more than one day; the railways, as might be expected, have -tended wonderfully to the diffusion of cricket,--giving rise to clubs -depending on a circle of some thirty or forty miles, as also to that -club in particular under the canonised saint, John Zingari, into whom -are supposed to have migrated all the erratic spirits of the gipsy -tribe. The Zingari are a race of ubiquitous cricketers, exclusively -gentlemen-players; for cricket affords to a race of professionals a -merry and abundant, though rather a laborious livelihood, from the -time the first May-fly is up to the time the first pheasant is down. -Neither must we forget the All England and United Elevens, who, -under the generalship of Clarke or Wisden, play numbers varying from -fourteen to twenty-two in almost every county in England. So proud -are provincial clubs of this honour that, besides a subscription of -some 70_l._, and part or all of the money at the field-gate being -willingly accorded for their services, much hospitality is exercised -wherever they go. This tends to a healthy circulation of the life’s -blood of cricket, vaccinating and inoculating every wondering rustic -with the principles of the national game. Our soldiers, we said, by -order of the Horse Guards, are provided with cricket-grounds adjoining -their barracks; and all of her Majesty’s ships have bats and balls to -astonish the cockroaches at sea, and the crabs and turtles ashore. -Hence it has come to pass that, wherever her Majesty’s servants have -“carried their victorious arms” and legs, wind and weather permitting, -cricket has been played. Still the game is essentially Anglo-Saxon. -Foreigners have rarely, very rarely, imitated us. The English settlers -and residents everywhere play; but of no single cricket club have we -ever heard dieted either with frogs, sour crout, or macaroni. But how -remarkable that cricket is not naturalised in Ireland! the fact is -very striking that it follows the course rather of ale than whiskey. -Witness Kent, the land of hops, and the annual antagonists of “All -England.” Secondly, Farnham, which, as we shall presently show, with -its adjoining parishes, nurtured the finest of the old players, as -well as the finest hops,--_cunabula Trojæ_, the infant school of -cricketers. Witness also the Burton Clubs, assisted by our excellent -friend next akin to bitter ale. Witness again Alton ale, on which old -Beagley throve so well, and the Scotch ale of Edinburgh, on which -John Sparkes, though commencing with the last generation, has carried -on his instructions, in which we ourselves once rejoiced, into the -middle of the present century. The mountain mists and “mountain dew” -suit better with deer-stalking than with cricket: our game disdains -the Dutch courage of ardent spirits. The brain must glow with Nature’s -fire, and not depend upon a spirit lamp. _Mens sana in corpore sano_: -feed the body, but do not cloud the mind. You, sir, with the hectic -flush, the fire of your eyes burnt low in their sockets, with beak as -sharp as a woodcock’s from living upon suction, with pallid face and -shaky hand,--our game disdains such ghostlike votaries. Rise with the -lark and scent the morning air, and drink from the bubbling rill, and -then, when your veins are no longer fevered with alcohol, nor puffed -with tobacco smoke,--when you have rectified your illicit spirits -and clarified your unsettled judgment,--“come again and devour up my -discourse.” And you, sir, with the figure of Falstaff and the nose -of Bardolph,--not Christianly eating that you may live, but living -that you may eat,--one of the _nati consumere fruges_, the devouring -caterpillar and grub of human kind--our noble game has no sympathy with -gluttony, still less with the habitual “diner out,” on whom outraged -nature has taken vengeance, by emblazoning what was his face (_nimium -ne crede colori_), encasing each limb in fat, and condemning him to -be his own porter to the end of his days. “Then I am your man--and -I--and I,” cry a crowd of self-satisfied youths: “sound are we in wind -and limb, and none have quicker hand or eye.” Gently, my friends, so -far well; good hands and eyes are instruments indispensable, but only -instruments. There is a wide difference between a good workman and a -bag of tools, however sharp. We must have heads as well as hands. You -may be big enough and strong enough, but the question is whether, as -Virgil says, - - “_Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus_ - _Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet._” - -And, in these lines, Virgil truly describes the right sort of man for -a cricketer: plenty of life in him: not barely soul enough, as Robert -South said, to keep his body from putrefaction; but, however large his -stature, though he weigh twenty stone, like (we will not say Mr. Mynn), -but an olden wicket-keeper, named Burt, or a certain _infant_ genius in -the same line, of good Cambridge town,--he must, like these worthies -aforesaid, have νους in perfection, and be instinct with sense all -over. Then, says Virgil, _igneus est ollis vigor_: “they must always -have the steam up,” otherwise the bard would have agreed with us, they -are no good in an Eleven, because-- - - “_Noxia corpora tardant,_ - _Terrenique hebetant artus, moribundaque membra;_” - -that is, you must suspend the laws of gravitation before they can -stir,--dull clods of the valley, and so many stone of carrion; and -then Virgil proceeds to describe what discipline will render those, -who suffer the penalties of idleness or intemperance, fit to join the -chosen _few_ in the cricket-field: - - “_Exinde per amplum_ - _Mittimur Elysium et pauci læta arva tenemus._” - -Of course _Elysium_ means “Lords,” and _læta arva_, “the shooting -fields.” We make no apology for classical quotations. At the -Universities, cricket and scholarship very generally go together. -When, in 1836, we played victoriously on the side of Oxford against -Cambridge, seven out of our eleven were classmen; and, it is doubtless -only to avoid an invidious distinction that “Heads _v._ Heels,” as was -once suggested, has failed to be an annual University match; though the -_seri studiorum_--those put to school late--would not have a chance. We -extract the following:-- - - “In a late Convocation holden at Oxford, May 30, 1851, it was - agreed to affix the University seal to a power of attorney - authorising the sale of 2000_l._ three per cent. consols, for - the purpose of paying for and enclosing certain allotments of - land in Cowley Common, used as cricket grounds by members of - the University, in order to their being preserved for that - purpose, and let to the several University cricket clubs in - such manner as may hereafter appear expedient.” - -From all this we argue that, on the authority of ancient and the -experience of modern times, cricket wants mind as well as matter, -and, in every sense of the word, a good understanding. How is it that -Clarke’s slow bowling is so successful? ask Bayley or Caldecourt; or -say Bayley’s own bowling, or that of Lillywhite, or others not much -indebted to pace. “You see, sir, they bowl with their heads.” Then -only is the game worthy the notice of full-grown men. “A rubber of -whist,” says the author of the “Diary of a late Physician,” in his “Law -Studies,” “calls into requisition all those powers of mind that a -barrister most needs;” and nearly as much may be said of a scientific -game of cricket. Mark that first-rate bowler: the batsman is hankering -for his favourite cut--no--leg stump is attacked again--extra man on -leg side--right--that’s the spot--leg stump, and not too near him. -He is screwed up, and cannot cut away; Point has it--persevere--try -again--his patience soon will fail. Ah! look at that ball;--the bat was -more out of the perpendicular--now the bowler alters his pace--good. A -dropping ball--over-reached and all but a mistake;--now a slower pace -still, with extra twist--hits furiously to leg, too soon. Leg-stump is -grazed, and bail off. “You see, sir,” says the veteran, turning round, -“an old player, who knows what is, and what is not, on the ball, alone -can resist all the temptations that leg-balls involve. Young players -are going their round of experiments, and are too fond of admiration -and brilliant hits; whereas it is your upright straight players that -worry a bowler--twenty-two inches of wood, by four and a quarter--every -inch of them before the stumps, hitting or blocking, is rather -disheartening; but the moment a man makes ready for a leg hit, only -about five inches by four of wood can cover the wicket; so leg-hitting -is the bowler’s chance: cutting also for a similar reason. If there -were no such thing as leg-hitting, we should see a full bat every time, -the man steady on his legs, and only one thing to think of; and what a -task a bowler would have. That was Mr. Ward’s play--good for something -to the last. First-rate straight play and free leg-hitting seldom last -long together: when once exulting in the luxurious excitement of a leg -volley, the muscles are always on the quiver to swipe round, and the -bowler sees the bat raised more and more across wicket. So, also, it is -with men who are yearning for a cut: forming for the cut, like forming -for leg-hit--aye, and almost the idea of those hits coming across the -mind--set the muscles off straight play, and give the bowler a chance. -There is a deal of head-work in bowling: once make your batsman set his -mind on one hit, and give him a ball requiring the contrary, and he is -off his guard in a moment.” - -Certainly, there is something highly intellectual in our noble and -national pastime. But the cricketer must possess other qualifications; -not only physical and intellectual, but moral qualifications also. -Of what avail is the head to plan and hand to execute, if a sulky -temper paralyses exertion, and throws a damp upon the field; or if -impatience dethrones judgment, and the man hits across at good balls, -because loose balls are long in coming; or, again, if a contentious and -imperious disposition leaves the cricketer all ‘alone in his glory,’ -voted the pest of every eleven? - -The pest of the hunting-field is the man always thinking of his own -horse and own riding, galloping against MEN and not after HOUNDS. -The pest of the cricket-field is the man who bores you about his -average--his wickets--his catches; and looks blue even at the success -of his own party. If unsuccessful in batting or fielding, he gives -up all--“the wretch concentred all in self.” No! Give me the man who -forgets himself in the game, and, missing a ball, does not stop to -exculpate himself by dumb show, but rattles away after it--who does -not blame his partner when he is run out--who plays like play and -not like a painful operation. Such a chilly, bleak, northwest aspect -some men do put on--it is absurd to say they are enjoying themselves. -We all know it is trying to be out first ball. “Oh! that first look -back at rattling stumps--why, I couldn’t have had right guard!”--that -conviction that the ball turned, or but for some unaccountable -suspension of the laws of motion (the earth perhaps coming to a -hitch upon its ungreased axis) it had not happened! Then there’s the -spoiling of your average, (though some begin again and reckon anew!) -and a sad consciousness that every critic in the three tiers of the -Pavilion, as he coolly speculates “_quis cuique dolor victo, quæ -gloria palmæ_,” knows your mortification. Oh! that sad walk back, a -“returned convict;” we must all pace it, “_calcanda semel via leti_.” -A man is sure never to take his eyes off the ground, and if there’s -a bit of stick in the way he kicks it instinctively with the side of -his shoe. Add, that cruel _post mortem_ examination into your “case,” -and having to answer the old question, How was it? or perhaps forced -to argue with some vexatious fellow who imputes it to the very fault -on which you are so sore and sensitive. All this is trying; but since -it is always happening, an “inseparable accident” of the game, it is -time that an unruffled temper should be held the “differentia” of the -true cricketer and bad temper voted bad play. Eleven good-tempered -men, other points equal, would beat eleven sulky or eleven irritable -gentlemen out of the field. The hurling of bats and angry ebullitions -show inexperience in the game and its chances; as if any man in England -could always catch, or stop, or score. This very uncertainty gives the -game its interest. If Pilch or Parr were sure of runs, who would care -to play? But as they make sometimes five and sometimes fifty, we still -contend with flesh and blood. Even Achilles was vulnerable at the heel; -or, mythologically, he could not stop a shooter to the leg stump. So -never let the Satan icagency of the gaming-table brood on those “happy -fields” where, _strenua nos exercet inertia_, there is an energy in -our idle hours, not killing time but enjoying it. Look at good honest -James Dean; his “patient merit” never “goes Out sighing” nor In, -either--never in a mumbling, though a “melting mood.” Perspiration may -roll off him, like bubbles from a duck’s back, but it’s all down to the -day’s work. He looks, as every cricketer should look, like a man out -for a holiday, shut up in “measureless content.” It is delightful to -see such a man make a score. - -Add to all this, perseverance and self-denial, and a soul above -vain-glory and the applause of the vulgar. Aye, perseverance in -well-doing--perseverance in a straightforward, upright, and consistent -course of action.--See that player practising apart from the rest. What -an unpretending style of play--a hundred pounds appear to depend on -every ball--not a hit for these five minutes--see, he has a shilling on -his stumps, and Hillyer is doing his best to knock it off. A question -asked after every ball, the bowler being constantly invited to remind -him of the least inaccuracy in hitting or danger in defence. The -other players are hitting all over the field, making every one (but -a good judge) marvel. Our friend’s reward is that in the first good -match, when some supposed brilliant Mr. Dashwood has been stumped from -leg ball--(he cannot make his fine hits in his ground)--bowled by a -shooter or caught by that sharpest of all Points Ἄναξ ἄνδρων, then our -persevering friend--ball after ball dropping harmless from his bat, -till ever and anon a single or a double are safely played away--has -two figures appended to his name; and he is greeted in the Pavilion as -having turned the chances of the game in favour of his side. - -Conceit in a cricketer, as in other things, is a bar to all -improvement--the vain-glorious is always thinking of the lookers-on, -instead of the game, and generally is condemned to live on the -reputation of one skying leg-hit, or some twenty runs off three or four -overs (his merriest life is a short one) for half a season. - -In one word, there is no game in which amiability and an unruffled -temper is so essential to success, or in which virtue is rewarded, -half as much as in the game of cricket. Dishonest or shuffling ways -cannot prosper; the umpires will foil every such attempt--those truly -constitutional judges, bound by a code of written laws--and the -public opinion of a cricket club, militates against his preferment. -For cricket is a social game. Could a cricketer play a solo, or with -a dummy (other than the catapult), he might play in humour or out of -humour; but an Eleven is of the nature of those commonwealths of which -Cicero said that, without some regard to the cardinal virtues, they -could not possibly hold together. - -Such a national game as cricket will both humanise and harmonise the -people. It teaches a love of order, discipline, and fair play for -the pure honour and glory of victory. The cricketer is a member of a -wide fraternity: if he is the best man in his club, and that club is -the best club in the county, he has the satisfaction of knowing his -high position, and may aspire to represent some large and powerful -constituency at Lord’s. How spirit-stirring are the gatherings of rival -counties! And I envy not the heart that glows not with delight at -eliciting the sympathies of exulting thousands, when all the country is -thronging to its battle-field studded with flags and tents. Its very -look makes the heart beat for the fortune of the play; and for miles -around the old coachman waves his whip above his head with an air of -infinite importance if he can only be the herald of the joyous tidings, -“We’ve won the day.” - -Games of some kind men must have, and it is no small praise of cricket -that it occupies the place of less innocent sports. Drinking, gambling, -and cudgel-playing, insensibly disappear as you encourage a manly -recreation which draws the labourer from the dark haunts of vice and -misery to the open common, where - - “The squire or parson o’ the parish, - Or the attorney,” - -may raise him, without lowering themselves, by taking an interest, -if not a part, in his sports. “Nature abhors a vacuum,” especially of -mirth and merriment, resenting the folly of those who would disdain -her bounties by that indifference and apathy which mark a very dull -boy indeed. Nature designed us to sport and play at cricket as truly -as to eat and drink. Without sport you have no healthful exercise: to -refresh the body you must relax the mind. Observe the pale dyspeptic -student ruminating on his logic, algebra, or political economy while -describing his periodical revolutions around his college garden or on -Constitution Hill: then turn aside and gladden your eyes and ears with -the buoyant spirits and exulting energies of Bullingdon or Lord’s. See -how nature rebels against “an airing,” or a milestone-measured walk! -While following up a covey, or the windings of a trout-stream, we cross -field after field unconscious of fatigue, and retain so pleasing a -recollection of the toil, that years after, amidst the din and hum of -men, we brighten at the thought, and yearn as did the poet near two -thousand years ago, in the words,-- - - “_O rus, quando te aspiciam, quandoque licebit,_ - _Ducere sollicitæ jucunda oblivia vitæ._” - -That an intelligent and responsible being should live only for -amusement, is an error indeed, and one which brings its own punishment -in that sinking of the heart when the cup is drained to the dregs, and -pleasures cease to please. - - “_Nec lusisse pudet sed non incidere ludum._” - -Still field-sports, in their proper season, are Nature’s kind provision -to smooth the frown from the brow, to allay “life’s fitful fever,” to-- - - “Raze out the written troubles of the brain, - And by some sweet oblivious antidote - Cleanse the stuffed bosom from that perilous stuff, - Which weighs upon the heart.” - -And words are these, not a whit too strong for those who live laborious -days, in this high-pressure generation. And, who does not feel his -daily burthen lightened, while enjoying, _pratorum viva voluptas_, the -joyous spirits and good fellowship of the cricket-field, those sunny -hours when “the valleys laugh and sing,” and, between the greensward -beneath and the blue sky above, you hear a hum of happy myriads -enjoying their brief span too! - -Who can describe that tumult of the breast, described by Æschylus, - - ----νεαρὸς μυελὸς στέρνων - ἐντὸς ἀνάσσων-- - -those yearning energies which find in this sport their genial exercise! - -How generous and social is our enjoyment! Every happy moment,--the -bail springing from the bat, the sharp catch sounding in the palm, -long reach or sudden spring and quick return, the exulting throw, or -bails and wicket flying,--these all are joys enhanced by sympathy, -purely reflected from each other’s eyes. In the cricket-field, as by -the cover’s side, the sport is in the free and open air and light of -heaven. No incongruity of tastes nor rude collision interferes. None -minds that another, how “unmannerly” soever, should “pass betwixt the -wind and his nobility.” One common interest makes common feeling, -fusing heart with heart, thawing the frostwork of etiquette, and -strengthening those silken ties which bind man to man. - -Society has its ranks and classes. These distinctions we believe to be -not artificial, but natural, even as the very courses and strata of the -earth itself. Lines there are, nicely graduated, ordained to separate, -what Burns calls, the tropics of nobility and affluence, from the -temperate zones of a comfortable independence, and the Arctic circles -of poverty: but these lines are nowhere less marked, because nowhere -less wanted, than in the cricket-field. There we can waive for awhile -the precedence of birth,-- - - “Contented with the rank that merit gives.” - -And many an humble spirit, from this temporary preferment, learning -the pleasure of superiority and well-earned applause, carries the same -honest emulation into his daily duties. The cricket-field suggests a -new version of the words - - “_Æqua tellus_ - _Pauperi recluditur_ - _Regumque pueris._” - -“A fair stage and no favour.” Kerseymere disdains not corduroys, nor -fine clothes fustian. The cottager stumps out his landlord; scholars -dare to beat their masters; and sons catch out those fathers who so -often _catch out_ them. William Beldham was many hours in the day “as -good a man” as even Lord Frederick Beauclerk; and the gallant Duke of -Richmond would descend from his high estate to contest the palm of -manly prowess with his humblest tenantry, so far acknowledging with -Robert Burns,-- - - “The rank is but the guinea stamp. - The man’s the gowd for a’ that.” - -Cricket forms no debasing habits: unlike the bull-fights of Spain, and -the earlier sports of England, it is suited to the softer feelings of -a refined age. No living creature suffers for our sport: no frogs or -minnows impaled, or worms writhing upon fish-hooks,--no hare screaming -before the hounds,--no wounded partridge cowering in its agony, haunts -the imagination to qualify our pleasure. - -Cricket lies within the reach of average powers. A good head will -compensate for hand and heels. It is no monopoly for a gifted few, nor -are we soon superannuated. It affords scope for a great diversity -of talent. Bowling, fielding, wicket-keeping, free hitting, safe and -judicious play, and good generalship--in one of these points many a man -has earned a name, though inferior in the rest. There are good batsmen -and the best of fields among near-sighted men, and hard hitters among -weak and crippled men; in weight, nine stone has proved not too little -for a first-rate, nor eighteen stone too much; and, as to age, Mr. Ward -at sixty, Mr. E. H. Budd at sixty-five, and old John Small at seventy -years of age, were useful men in good elevens. - -Cricket is a game available to poor as well as rich; it has no -privileged class. Unlike shooting, hunting, or yachting, there is no -leave to ask, licence to buy, nor costly establishment to support: -the game is free and common as the light and air in which it is -played,--the poor man’s portion: with the poorer classes it originated, -played “after hours” on village greens, and thence transplanted to -patrician lawns. - -We extract the following:-- - - “The judge of the Brentford County Court has decided that - cricket is a legal game, so as to render the stakeholder liable - in an action for the recovery of the stakes, in a case where - one of the parties had refused to play.” - -Cricket is not solely a game of skill--chance has sway enough to leave -the vanquished an _if_ and a _but_. A long innings bespeaks good play; -but “out the first ball” is no disgrace. A game, to be really a game, -really playful, should admit of chance as well as skill. It is the bane -of chess that its character is too severe--to lose its games is to lose -your character; and most painful of all, to be outwitted in a fair and -undeniable contest of long-headedness, tact, manœuvring, and common -sense--qualities in which no man likes to come off second best. Hence -the restless nights and unforgiving state of mind that often follows a -checkmate. Hence that “agony of rage and disappointment from which,” -said Sydney Smith, “the Bishop of ---- broke my head with a chess-board -fifty years ago at college.” - -But did we say that ladies, famed as some have been in the hunting -field, know anything of cricket too? Not often; though I could have -mentioned two,--the wife and daughter of the late William Ward, all -three now no more, who could tell you--the daughter especially--the -forte and the failing of every player at Lord’s. I accompanied them -home one evening, to see some records of the game, to their humble -abode in Connaught Terrace, where many an ornament reminded me of the -former magnificence of the Member for the City, the Bank Director, -and the great Russia merchant; and I thought of his mansion in the -once not unfashionable Bloomsbury Square, the banqueting room of -which many a Wykehamist has cause to remember; for when famed, as -the Wykehamists were, for the quickest and best of fielding, they -had won their annual match at Lord’s (and twenty years since they -rarely lost), Mr. Ward would bear away triumphantly the winners to -end the day with him. But, talking of the ladies, to say nothing of -Miss Willes, who revived overhand bowling, their natural powers of -criticism, if honestly consulted, would, we think, tell some home -truths to a certain class of players who seem to forget that, to be a -Cricketer one must still be a man; and that a manly, graceful style -of play is worth something independently of its effect on the score. -Take the case of the Skating Club. Will they elect a man because, in -spite of arms and legs centrifugally flying, he can do some tricks of -a posture-master, however wonderful? No! elegance in simple movements -is the first thing: without elegance nothing counts. And so should -it be with cricket. I have seen men, accounted players, quite as -bad as some of the cricketers in Mr. Pips’s diary. “Pray, Lovell,” -I once heard, “have I the right guard?” “Guard indeed! Yes! keep on -looking as ugly and as awkward as you are now, and no man in England -can bowl for fright!” _Apropos_, one of the first hints in archery -is, “don’t make faces when you pull your bow.” Now we do seriously -entreat those young ladies, into whose hands this book may fall, to -profess, on our authority, that they are judges of the game as far as -appearance goes; and also that they will quiz, banter, tease, lecture, -never-leave-alone, and otherwise plague and worry all such brothers or -husbands as they shall see enacting those anatomical contortions, which -too often disgrace the game of cricket. - -Cricket, we said, is a game chiefly of skill, but partly of chance. -Skill avails enough for interest, and not too much for friendly -feeling. No game is played in better humour--never lost till won--the -game’s alive till the last ball. For the most part, there is so little -to ruffle the temper, or to cause unpleasant collision, that there is -no place so free from temptation--no such happy plains or lands of -innocence--as our cricket-fields. We give bail for our good behaviour -from the moment that we enter them. Still, a cricket-field is a sphere -of wholesome discipline in obedience and good order; not to mention -that manly spirit which faces danger without shrinking, and bears -disappointment with good nature. Disappointment! and say where is there -more poignant disappointment, while it lasts, than, after all your -practice for a match, and anxious thought and resolution to avoid every -chance, and score off every possible ball, to be balked and run out, -caught at the slip, or stumped even off a shooter. “The course of true -love (even for cricket) never did run smooth.” Old Robinson, one of -the finest batsmen of his day, had six unlucky innings in succession: -once caught by Hammond, from a draw; then bowled with shooters, or -picked up at short slip: the poor fellow said he had lost all his play, -thinking “the fault is in ourselves, and not our stars;” and was with -difficulty persuaded to play one match more, in which--whose heart does -not rejoice to hear?--he made one hundred and thirty runs! - -“But, as to stirring excitement,” writes a friend, “what can surpass -a hardly-contested match, when you have been manfully playing an -uphill game, and gradually the figures on the telegraph keep telling -a better and a better tale, till at last the scorers stand up and -proclaim a tie, and you win the game by a single and rather a nervous -wicket, or by five or ten runs! If in the field with a match of this -sort, and trying hard to prevent these few runs being knocked off by -the last wickets, I know of no excitement so intense for the time, or -which lasts so long afterwards. The recollection of these critical -moments will make the heart jump for years and years to come; and it -is extraordinary to see the delight with which men call up these grand -moments to memory; and to be sure how they will talk and chatter, their -eyes glistening and pulses getting quicker, as if they were again -finishing ‘that rattling good match.’ People talk of the excitement of -a good run with the Quorn or Belvoir hunt. I have now and then tumbled -in for these good things; and, as far as my own feelings go, I can -safely say that a fine run is not to be compared to a good match; and -the excitement of the keenest sportsman is nothing either in intensity -or duration to that caused by a ‘near thing’ at cricket. The next -good run takes the place of the other; whereas hard matches, like the -snow-ball, gather as they go. This is my decided opinion; and that -after watching and weighing the subject for some years. I have seen men -tremble and turn pale at a near match, - - ‘_Quum spes arrectæ juvenum exultantiaque haurit_ - _Corda pavor pulsans_’-- - -while, through the field, the deepest and most awful silence reigns, -unbroken but by some nervous fieldsman humming a tune or snapping his -fingers to hide his agitation.” - -“What a glorious sensation it is,” writes Miss Mitford, in ‘Our -Village,’ “to be winning, winning, winning! Who would think that a -little bit of leather and two pieces of wood had such a delightful and -delighting power?” - - - - -CHAP. III. - -THE HAMBLEDON CLUB AND THE OLD PLAYERS. - - -What have become of the old scores and the earliest records of the game -of cricket? Bentley’s Book of Matches gives the principal games from -the year 1786; but where are the earlier records of matches made by -Dehaney, Paulet, and Sir Horace Mann? All burnt! - -What the destruction of Rome and its records by the Gauls was to -Niebuhr,--what the fire of London was to the antiquary in his walk -from Pudding Lane to Pie Corner, such was the burning of the Pavilion -at Lord’s, and all the old score books--it is a mercy that the old -painting of the M.C.C. was saved--to the annalist of cricket. “When -we were built out by Dorset Square,” says Mr. E. H. Budd, “we played -for three years where the Regent’s Canal has since been cut, and still -called our ground ‘Lord’s,’ and our dining-room ‘the Pavilion.’” -Here many a time have I looked over the old papers of Dehaney and -Sir H. Mann; but the room was burnt, and the old scores perished -in the flames. The following are curious as the two oldest scores -preserved,--one of the North, the other of the South:-- - -NAMES OF THE PERSONS WHO PLAYED AGAINST SHEFFIELD. - -In 1771 at NOTTINGHAM, and 1772 at SHEFFIELD. - -Nottingham, Aug. 26, 1771. - - Huthwayte - Turner - Loughman - Coleman - Roe - Spurr - Stocks - Collishaw - Troop - Mew - Rawson. - - Sheffield. | Nottingham. - 1st inn. 81 | 1st inn. 76 - 2nd 62 | 2nd 112 - 3rd 105 | - ---- | ---- - 248 | 188 - -Tuesday, 9 o’clock, a.m. commenced, 8th man 0, 9th 5, 1 to come in, -and only 60 ahead, when the Sheffield left the field. - -Sheffield, June 1, 1772. - - Coleman - Turner - Loughman - Roe - Spurs - Stocks - Collishaw - Troop - Mew - Bamford - Gladwin. - - Nottingham. | Sheffield. - 1st inn. 14 | Near 70 - -Nottingham gave in. - -KENT AGAINST ALL ENGLAND. - -_Played in the Artillery-Ground, London, 1746._ - -ENGLAND. - - _1st Innings._ _2nd Innings._ - - RUNS. RUNS. - Harris 0 b by Hadswell 4 b by Mills. - Dingate 3 b Ditto 11 b Hadswell. - Newland 0 b Mills 3 b Ditto. - Cuddy 0 b Hadswell 2 b Danes. - Green 0 b Mills 5 b Mills. - Waymark 7 b Ditto 9 b Hadswell. - Bryan 12 s Kips 7 c Kips. - Newland 18 -- not out 15 c Ld. J. Sackville. - Harris 0 b Hadswell 1 b Hadswell. - Smith 0 c Bartrum 8 b Mills. - Newland 0 b Mills 5 -- not out. - Byes 0 Byes 0 - -- -- - 40 70 - -KENT. - - _1st Innings._ _2nd Innings._ - - RUNS. RUNS. - Lord Sackville 5 c by Waymark 3 b by Harris. - Long Robin 7 b Newland 9 b Newland. - Mills 0 b Harris 6 c Ditto. - Hadswell 0 b Ditto 5 -- not out. - Cutbush 3 c Green 7 -- not out. - Bartrum 2 b Newland 0 b Newland. - Danes 6 b Ditto 0 c Smith. - Sawyer 0 c Waymark 5 b Newland. - Kips 12 b Harris 10 b Harris. - Mills 7 -- not out 2 b Newland. - Romney 11 b Harris 8 c Harris. - Byes 0 Byes 3 - -- -- - 53 58 - -Cricket was introduced into Eton early in the last century. Horace -Walpole was sent to Eton in the year 1726. Playing cricket, as well as -thrashing bargemen, was common at that time. For in Walpole’s Letters, -vol. i. p. 4., he says,-- - -“I can’t say I am sorry I was never quite a school-boy; an expedition -against bargemen, or _a match at cricket_, may be very pretty things -to recollect; but, thank my stars, I can remember things that are very -near as pretty.” - -The fourth Earl of Carlisle learnt cricket at Eton at the same time. -The Earl writes to George Selwyn, even from Manheim, that he was up, -playing at cricket, before Selwyn was out of his bed. - -And now, the oldest chronicler is Old Nyren, who wrote an account of -the cricketers of his time. The said Old Nyren borrowed the pen of -our kind friend Charles Cowden Clarke, to whom John Keats dedicated -an epistle, and who rejoiced in the friendship of Charles Lamb; and -none but a spirit akin to Elia could have written like “Old Nyren.” -Nyren was a fine old English yeomen, whose chivalry was cricket; and -Mr. Clarke has faithfully recorded his vivid descriptions and animated -recollections. And, with this charming little volume in hand, and -inkhorn at my button, in 1837 I made a tour among the cottages of -William Beldham, and the few surviving worthies of the same generation; -and, having also the advantage of a MS. by the Rev. John Mitford, -taken from many a winter’s evening with Old Fennex, I am happy to -attempt the best account that the lapse of time admits, of cricket in -the olden time. - -From a MS. my friend received from the late Mr. William Ward, it -appears that the wickets were placed twenty-two yards apart as long -since as the year 1700; that stumps were then only one foot high, but -two feet wide. The width some persons have doubted; but it is rendered -credible by the auxiliary evidence that there was, in those days, -width enough between the two stumps for cutting the wide blockhole -already mentioned, and also because--whereas now we hear of stumps and -bails--we read formerly of “two stumps with one stump laid across.” - -We are informed, also, that putting down the wickets to make a man out -in running, instead of the old custom of popping the ball into the -hole, was adopted on account of severe injuries to the hands, and that -the wicket was changed at the same time--1779-1780--to the dimensions -of twenty-two inches by six, with a third stump added. - -Before this alteration the art of defence was almost unknown: balls -often passed over the wicket, and often passed through. At the time of -the alteration Old Nyren truly predicted that the innings would not be -shortened but better played. The long pod and curved form of the bat, -as seen in the old paintings, was made only for hitting, and for ground -balls too. Length balls were then by no means common; neither would -low stumps encourage them: and even upright play was then practised by -very few. Old Nyren relates that one Harry Hall, a gingerbread baker -of Farnham, gave peripatetic lectures to young players, and always -insisted on keeping the left elbow well up; in other words, on straight -play. “Now-a-days,” said Beldham, “all the world knows that; but when I -began there was very little length bowling, very little straight play, -and little defence either.” Fennex, said he, was the first who played -out at balls; before his day, batting was too much about the crease. -Beldham said that his own supposed tempting of Providence consisted -in running in to hit. “You do frighten me there jumping out of your -ground, said our Squire Paulet:” and Fennex used also to relate how, -when he played forward to the pitch of the ball, his father “had never -seen the like in all his days;” the said days extending a long way -back towards the beginning of the century. While speaking of going in -to hit, Beldham said, “My opinion has always been that too little -is attempted in that direction. Judge your ball, and, when the least -over-pitched, go in and hit her away.” In this opinion Mr. C. Taylor’s -practice would have borne Beldham out: and a fine dashing game this -makes; only, it is a game for none but practised players. When you are -perfect in playing in your ground, then, and then only, try how you can -play out of it, as the best means to scatter the enemy and open the -field. - -“As to bowling,” continued Beldham, “when I was a boy (about 1780), -nearly all bowling was fast, and all along the ground. In those days -the Hambledon Club could beat all England; but our three parishes -around Farnham at last beat Hambledon.” - -It is quite evident that Farnham was the cradle of cricketers. -“Surrey,” in the old scores, means nothing more than the Farnham -parishes. This corner of Surrey, in every match against All England, -was reckoned as part of Hampshire; and, Beldham truly said “you find us -regularly on the Hampshire side in Bentley’s Book.” - -“I told you, sir,” said Beldham, “that in my early days all bowling -was what we called fast, or at least a moderate pace. The first lobbing -slow bowler I ever saw was Tom Walker. When, in 1792, England played -Kent, I did feel so ashamed of such baby bowling; but, after all, he -did more than even David Harris himself. Two years after, in 1794, -at Dartford Brent, Tom Walker, with his slow bowling, headed a side -against David Harris, and beat him easily.” - -“Kent, in early times, was not equal to our counties. Their great man -was Crawte, and he was taken away from our parish of Alresford by -Mr. Amherst, the gentleman who made the Kent matches. In those days, -except around our parts, Farnham and the Surrey side of Hampshire, a -little play went a long way. Why, no man used to be more talked of than -Yalden; and, when he came among us, we soon made up our minds what the -rest of them must be. If you want to know, sir, the time the Hambledon -Club was formed, I can tell you by this;--when we beat them in 1780, I -heard Mr. Paulet say, ‘Here have I been thirty years raising our club, -and are we to be beaten by a mere parish?’ so, there must have been a -cricket club, that played every week regularly, as long ago as 1750. -We used to go as eagerly to a match as if it were two armies fighting; -we stood at nothing if we were allowed the time. From our parish to -Hambledon is twenty-seven miles, and we used to ride both ways the same -day, early and late. At last, I and John Wells were about building a -cart: you have heard of tax carts, sir; well, the tax was put on then, -and that stopped us. The members of the Hambledon Club had a caravan to -take their eleven about; they used once to play always in velvet caps. -Lord Winchelsea’s eleven used to play in silver laced hats; and always -the dress was knee-breeches and stockings. We never thought of knocks; -and, remember, I played against Browne of Brighton too. Certainly, you -would see a bump heave under the stocking, and even the blood come -through; but I never knew a man killed, now you ask the question, and I -never saw any accident of much consequence, though many an _all but_, -in my long experience. Fancy the old fashion before cricket shoes, when -I saw John Wells tear a finger nail off against his shoe-buckle in -picking up a ball!” - -“Your book, sir, says much about old Nyren. This Nyren was fifty years -old when I began to play; he was our general in the Hambledon matches; -but not half a player, as we reckon now. He had a small farm and inn -near Hambledon, and took care of the ground.” - -“I remember when many things first came into the game which are common -now. The law for Leg-before-wicket was not passed, nor much wanted, -till Ring, one of our best hitters, was shabby enough to get his leg -in the way, and take advantage of the bowlers; and, when Tom Taylor, -another of our best hitters, did the same, the bowlers found themselves -beaten, and the law was passed to make leg-before-wicket Out. The law -against jerking was owing to the frightful pace Tom Walker put on, -and I believe that he afterwards tried something more like the modern -throwing-bowling, and so caused the words against throwing also. Willes -was not the inventor of that kind of round bowling; he only revived -what was forgotten or new to the young folk.” - -“The umpires did not formerly pitch the wickets. David Harris used to -think a great deal of pitching himself a good-wicket, and took much -pains in suiting himself every match day.” - -“Lord Stowell was fond of cricket. He employed me to make a ground for -him at Holt Pound.” - -In the last century, when the waggon and the packhorse supplied the -place of the penny train, there was little opportunity for those -frequent meetings of men from distant counties that now puzzle us to -remember who is North and who is South, who is Surrey or who is Kent. -The matches then were truly county matches, and had more of the spirit -of hostile tribes and rival clans. “There was no mistaking the Kent -boys,” said Beldham, “when they came staring in to the Green Man. A -few of us had grown used to London, but Kent and Hampshire men had but -to speak, or even show themselves, and you need not ask them which -side they were on.” So the match seemed like Sir Horace Mann and Lord -Winchelsea and their respective tenantry--for when will the feudal -system be quite extinct? and there was no little pride and honour in -the parishes that sent them up, and many a flagon of ale depending in -the farms or the hop grounds they severally represented, as to whether -they should, as the spirit-stirring saying was, “prove themselves the -better men.” “I remember in one match,” said Beldham, “in Kent, Ring -was playing against David Harris. The game was much against him. Sir -Horace Mann was cutting about with his stick among the daisies, and -cheering every run,--you would have thought his whole fortune (and he -would often bet some hundreds) was staked upon the game; and, as a new -man was going in, he went across to Ring, and said, ‘Ring, carry your -bat through and make up all the runs, and I’ll give you 10_l._ a-year -for life.’ Well, Ring was out for sixty runs, and only three to tie, -and four to beat, and the last man made them. It was Sir Horace who -took Aylward away with him out of Hampshire, but the best bat made but -a poor bailiff, we heard. - -“Cricket was played in Sussex very early, before my day at least; but, -that there was no good play I know by this, that Richard Newland, of -Slinden in Sussex, as you say, sir, taught old Richard Nyren, and that -no Sussex man could be found to play him. Now, a second-rate player -of our parish beat Newland easily; so you may judge what the rest of -Sussex then were. But before 1780 there were some good players about -Hambledon and the Surrey side of Hampshire. Crawte, the best of the -Kent men, was stolen away from us; so you will not be wrong, sir, in -writing down that Farnham, and thirty miles round, reared all the best -players up to my day, about 1780.” - -“There were some who were then called ‘the old players,’”--and here -Fennex’s account quite agreed with Beldham’s,--“including Frame and old -Small. And as to old Small, it is worthy of observation, that Bennett -declared it was part of the creed of the last century, that Small was -the man who ‘found out cricket,’ or brought play to any degree of -perfection. Of the same school was Sueter, the wicket-keeper, who in -those days had very little stumping to do, and Minshull and Colshorn, -all mentioned in Nyren.” “These men played puddling about their crease -and had no freedom. I like to see a player upright and well forward, to -face the ball like a man. The Duke of Dorset made a match at Dartford -Brent between ‘the Old Players and the New.’--You laugh, sir,” said -this tottering silver-haired old man, “but we all were New once;--well, -I played with the Walkers, John Wells, and the rest of our men, and -beat the Old ones very easily.” - -Old John Small died, the last, if not the first of the Hambledonians, -in 1826. Isaac Walton, the father of Anglers, lived to the age of -ninety-three. This father of Cricketers was in his ninetieth year. John -Small played in all the great matches till he was turned of seventy. A -fine skater and a good musician. But, how the Duke of Dorset took great -interest in John Small, and how his Grace gave him a fiddle, and how -John, like a modern Orpheus, beguiled a wild bull of its fury in the -middle of a paddock, is it not written in the book of the chronicles -of the playmates of Old Nyren?--In a match of Hambledon against All -England, Small kept up his wicket for three days, and was not out after -all. A pity his score is unknown. We should like to compare it with Mr. -Ward’s. - -“Tom Walker was the most tedious fellow to bowl to, and the slowest -runner between wickets I ever saw. Harry was the hitter,--Harry’s -half-hour was as good as Tom’s afternoon. I have seen Noah Mann, who -was as fast as Tom was slow, in running a four, overtake him, pat him -on the back, and say, ‘Good name for you is _Walker_, for you never was -a runner.’ It used to be said that David Harris had once bowled him -170 balls for one run! David was a potter by trade, and in a kind of -skittle alley made between hurdles, he used to practise bowling four -different balls from one end, and then picking them up he would bowl -them back again. His bowling cost him a great deal of practice; but it -proved well worth his while, for no man ever bowled like him, and he -was always first chosen of all the men in England.”--_Nil sine labore_, -remember, young cricketers all.--“‘Lambert’ (not the great player -of that name), said Nyren, ‘had a most deceitful and teasing way of -delivering the ball; he tumbled out the Kent and Surrey men, one after -another, as if picked off by a rifle corps. His perfection is accounted -for by the circumstance that when he was tending his father’s sheep, he -would set up a hurdle or two, and bowl away for hours together.’ - -“There was some good hitting in those days, though too little defence. -Tom Taylor would cut away in fine style, almost after the manner of -Mr. Budd. Old Small was among the first members of the Hambledon Club. -He began to play about 1750, and Lumpy Stevens at the same time. I -can give you some notion, sir, of what cricket was in those days, for -Lumpy, a very bad bat, as he was well aware, once said to me, ‘Beldham, -what do you think cricket must have been in those days when I was -thought a good batsman?’ But fielding was very good as far back as I -can remember.”--Now, what Beldham called good fielding must have been -good enough. He was himself one of the safest hands at a catch. Mr. -Budd, when past forty, was still one of the quickest men I ever played -with, taking always middle wicket, and often, by swift running, doing -part of long field’s work. Sparks, Fennex, Bennett, and young Small, -and Mr. Parry, were first rate, not to mention Beagley, whose style of -long stopping in the North and South Match of 1836, made Lord Frederick -and Mr. Ward justly proud of so good a representative of the game in -their younger days. Albeit, an old player of seventy, describing the -merits of all these men, said, “put Mr. King at point, Mr. C. Ridding -long-stop, and Mr. W. Pickering cover, and I never saw the man that -could beat either of them.” - -“John Wells was a most dangerous man in a single wicket match, being so -dead a shot at a wicket. In one celebrated match, Lord Frederick warned -the Honourable H. Tufton to beware of John; but John Wells found an -opportunity of maintaining his character by shying down, from the side, -little more than the single stump. Tom Sheridan joined some of our -matches, but he was no good but to make people laugh. In our days there -were no padded gloves. I have seen Tom Walker rub his bleeding fingers -in the dust! David used to say he liked to _rind_ him.” - -“The matches against twenty-two were not uncommon in the last century. -In 1788 the Hambledon Club played two-and-twenty at Cold Ash Hill. -‘Drawing’ between leg and wicket is not a new invention. Old Small, -(b. 1737, d. 1826,) was famous for the draw, and, to increase his -facility he changed the crooked bat of his day for a straight bat. -There was some fine cutting before Saunders’ day. Harry Walker was the -first, I believe, who brought cutting to perfection. The next genuine -cutter--for they were very scarce (I never called mine cutting, not -like that of Saunders at least)--was Robinson. Walker and Robinson -would wait for the ball till all but past the wicket, and then cut with -great force. Others made good Off-hits, but did not hit late enough -for a good Cut. I would never cut with slow bowling. I believe that -Walker, Fennex, and myself, first opened the old players’ eyes to what -could be done with the bat; Walker by cutting, and Fennex and I by -forward play: but all improvement was owing to David Harris’s bowling. -His bowling rose almost perpendicular: it was once pronounced a jerk; -it was altogether most extraordinary.--For thirteen years I averaged -forty-three a match, though frequently I had only one innings; but I -never could half play unless runs were really wanted.” - - - - -CHAP. IV. - -CRICKET GENERALLY ESTABLISHED AS A NATIONAL GAME BY THE END OF THE LAST -CENTURY. - - -Little is recorded of the Hambledon Club after the year 1786. It broke -up when Old Nyren left it, in 1791; though, in this last year, the true -old Hambledon Eleven all but beat twenty-two of Middlesex at Lord’s. -Their cricket-ground on Broadhalfpenny Down, in Hampshire, was so far -removed from the many noblemen and gentlemen who had seen and admired -the severe bowling of David Harris, the brilliant hitting of Beldham, -and the interminable defence of the Walkers, that these worthies -soon found a more genial sphere for their energies on the grounds of -Kent, Surrey, and Middlesex. Still, though the land was deserted, the -men survived; and imparted a knowledge of their craft to gentles and -simples far and near. - -Most gladly would we chronicle that these good men and true were -actuated by a great and a patriotic spirit, to diffuse an aid -to civilisation--for such our game claims to be--among their -wonder-stricken fellow-countrymen; but, in truth, we confess that -“reaping golden opinions” and coins, “from all kinds of men,” as well -as that indescribable tumult and those joyous emotions which attend the -ball, vigorously propelled or heroically stopped, while hundreds of -voices shout applause,--that such stirring motives, more powerful far -with vain-glorious man than any “dissolving views” of abstract virtue, -tended to the migration of the pride of Hambledon. Still, doubtful -though the motive, certain is the fact, that the old Hambledon players -did carry their bats and stumps out of Hampshire into the adjoining -counties, and gradually, like all great commanders, taught their -adversaries to conquer too. In some instances, as with Lord Winchelsea, -Mr. Amherst, and others, noblemen combined the _utile dulci_, pleasure -and business, and retained a great player as a keeper or a bailiff, as -Martingell once was engaged by Earl Ducie. In other instances, the play -of the summer led to employment through the winter; or else these busy -bees lived on the sweets of their sunshine toil, enjoying _otium cum -dignitate_--that is, living like gentlemen, with nothing to do. - -This accounts for our finding these Hampshire men playing Kent -matches; being, like a learned Lord in Punch’s picture, “naturalised -everywhere,” or “citizens of the world.” - -Let us trace these Hambledonians in all their contests, from the date -mentioned (1786 to 1800), the eventful period of the French Revolution -and Nelson’s victories; and let us see how the Bank stopping payment, -the mutiny of the fleet, and the threatened invasion, put together, -did not prevent balls from flying over the tented field, in a far more -innocent and rational way on this, than on the other side, of the water. - -Now, what were the matches in the last century--“eleven gentlemen -against the twelve Cæsars?” No! these, though ancient names, are of -modern times. Kent and England was as good an annual match in the last, -as in the present century. The White Conduit Fields and the Artillery -Ground supplied the place of Lord’s, though in 1787 the name of Lord’s -is found in Bentley’s matches, implying, of course, the old Marylebone -Ground, now Dorset Square, under Thomas Lord, and not the present -by St. John’s Wood, more properly deserving the name of Dark’s than -Lord’s. The Kentish battlefields were Sevenoaks--the land of Clout, -one of the original makers of cricket-balls,--Coxheath, Dandelion -Fields, in the Isle of Thanet, and Cobham Park; also Dartford Brent and -Pennenden Heath: there is also early mention of Gravesend, Rochester, -and Woolwich. - -Next in importance to the Kent matches were those of Hampshire and -of Surrey, with each of which counties indifferently the Hambledon -men used to play. For it must not be supposed that the whole county -of Surrey put forth a crop of stumps and wickets all at once: we have -already said that malt and hops and cricket have ever gone together. -Two parishes in Surrey, adjoining Hants, won the original laurels -for their county; parishes in the immediate vicinity of the Farnham -hop country. The Holt, near Farnham, and Moulsey Hurst, were the -Surrey grounds. The match might truly have been called “Farnham’s -hop-gatherers _v._ those of Kent.” The former, aided occasionally by -men who drank the ale of Alton, just as Burton-on-Trent, life-sustainer -to our Indian empire, sends forth its giants, refreshed with bitter -ale, to defend the honour of the neighbouring towns and counties. The -men of Hampshire, after Broadhalfpenny was abandoned to docks and -thistles, pitched their tents generally either upon Windmill Downs or -upon Stoke Downs; and once they played a match against T. Assheton -Smith, whose mantle has descended on a worthy representative, whether -on the level turf or by the cover side. Albeit, when that gentleman -has a “meet” (as occasionally advertised) at Hambledon, he must -unconsciously avoid the spot where “titch and turn”--the Hampshire -cry--did once exhilarate the famous James Aylward, among others, as he -astonished the Farnham waggoner, by continuing one and the same innings -as the man drove up on the Tuesday afternoon and down on the Wednesday -morning! This match was played at Andover, and the surnames of most of -the Eleven may be read on the tombstones (with the best of characters) -in Andover Churchyard. Bourne Paddock, Earl Darnley’s estate, and -Burley Park, in Rutlandshire, constituted often the debateable ground -in their respective counties. Earl Darnley, as well as Sir Horace Mann -and Earl Winchelsea, Mr. Paulet and Mr. East, lent their names and -patronage to Elevens; sometimes in the places mentioned, sometimes at -Lord’s, and sometimes at Perriam Downs, near Luggershal, in Wiltshire. - -Middlesex also, exclusively of the Marylebone Club, had its Eleven -in these days; or, we should say, its _twenty-two_, for that was the -number then required to stand the disciplined forces of Hampshire, -Kent, or England. And this reminds us of an “Uxbridge ground,” where -Middlesex played and lost; also, of “Hornchurch, Essex,” where Essex, -in 1791, was sufficiently advanced to win against Marylebone, an -occasion memorable, because Lord Frederick Beauclerk there played -nearly his first recorded match, making scarce any runs, but bowling -four wickets. Lord Frederick’s first match was at Lord’s, 2nd -June, 1791. “There was also,” writes the Hon. R. Grimston, “‘the -Bowling-green’ at Harrow-on-the-Hill, where the school played: -Richardson, who subsequently became Mr. Justice Richardson, was the -captain of the School Eleven in 1782.” - -Already, in 1790, the game was spreading northwards, or, rather, -proofs exist that it had long before struck far and wide its roots -and branches in northern latitudes; and also that it was a game as -popular with the men of labour as the men of leisure, and therefore -incontestably of home growth: no mere exotic, or importation of the -favoured few, can cricket be, if, like its namesake, it is found “a -household word” with those whom Burns aptly calls “the many-aproned -sons of mechanical life.” - -In 1791 Eton, that is, the old Etonians, played Marylebone, four -players given on either side; and all true Etonians will thank us -for informing them, not only that the seven Etonians were more than -a match for their adversaries, but also that this match proves that -Eton had, at that early date, the honour of sending forth the most -distinguished amateurs of the day; for Lord Winchelsea, Hon. H. -Fitzroy, Earl Darnley, Hon. E. Bligh, C. Anguish, Assheton Smith--good -men and true--were Etonians all. This match was played in Burley Park, -Rutlandshire. On the following day, June 25th, 1791, the Marylebone -played eleven yeomen and artisans of Leicester; and though the -Leicestrians cut a sorry figure, still the fact that the Midland -Counties practised cricket sixty years ago is worth recording. Peter -Heward, of Leicester, a famous wicket-keeper, of twenty years since, -told me of a trial match in which he saw his father, quite an old -man, with another veteran of his own standing, quickly put out with -the old-fashioned slow bowling a really good Eleven for some twenty -runs--good, that is, against the modern style of bowling; and cricket -was not a new game in this old man’s early days (say 1780) about -Leicester and Nottingham, as the score in page 41 alone would prove; -for such a game as cricket, evidently of gradual development, must have -been played in some primitive form many a long year before the date -of 1775, in which it had excited sufficient interest, and was itself -sufficiently matured in form, to show the two Elevens of Sheffield and -of Nottingham. Add to this, what we have already mentioned, a rude -form of cricket as far north as Angus and Lothian in 1700, and we can -hardly doubt that cricket was known as early in the Midland as in the -Southern Counties. The men of Nottingham--land of Clarke, Barker, and -Redgate--next month, in the same year (1791) threw down the gauntlet, -and shared the same fate; and next day the Marylebone, “adding,” in a -cricketing sense, “insult unto injury,” played twenty-two of them, and -won by thirteen runs. - -In 1790, the shopocracy of Brighton had also an Eleven; and Sussex -and Surrey, in 1792, sent an eleven against England to Lord’s, who -scored in one innings 453 runs, the largest score on record, save -that of Epsom in 1815--476 in one innings! “M.C.C. _v._ twenty-two -of Nottingham,” we now find an annual match; and also “M.C.C. _v._ -Brighton,” which becomes at once worthy of the fame that Sussex long -has borne. In 1793, the old Westminster men all but beat the old -Etonians: and Essex and Herts, too near not to emulate the fame of Kent -and Surrey, were content, like second-rate performers, to have, though -playing twenty-two, one Benefit between them, in the shape of defeat in -one innings from England. And here we are reminded by two old players, -a Kent and an Essex man, that, being schoolboys in 1785, they can -respectively testify that, both in Kent and in Essex, cricket appeared -to them more of a village game than they have ever seen it of late -years. “There was a cricket-bat behind the door, or else up in the -bacon rack, in every cottage. We heard little of clubs, except around -London; still the game was played by many or by few, in every school -and village green in Essex and in Kent, and the field placed much as -when with the Sidmouth I played the Teignbridge Club in 1826. Mr. -Whitehead was the great hitter of Kent; and Frame and Small were names -as often mentioned as Pilch and Parr by our boys now.” And now (1793) -the game had penetrated further West; for eleven yeomen at Oldfield -Bray, in Berkshire, had learned long enough to be able to defeat a good -eleven of the Marylebone Club. - -In 1795, the Hon. Colonel Lennox, memorable for a duel with the Duke -of York, fought--where the gallant Colonel had fought so many a less -hostile battle--on the cricket ground at Dartford Brent, headed Elevens -against the Earl of Winchelsea; and now, first the Marylebone eleven -beat sixteen Oxonians on Bullingdon Green. - -In 1797, the Montpelier Club and ground attract our notice. The name of -this club is one of the most ancient, and their ground a short distance -only from the ground of Hall of Camberwell. - -Swaffham, in Norfolk, is now mentioned for the first time. But Norfolk -lies out of the usual road, and is a county which, as Mr. Dickens said -of Golden Square, before it was the residence of Cardinal Wiseman, -“is nobody’s way to or from any place.” So, in those slow coach and -packhorse days, the patrons of Kent, Surrey, Hants, and Marylebone, who -alone gave to what else were “airy nothing, a local habitation and a -name,” could not so easily extend their circuit to the land of turkeys, -lithotomy, and dumplings. But it happened once that Lord Frederick -Beauclerk was heard to say, his eleven should beat any three elevens -in the county of Norfolk; whence arose a challenge from the Norfolk -men, whom, sure enough, his Lordship did beat, and that in one innings; -and a print, though not on pocket-handkerchiefs, was struck off to -perpetuate this honourable achievement. - -Lord F. Beauclerk was now one of the best players of his day; as also -were the Hon. H. and I. Tufton. They frequently headed a division of -the Marylebone, or some county club, against Middlesex, and sometimes -Hampstead and Highgate. - -In this year (1798) these gentlemen aforesaid made the first attempt -at a match between the Gentlemen and the Players; and on this first -occasion the players won; though when we mention that the Gentlemen had -three players given, and also that T. Walker, Beldham, and Hammond were -the three, certainly it was like playing England, “the part of England -being left out by particular desire.” - -Kent attacked England in 1798, but, being beaten in about _half_ an -innings, we find the Kentish men in 1800, though still hankering -after the same cosmopolitan distinction, modestly accept the odds of -nineteen, and afterwards twenty-three, men to twelve. - -The chief patronage, and consequently the chief practice, in cricket, -was beyond all comparison in London. There, the play was nearly -all professional: even the gentlemen made a profession of it; and -therefore, though cricket was far more extensively spread throughout -the villages of Kent than of Middlesex, the clubs of the metropolis -figure in the score books as defying all competition. Professional -players, we may observe, have always a decided advantage in respect of -judicious choice and mustering their best men. The best eleven on the -side of the Players is almost always known, and can be mustered on a -given day. Favour, friendship, and etiquette interfere but little with -their election; but the eleven gentlemen of England are less easy to -muster,-- - - “_Linquenda_ Parish _et domus et placens_ - _Uxor_,”-- - -and they are never anything more than the best eleven known to the -party who make the match. Besides, by the time an amateur is at his -best, he has duties which bid him retire. - -Having now traced the rise and progress of the game from the time -of its general establishment to the time that Beldham had shown -us the full powers of the bat, and Lord Frederick had (as Fennex -always declared) formed his style upon Beldham’s; and since now -we approach the era of a new school, and the forward play of -Fennex,--which his father termed an innovation and presumption -“contrary to all experience,”--till the same forward play was proved -effectual by Lambert, and Hammond had shown that, in spite of wicket -keepers, bowling, if uniformly slow, might be met and hit away at -the pitch;--now, we will wait to characterise, in the words of -eye-witnesses, the heroes of the contests already mentioned. - -On “the Old Players” I may be brief; because, the few old gentlemen -(with one of whom I am in daily communication) who have heard even the -names of the Walkers, Frame, Small, and David Harris, are passing away, -full of years, and almost all the written history of the Old Players -consists in undiscriminating scores. - -In point of style the Old Players did not play the steady game, with -maiden overs, as at present. The defensive was comparatively unknown: -both the bat and the wicket, and the style of bowling too, were all -adapted to a short life and a merry one. The wooden substitute for a -ball, as in Cat and Dog, before described, evidently implied a hitting, -and not a stopping game. - -The Wicket, as we collect from a MS. furnished by an old friend to the -late William Ward, Esq., was, in the early days of the Hambledon Club, -one foot high and two feet wide, consisting of two stumps only, with -one stump laid across. Thus, straight balls passed between, and, what -we now call, well pitched balls would of course rise over. Where, then, -was the encouragement to block, when fortune would so often usurp the -place of science? And, as to the bat, look at the picture of cricket as -played in the old Artillery Ground; the bat is curved at the end like -a hockey stick, or the handle of a spoon, and--as common implements -usually are adapted to the work to be performed--you will readily -believe that in olden time the freest hitter was the best batsman. -The bowling was all along the ground, hand and eye being everything, -and judgment nothing; because, the art originally was to bowl under -the bat. The wicket was too low for rising balls; and the reason we -hear sometimes of the Blockhole was, not that the blockhole originally -denoted guard, but because between these two-feet-asunder stumps there -was cut a hole big enough to contain the ball, and (as now with the -school boy’s game of rounders) the hitter was made out in running a -notch by the ball being popped into this hole (whence popping crease) -before the point of the bat could reach it. - -Did we say Running a Notch? _unde_ Notch? What wonder ere the days -of useful knowledge, and Sir William Curtis’s three R’s,--or, -reading, writing, and arithmetic,--that natural science should be -evolved in a truly natural way: what wonder that notches on a stick, -like the notches in the milk-woman’s tally in Hogarth’s picture, -should supply the place of those complicated papers of vertical -columns, which subject the bowling, the batting, and the fielding to -a process severely and scrupulously just, of analytical observation, -or differential calculus! Where now there sit on kitchen chairs, with -ink bottle tied to a stump the worse for wear, Messrs. Caldecourt -and Bayley (’tis pity two such men should ever not be umpires), -with an uncomfortable length of paper on their knees, and large tin -telegraphic letters above their heads; and where now is Lillywhite’s -printing press, to hand down every hit as soon as made on twopenny -cards to future generations; there, or in a similar position, old -Frame, or young Small (young once: he died in 1834, aged eighty) might -have placed a trusty yeoman to cut notches with his bread-and-bacon -knife on an ashen stick. Oh! ’tis enough to make the Hambledon heroes -sit upright in their graves with astonishment to think, that in the -Gentlemen and Players’ Match, in 1850, the cricketers of old Sparkes’ -Ground, at Edinburgh, could actually know the score of the first -innings in London, before the second had commenced! - -But when we say that the old players had little or nothing of the -defensive, we speak of the play before 1780, when David Harris -flourished: for William Beldham distinctly assured us that the art -of bowling over the bat by “length balls” originated with the famous -David; an assertion, we will venture to say, which requires a little, -and only a little, qualification. Length bowling, or three-quarter -balls, to use a popular, though exploded, expression, was introduced in -David’s time, and by him first brought to perfection. And what rather -confirms this statement is, that the early bowlers were very swift -bowlers,--such was not only David, but the famous Brett, of earlier -date, and Frame of great renown: a more moderate pace resulted from the -new discovery of a well pitched bail ball. - -The old players well understood the art of twisting, or bias bowling. -Lambert, “the little farmer,” says Nyren, “improved on the art, and -puzzled the Kent men in a great match, by twisting the reverse of the -usual way,--that is, from the off to leg stump.” Tom Walker tried -what Nyren calls the throwing-bowling, and defied all the players of -the day to withstand this novelty; but, by a council of the Hambledon -Club, this was forbidden, and Willes, a Kent man, had all the praise -of inventing it some twenty years later. In a match of the Hambledon -Club in 1775, it was observed, at a critical point of the game, -that the ball passed three times between Small’s two stumps without -knocking off the bail; and then, first, a third stump was added; and, -seeing that the new style of balls which rise over the bat rose also -over the wickets, then but one foot high, the wicket was altered to -the dimensions of 22 inches by 6, at which measure it remained till -about 1814, when it was increased to 26 inches by 8, and again to its -present dimensions of 27 inches by 8 in 1817; when, as one inch was -added to the stumps, two inches were added to the width between the -creases. The changes in the wicket are represented in the foregoing -woodcut. In the year 1700, the runner was made out, not by striking off -the transverse stump--we can hardly call it a bail--but by popping the -ball in the hole therein represented. - -[Illustration] - -David Harris’ bowling, Fennex used to say, introduced, or at least -established and fixed, a steady and defensive style of batting. “I -have seen,” said Sparkes, “seventy or eighty runs in an innings, -though not more than eight or nine made at Harris’s end.” “Harris,” -said an excellent judge, who well remembers him, “had nearly all the -quickness of rise and the height of delivery, which characterises -overhand bowling, with far greater straightness and precision. The ball -appeared to be forced out from under his arm with some unaccountable -jerk, so that it was delivered breast high. His precision exceeded -anything I have ever seen, in so much that Tom Walker declared that, on -one occasion, where turf was thin, and the colour of the soil readily -appeared, one spot was positively uncovered by the repeated pitching of -David’s balls in the same place.” - -“This bowling,” said Sparkes, “compelled you to make the best of your -reach forward; for if a man let the ball pitch too near and crowd -upon him, he very rarely could prevent a mistake, from the height and -rapidity with which the ball cut up from the ground.”--This account -agrees with the well-known description of Nyren. “Harris’s mode of -delivering the ball was very singular. He would bring it from under his -arm by a twist, and nearly as high as his arm-pit, and with this action -push it, as it were, from him. How it was that the balls acquired the -velocity they did by this mode of delivery, I never could comprehend. -His balls were very little beholden to the ground; it was but a touch -and up again; and woe be to the man who did not get in to block them, -for they had such a peculiar curl they would grind his fingers against -the bat.” - -And Nyren agrees with my informants in ascribing great improvement in -batting, and he specifies, “particularly in stopping” (for the act of -defence, we said, was not essential to the batsman in the ideas of -one of the old players), to the bowling of David Harris, and bears -testimony to an assertion, that forward play, that is meeting at the -pitch balls considerably short of a half volley, was little known to -the oldest players, and was called into requisition chiefly by the -bowling of David Harris. Obviously, with the primitive fashion of -ground bowling, called sneakers, forward play could have no place, and -even well-pitched balls, like those of Peter Stevens, _alias_ Lumpy, -of moderate pace might be played with some effect, even behind the -crease; but David Harris, with pace, pitch, and rapid rise combined, -imperatively demanded a new invention, and such was forward play about -1800. Old Fennex, who died, alas! in a Middlesex workhouse, aged -eighty, in 1839 (had his conduct been as straightforward and upright -as his bat, he would have known a better end), always declared that he -was the first, and remained long without followers; and no small praise -is due to the boldness and originality that set at nought the received -maxims of his forefathers before he was born or thought of; daring to -try things that, had they been ordinarily reasonable, would not, of -course, have been ignored by Frame, by Purchase, nor by Small. The -world wants such men as Fennex; men, who will shake off the prejudices -of birth, parentage, and education, and boldly declare that age has -taught them wisdom, and that the policy of their predecessors, however -expensively stereotyped, must be revised and corrected and adapted to -the demands of a more inquiring generation. “My father,” said Fennex, -“asked me how I came by that new play, reaching out as no one ever saw -before.” The same style he lived to see practised, not elegantly, but -with wonderful power and effect by Lambert, “a most severe and resolute -hitter;” and Fennex also boasted that he had a most proficient -disciple in Fuller Pilch: though I suspect that, as “_poeta nascitur -non fit_,”--that is, that all great performers appear to have brought -the secret of their excellence into the world along with them, and are -not the mere puppets of which others pull the strings--Fuller Pilch may -think he rather coincided with, than learnt from, William Fennex. - -Now the David Harris aforesaid, who wrought quite a revolution in the -game, changing cricket from a backward and a slashing to a forward -and defensive game, and claiming higher stumps to do justice to his -skill--this David, whose bowling was many years in advance of his -generation, having all the excellence of Lillywhite’s high delivery, -though free from all imputation of unfairness--this David rose -early, and late took rest, and ate the bread of carefulness, before -he attained such distinction as--in these days of railroads, Thames -tunnels, and tubular gloves and bridges--to deserve the notice of our -pen. “For,” said John Bennett, “you might have seen David practising -at dinner time and after hours, all the winter through;” and “many a -Hampshire barn,” said Beagley, “has been heard to resound with bats and -balls as well as threshing.” - - “_Nil sine magno,_ - _Vita labore dedit mortalibus._” - -And now we must mention the men, who, at the end of the last century, -represented the Pilch, the Parr, the Wenman, and the Wisden of the -present day. - -Lord Beauclerk was formed on the style of Beldham, whom, in brilliancy -of hitting, he nearly resembled. The Hon. H. Bligh and Hon. H. Tufton -were of the same school. Sir Peter Burrell was also a good hitter. And -these were the most distinguished gentlemen players of the day. Earl -Winchelsea was in every principal match, but rather for his patronage -than his play: and the Hon. Col. Lennox for the same reason. Mr. R. -Whitehead was a Kent player of great celebrity. But Lord F. Beauclerk -was the only gentleman who had any claim in the last century to play -in an All England eleven. He was also one of the fastest runners. -Hammond was the great wicket-keeper; but then the bowling was slow: -Sparkes said he saw him catch out Robinson by a draw between leg and -wicket. Freemantle was the first long stop; but Ray the finest field -in England; and in those days, when the scores were long, fielding -was of even more consideration than at present. Of the professional -players, Beldham, Hammond, Tom and Harry Walker, Freemantle, Robinson, -Fennex, J. Wells, and J. Small were the first chosen after Harris had -passed away; for, Nyren says that even Lord Beauclerk could hardly have -seen David Harris in his prime. At this time there was a sufficient -number of players to maintain the credit of the left hands. On the -10th of May, 1790, the Left-handed beat the Right by thirty-nine runs. -This match reveals that Harris and Aylward, and the three best Kent -players, Brazier, Crawe, and Clifford,--Sueter, the first distinguished -wicket-keeper,--H. Walker, and Freemantle were all left-handed: so also -was Noah Mann. - -The above-mentioned players are quite sufficient to give some idea -of the play of the last century. Sparkes is well known to the author -of these pages as his quondam instructor. In batting he differed not -widely from the usual style of good players, save that he never played -forward to any very great extent. Playing under leg, according to the -old fashion (we call it old-fashioned though Pilch adopts it), served -instead of the far more elegant and efficient “draw.” Sparkes was also -a fair bias bowler, but of no great pace, and not very difficult. I -remember his saying that the old school of slow bowling was beaten -by Hammond’s setting the example of running in. “Hammond,” he said, -“on one occasion hit back a slow ball to Lord F. Beauclerk with such -frightful force that it just skimmed his Lordship’s unguarded head, and -he had scarcely nerve to bowl after.” Of Fennex we can also speak from -our friend the Rev. John Mitford. Fennex was a fair straightforward -hitter, and once as good a single-wicket player as any in England. -His attitude was easy, and he played elegantly, and hit well from the -wrist. If his bowling was any specimen of that of his contemporaries, -they were by no means to be despised. His bowling was very swift and -of high delivery, the ball cut and ground up with great quickness and -precision. Fennex used to say that the men of the present day had -little idea of what the old underhand bowling really could effect; and, -from the specimen which Fennex himself gave at sixty-five years of age, -there appeared to be much reason in his assertion. Of all the players -Fennex had ever seen (for some partiality for bygone days we must of -course allow) none elicited his notes of admiration like Beldham. We -cannot compare a man who played underhand, with those who are formed -on overhand, bowling. Still, there is reason to believe what Mr. Ward -and others have told us, that Beldham had that genius for cricket, that -wonderful eye (although it failed him very early), and that quickness -of hand, which would have made him a great player in any age. - -Beldham related to us in 1838, and that with no little nimbleness of -hand and vivacity of eye, while he suited the action to the word with -a bat of his own manufacture, how he had drawn forth the plaudits -of Lords’ as he hit round and helped on the bowling of Browne of -Brighton, even faster than before, though the good men of Brighton -thought that no one could stand against him, and Browne had thought -to bowl Beldham off his legs. This match of Hants against England in -1819 Fennex was fond of describing, and certainly it gives some idea -of what Beldham could do. “Osbaldeston,” said Mr. Ward, “with his -tremendously fast bowling, was defying every one at single wicket, and -he and Lambert challenged Mr. E. H. Budd with three others. Just then I -had seen Browne’s swift bowling, and a hint from me settled the match. -Browne was engaged, and Osbaldeston was beaten with his own weapons.” -A match was now made to give Browne a fair trial, and “we were having -a social glass,” said Fennex, “and talking over with Beldham the -match of the morrow at the ‘Green Man,’ when Browne came in, and told -Beldham, with as much sincerity as good-humour, that he should soon -send his stumps a-flying.” “Hold there,” said Beldham, fingering his -bat, “you will be good enough to allow me this bit of wood, won’t -you?” “Certainly,” said Browne. “Quite satisfied,” answered Beldham, -“so to-morrow you shall see.” “Seventy-two runs,” said Fennex,--and -the score-book attests his accuracy,--“was Beldham’s first and only -innings;” and, Beagley also joined with Fennex, and assured us, that -he never saw a more complete triumph of a batsman over a bowler. -Nearly every ball was cut or slipped away till Browne hardly dared to -bowl within Beldham’s reach. - -We desire not to qualify the praises of Beldham, but when we hear -that he was unrivalled in elegant and brilliant hitting, and in that -wonderful versatility which cut indifferently, quick as lightning, -all round him, we cannot help remarking, that such bowling as that of -Redgate or of Wisden renders imperatively necessary a severe style of -defence, and an attitude of cautious watchfulness, which must render -the batsman not quite such a picture for the artist as might be seen in -the days of Beldham and Lord F. Beauclerk. - -So far we have traced the diffusion of the game, and the degrees of -proficiency attained, to the beginning of the present century. To -sum up the evidence, by the year 1800, cricket had become the common -pastime of the common people in Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, and Kent, -and had been introduced into the adjoining counties; and though we -cannot trace its continuity beyond Rutlandshire and Burley Park, -certainly it had been long familiar to the men of Leicester and -Nottingham as well as Sheffield;--that, in point of Fielding generally, -this was already as good, and quite as much valued in a match, as it -has been since; while Wicket-keeping in particular had been ably -executed by Sueter, for he could stump off Brett, whose pace Nyren, -acquainted as he was with all the bowlers to the days of Lillywhite, -called quite of the steam-engine power, albeit no wicket-keeper could -shine like Wenman or Box, except with the regularity of overhand -bowling; and already Bowlers had attained by bias and quick delivery -all the excellence which underhand bowling admits. Still, as regards -Batting, the very fact that the stumps remained six inches wide, by -twenty-two inches in height, undeniably proves that the secret of -success was limited to comparatively a small number of players. - - - - -CHAP. V. - -THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY. - - -Before this century was one year old, David Harris, Harry Walker, -Purchase, Aylward, and Lumpy had left the stage, and John Small, -instead of hitting bad balls whose stitches would not last a match, had -learnt to make commodities so good that Clout’s and Duke’s were mere -toy-shop in comparison. Noah Mann was the Caldecourt, or umpire, of -the day, and Harry Bentley also, when he did not play. Five years more -saw nearly the last of Earl Winchelsea, Sir Horace Mann, Earl Darnley, -and Lord Yarmouth; still Surrey had a generous friend in Mr. Laurell, -Hants in Mr. T. Smith, and Kent in the Honourables H. and J. Tufton. -The Pavilion at Lord’s, then and since 1787 on the site of Dorset -Square, was attended by Lord Frederick Beauclerk, then a young man of -four-and-twenty, the Honourables Colonel Bligh, Colonel Lennox, H. and -J. Tufton, and A. Upton. Also, there were usually Messrs. R. Whitehead, -G. Leycester, S. Vigne, and F. Ladbroke. These were the great promoters -of the matches, and the first of the amateurs. Cricket was one of Lord -Byron’s favourite sports, and that in spite of his lame foot: witness -the lines,-- - - “Together join’d in cricket’s manly toil, - Or shared the produce of the river’s spoil.” - -Byron mentions in his letters that he played in the eleven of Harrow -against Eton in 1805. The score is given in Lillywhite’s Public-School -Matches. - -The excellent William Wilberforce was fond of cricket, and was laid up -by a severe blow on the leg at Rothley while playing with his sons: he -says the doctor told him a little more would have broken the bone. - -Cricket, we have shown, was originally classed among the games of -the lower orders; so we find the yeomen infinitely superior to the -gentlemen even before cricket had become by any means so much of a -profession as it is now. Tom Walker, Beldham, John Wells, Fennex, -Hammond, Robinson, Lambert, Sparkes, H. Bentley, Bennett, Freemantle, -were the best professionals of the day. For it was seven or eight years -later that Mr. E. H. Budd, and his unequal rival, Mr. Brand, and his -sporting friend, Osbaldeston, as also that fine player, E. Parry, Esq., -severally appeared; and later still, that Mr. Ward, Howard, Beagley, -Thumwood, Caldecourt, Slater, Flavel, Ashby, Searle, and Saunders, -successively showed every resource of bias bowling to shorten the -scores, and of fine hitting to lengthen them. By the end of these -twenty years, all these distinguished players had taught a game in -which the batting beat the bowling. “Cricket,” said Mr. Ward, “unlike -hunting, shooting, fishing, or even yachting, was a sport that lasted -three days;” the wicket had been twice enlarged, once about 1814, and -again in 1817; old Lord had tried his third, the present, ground; the -Legs had taught the wisdom of playing rather for love than money; slow -coaches had given way to fast, long whist to short; and ultimately -Lambert, John Wells, Howard, and Powell, handed over the ball to -Broadbridge and Lillywhite. - -Such is the scene, the characters, and the performance. “Matches in -those days were more numerously attended than now,” said Mr. Ward: the -old game was more attractive to spectators, because more busy, than -the new. Tom Lord’s flag was the well known telegraph that brought him -in from three to four thousand sixpences at a match. John Goldham, the -octogenarian inspector of Billingsgate, has seen the Duke of York and -his adversary, the Honourable Colonel Lennox, in the same game, and -had the honour of playing with both, and the Prince Regent, too, in -the White Conduit Fields, on which spot Mr. Goldham built his present -house. For the Prince was a great lover of the game, and caused the -“Prince’s Cricket Ground” to be formed at Brighton. The late Lord -Barrymore, killed by the accidental discharge of a blunderbuss in his -phaeton, was an enthusiastic cricketer. The Duke of Richmond, when -Colonel Lennox, a nobleman whose life and spirits and genial generous -nature made him beloved by all, exulted in this as in all athletic -sports: the bite of a fox killed him. Then, as you drive through -Russell Square, behold the statue of another patron, the noble-born -and noble-minded Duke of Bedford; and in Dorset Square, the site of -old Lord’s Ground, you may muse and fancy you see, where now is some -“modest mansion,” the identical mark called the “Duke’s strike,” which -long recorded a hit, 132 yards in the air, from the once famous bat -of Alexander, late Duke of Hamilton. Great matches in those days, as -in these, cost money. Six guineas if they won and four if they lost, -was the player’s fee; or, five and three if they lived in town. So, as -every match cost some seventy pounds, over the fire-place at Lord’s -you would see a Subscription List for Surrey against England, or for -England against Kent, as the case might be, and find notices of each -interesting match at Brookes’s and other clubs. - -This custom of advertising cricket matches is of very ancient date. -For, in the “British Champion” of Sep. 8. 1743, a writer complains -that though “noblemen, gentlemen, and clergymen may divert themselves -as they think fit,” and though he “cannot dispute their privilege to -make butchers, cobblers, or tinkers their companions,” he very much -doubts “whether they have any right to invite _thousands of people_ to -be spectators of their agility.” For, “it draws numbers of people from -their employment to the ruin of their families. It is a most notorious -breach of the laws--the advertisements most impudently reciting that -great sums are laid.” And, in the year following (1744), as we read in -the “London Magazine,” Kent beat all England in the Artillery Ground, -in the presence of “their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, the -Duke of Cumberland, the Duke of Richmond, Admiral Vernon, and many -other persons of distinction.” How pleasing to reflect that those sunny -holidays we enjoy at Lord’s have been enjoyed by the people for more -than a century past! - -But what were the famous cricket Counties in these twenty years? -The glory of Kent had for a while departed. Time was when Kent -could challenge England man for man; but now, only with such odds -as twenty-three to twelve! As to the wide extension of cricket, it -advanced but slowly then compared with recent times. A small circle -round London would still comprise all the finest players. It was not -till 1820 that Norfolk, forgetting its three Elevens beaten by Lord -Frederick, again played Marylebone; and, though three gentlemen were -given and Fuller Pilch played--then a lad of seventeen years--Norfolk -lost by 417 runs, including Mr. Ward’s longest score on record,--278. -“But he was missed,” said Mr. Budd, “the easiest possible catch before -he had scored thirty.” Still it was a great achievement; and Mr. Morse -preserves, as a relic, the identical ball, and the bat which hit -that ball about, a trusty friend that served its owner fifty years! -Kennington Oval, perhaps, was then all docks and thistles. Surrey still -stood first of cricket counties, and Mr. Laurell--Robinson was his -keeper; an awful man for poachers, 6 feet 1 inch, and 16 stone, and -strong in proportion--most generous of supporters, was not slow to give -orders on old Thomas Lord for golden guineas, when a Surrey man, by -catch or innings, had elicited applause. Of the same high order were -Sir J. Cope of Bramshill Park, and Mr. Barnett, the banker, promoter of -the B. matches; the Hon. D. Kinnaird, and, last not least, Mr. W. Ward, -who by purchase of a lease saved Lord’s from building ground; an act of -generosity in which he imitated the good old Duke of Dorset, who, said -Mr. Budd, “gave the ground called the Vine, at Sevenoaks, by a deed of -trust, for the use of cricketers for ever.” - -The good men of Surrey, in 1800, monopolised nearly all the play of -England. Lord Frederick Beauclerk and Hammond were the only All England -players who were not Surrey men. - -Kent had then some civil contests--petty wars of single clans--but no -county match; and their great friend R. Whitehead, Esq., depended on -the M.C.C. for his finest games. The game had become a profession: a -science to the gentlemen, and an art or handicraft to the players; and -Farnham found in London the best market for its cricket, as for its -hops. The best Kent play was displayed at Rochester, and yet more at -Woolwich; but chiefly among our officers, whose bats were bought in -London, not at Sevenoaks. These games reflected none such honour to -the county as when the Earls of Thanet and of Darnley brought their -own tenantry to Lord’s or Dartford Brent, armed with the native willow -wood of Kent. So, the Honourables H. and A. Tufton were obliged to -yield to the altered times, and play two-and-twenty men where their -noble father, the Earl of Thanet, had won with his eleven. “Thirteen -to twenty-three was the number we enjoyed,” said Sparkes, “for with -thirteen good men well placed, and the bowling good, we did not want -their twenty-three. A third man On, and a forward point, or kind of -middle wicket, with slow bowling, or an extra slip with fast, made a -very strong field: the Kent men were sometimes regularly pounded by our -fielding.” - -In 1805 we find a curious match: the “twelve best against twenty-three -next best.” Lord Frederick was the only amateur among the “best”; but -Barton, one of the “next best” among the latter, scored 87; not out. -Mr. Budd first appeared at Lord’s in 1802 as a boy: he reappeared in -1808, and was at once among the longest scorers. - -The Homerton Club also furnished an annual match: still all within -the sound of Bow bells. “To forget Homerton,” said Mr. Ward, “were to -ignore Mr. Vigne, our wicket-keeper, but one of very moderate powers. -Hammond was the best we ever had. Hammond played till his sixtieth -year; but Browne and Osbaldeston put all wicket-keeping to the rout. -Hammond’s great success was in the days of slow bowling. John Wells -and Howard were our two best fast bowlers, though Powell was very -true. Osbaldeston beat his side with byes and slips--thirty-two byes -in the B. match.” Few men could hit him before wicket; whence the many -single-wicket matches he played; but Mr. Ward put an end to his reign -by finding out Browne of Brighton. Beagley said of Browne, as the -players now say of Mr. Fellows, they had no objection to him when the -ground was smooth. - -The Homerton Club also boasted of Mr. Ladbroke, one of the great -promoters of matches, as well as the late Mr. Aislabie, always fond -of the game, but all his life “too big to play,”--the remark by Lord -Frederick of Mr. Ward, which, being repeated, did no little to develop -the latent powers of that most efficient player. - -The Montpelier Club, also, with men given, annually played Marylebone. - -Lord Frederick, in 1803, gave a little variety to the matches by -leading against Marylebone ten men of Leicester and Nottingham, -including the two Warsops. “T. Warsop,” said Clarke, “was one of the -best bowlers I ever knew.” Clarke has also a high opinion of Lambert, -from whom, he says, he learnt more of the game than from any other man. - -Lambert’s bowling was like Mr. Budd’s, against which I have often -played: a high underhand delivery, slow, but rising very high, very -accurately pitched, and turning in from leg stump. “About the year -1818, Lambert and I,” said Mr. Budd, “attained to a kind of round-armed -delivery (described as Clarke’s), by which we rose decidedly superior -to all the batsmen of the day. Mr. Ward could not play it, but he -headed a party against us, and our new bowling was ignored.” Tom Walker -and Lord Frederick were of the tediously slow school; Lambert and -Budd were several degrees faster. Howard and John Wells were the fast -underhand bowlers. - -Lord Frederick was a very successful bowler, and inspired great -confidence as a general: his bowling was at last beaten by men running -into him. Sparkes mentioned another player who brought very slow -bowling to perfection, and was beaten in the same way. Beldham thought -Mr. Budd’s bowling better than Lord Frederick’s; Beagley said the same. - -His Lordship is generally supposed to have been the best amateur of -his day; so said Caldecourt; also Beagley, who observed his Lordship -had the best head and was most valuable as a general. Otherwise, this -is an assertion hard to reconcile with acknowledged facts; for, first, -Mr. Budd made the best average, though usually placed against Lambert’s -bowling, and playing almost exclusively in the great matches. Mr. Budd -was a much more powerful hitter. Lord Frederick said, “Budd always -wanted to win the game off a single ball:” Beldham observed, “if Mr. -Budd would not hit so eagerly, he would be the finest player in all -England.” When I knew him his hitting was quite safe play. Still Lord -Frederick’s was the prettier style of batting, and he had the character -of being the most scientific player. But since Mr. Budd had the largest -average in spite of his hitting, Beldham becomes a witness in his -favour. Mr. Budd measured five feet ten inches, and weighed twelve -stone, very clean made and powerful, with an eye singularly keen, and -great natural quickness, being one of the fastest runners of his day. -Secondly, Mr. Budd was the better fieldsman. He stood usually at middle -wicket. I never saw safer hands at a catch; and I have seen him very -quick at stumping out. But, Lord Frederick could not take every part -of the field; but was always short slip, and not one of the very best. -And, thirdly, Mr. Budd was the better bowler. Mr. Budd hit well from -the wrist. At Woolwich he hit a volley to long field for _nine_, though -Mr. Parry threw it in. He also hit out of Lord’s old ground. “Lord had -said he would forfeit twenty guineas if any one thus proved his ground -too small: so we all crowded around Mr. Budd,” said Beldham, “and told -him what he might claim. ‘Well then,’ he said, ‘I claim it, and give it -among the players.’ But Lord was shabby and would not pay.” Mr. Budd is -now (1854) in his sixty-ninth year: it is only lately that any country -Eleven could well spare him. - -Lambert was also good at every point. In batting, he was a bold forward -player. He stood with left foot a yard in advance, swaying his bat and -body as if to attain momentum, and reaching forward almost to where the -ball must pitch. - -Lambert’s chief point was to take the ball at the pitch and drive it -powerfully away, and, said Mr. Budd, “to a slow bowler his return was -so quick and forcible, that his whole manner was really intimidating -to a bowler.” Every one remarked how completely Lambert seemed master -of the ball. Usually the bowler appears to attack and the batsman to -defend; but Lambert seemed always on the attack, and the bowler at his -mercy, and “hit,” said Beldham, “what no one else could meddle with.” - -Lord Frederick was formed on Beldham’s style. Mr. Budd’s position at -the wicket was much the same: the right foot placed as usual, but the -left rather behind and nearly a yard apart, so that instead of the -upright bat and figure of Pilch the bat was drawn across, and the -figure hung away from the wicket. This was a mistake. Before the ball -could be played Mr. Budd was too good a player not to be up, like -Pilch, and play well over his off stump. Still Mr. Budd explained to -me that this position of the left foot was just where one naturally -shifts it to have room for a cut: so this strange attitude was supposed -to favour their fine off hits. I say Off hit because the Cut did not -properly belong to either of these players: Robinson and Saunders -were the men to cut,--cutting balls clean away from the bails, though -Robinson had a maimed hand, burnt when a child: the handle of his bat -was grooved to fit his stunted fingers. Talking of his bat, the players -once discovered by measurement it was beyond the statute width, and -would not pass through the standard. So, unceremoniously, a knife -was produced, and the bat reduced to its just, rather than its fair, -proportions. “Well,” said Robinson, “I’ll pay you off for spoiling my -bat:” and sure enough he did, hitting tremendously, and making one of -his largest innings, which were often near a hundred runs. - -In the first twenty years of this century, Hampshire, like Kent, had -lost its renown, but only because Hambledon was now no more; nor did -Surrey and Hampshire any longer count as one. To confirm our assertion -that Farnham produced the players,--for in 1808, Surrey had played -and beaten England three times in one season, and from 1820 to 1825 -Godalming is mentioned as the most powerful antagonist; but whether -called Godalming or Surrey, we must not forget that the locality is -the same--we observe, that in 1821, M.C.C. plays “The Three Parishes,” -namely, Godalming, Farnham, and Hartley Row; which parishes, after -rearing the finest contemporaries of Beldham, could then boast a later -race of players in Flavel, Searle, Howard, Thumwood, Mathews. - -“About this time (July 23. 1821),” said Beldham, “we played the -Coronation Match; ‘M.C.C. against the Players of England.’ We scored -278 and only six wickets down, when the game was given up. I was hurt -and could not run my notches; still James Bland, and the other Legs, -begged of me to take pains, for it was no sporting match, ‘any odds -and no takers;’ and they wanted to shame the gentlemen against wasting -their (the Legs’) time in the same way another time.” - -But the day for Hampshire, as for Kent, was doomed to shine again. -Fennex, Small, the Walkers, J. Wells, and Hammond, in time drop off -from Surrey,--and about the same time (1815), Caldecourt, Holloway, -Beagley, Thumwood, Shearman, Howard, Mr. Ward, and Mr. Knight, restore -the balance of power for Hants, as afterwards, Broadbridge and -Lillywhite for Sussex. - -“In 1817, we went,” said Mr. Budd, “with Osbaldeston to play -twenty-two of Nottingham. In that match Clarke played. In common -with others I lost my money, and was greatly disappointed at the -termination. One paid player was accused of selling, and never employed -after. The concourse of people was very great: these were the days of -the Luddites (rioters), and the magistrates warned us, that unless -we would stop our game at seven o’clock, they could not answer for -keeping the peace. At seven o’clock we stopped; and, simultaneously, -the thousands who lined the ground began to close in upon us. Lord -Frederick lost nerve and was very much alarmed; but I said they didn’t -want to hurt us. No; they simply came to have a look at the eleven men -who ventured to play two for one.”--His Lordship broke his finger, and, -batting with one hand, scored only eleven runs. Nine men, the largest -number perhaps on record, Bentley marks as “caught by Budd.” - -Just before the establishment of Mr. Will’s roundhand bowling, and as -if to prepare the way, Ashby came forth with an unusual bias, but no -great pace. Sparkes bowled in the same style; as also, Matthews and -Mr. Jenner somewhat later. Still the batsmen were full as powerful as -ever, reckoning Saunders, Searle, Beagley, Messrs. Ward, Kingscote, -Knight. Suffolk became very strong with Pilch, the Messrs. Blake, and -others, of the famous Bury Club; while Slater, Lillywhite, King, and -the Broadbridges, raised the name of Midhurst and of Sussex. - -Against such batsmen every variety of underhand delivery failed to -maintain the balance of the game, till J. Broadbridge and Lillywhite, -after many protests and discussions, succeeded in establishing what -long was called “the Sussex bowling.” - -“About 1820,” said Mr. Budd, “at our anniversary dinner (three-guinea -tickets) at the Clarendon, Mr. Ward asked me if I had not said I -would play any man in England at single wicket, without fieldsmen. -An affirmative produced a match p.p. for fifty guineas. On the day -appointed Mr. Brand proved my opponent. He was a fast bowler. I went -in first, and scoring seventy runs with some severe blows on the -legs,--nankeen knees and silk stockings, and no pads in those days,--I -consulted a friend and knocked down my own wicket, lest the match -should last to the morrow, and I be unable to play. Mr. Brand was out -without a run! I went in again, and making the 70 up to 100, I once -more knocked down my own wicket, and once more my opponent failed to -score!!” - -The flag was flying--the signal of a great match--and a large concourse -were assembled; and, considering Mr. Ward, a good judge, made the -match, this is probably the most hollow victory on record. - -But Osbaldeston’s victory was far more satisfactory. Lord Frederick -with Beldham made a p.p. match with Osbaldeston and Lambert. “On the -day named,” said Budd, “I went to Lord Frederick, representing my -friend was too ill to stand, and asked him to put off the match. “No; -play or pay,” said his Lordship, quite inexorable. “Never mind,” said -Osbaldeston, “I won’t forfeit: Lambert may beat them both; and, if he -does, the fifty guineas shall be his.”--I asked Lambert how he felt. -“Why,” said he, “they are anything but safe.”--His Lordship wouldn’t -hear of it. “Nonsense,” he said, “you can’t mean it.” “Yes; play or -pay, my Lord, we are in earnest, and shall claim the stakes!” and in -fact Lambert did beat them both.” For, to play such a man as Lambert, -when on his mettle, was rather discouraging; and “he did make desperate -exertion,” said Beldham: “once he rushed up after his ball, and Lord -Frederick was caught so near the bat that he lost his temper, and said -it was not fair play. Of course, all hearts were with Lambert.” - -“Osbaldeston’s mother sat by in her carriage, and enjoyed the match; -and then,” said Beldham, “Lambert was called to the carriage and bore -away a paper parcel: some said it was a gold watch,--some, bank notes. -Trust Lambert to keep his own secrets. We were all curious, but no one -ever knew:”--nor ever will know. In March, 1851, I addressed a letter -to him at Reigate. Soon, a brief paragraph announced the death of “the -once celebrated cricket player William Lambert.” - - - - -CHAP. VI. - -A DARK CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF CRICKET. - - -The lovers of cricket may congratulate themselves that matches, at the -present day, are made at cricket, as at chess, rather for love and the -honour of victory than for money. - -It is now many years since Lord’s was frequented by men with book and -pencil, betting as openly and professionally as in the ring at Epsom, -and ready to deal in the odds with any and every person of speculative -propensities. Far less satisfactory was the state of things with which -Lord F. Beauclerk and Mr. Ward had to contend, to say nothing of the -earlier days of the Earl of Winchelsea and Sir Horace Mann. As to the -latter period, “Old Nyren” bewails its evil doings. He speaks of one -who had “the trouble of proving himself a rogue,” and also of “the -legs of Marylebone,” who tried, for once in vain, to corrupt some -primitive specimens of Hambledon innocence. He says, also, that the -grand matches of his day were always made for 500_l._ a side. Add to -this the fact that bets were in proportion; and that Jim and Joe -Bland, of turf notoriety, with Dick Whitlom of Covent Garden, Simpson, -a gaming-house keeper, and Toll of Esher, as regularly attended at a -match as Crockford and Gully at Epsom and Ascot; and the idea that -all the Surrey and Hampshire rustics should either want or resist -strong temptations to sell, is not to be entertained for a moment. -The constant habit of betting will take the honesty out of any man. A -half-crown sweepstakes, or betting such odds as lady’s long kids to -gentleman’s short ditto, is all very fair sport; but, if a man, after -years of high betting, can still preserve the fine edge and tone of -honest feeling he is indeed a wonder. To bet on a certainty all admit -is swindling. If so, to bet where you feel it is a certainty, must be -very bad moral practice. - -“If gentlemen wanted to bet,” said Beldham, “just under the pavilion -sat men ready, with money down, to give and take the current odds: -these were by far the best men to bet with; because, if they lost, -it was all in the way of business: they paid their money and did not -grumble.” Still, they had all sorts of tricks to make their betting -safe. “One artifice,” said Mr. Ward, “was to keep a player out of the -way by a false report that his wife was dead.” Then these men would -come down to the Green Man and Still, and drink with us, and always -said, that those who backed us, or “the nobs,” as they called them, -sold the matches; and so, sir, as you are going the round beating up -the quarters of the old players, you will find some to persuade you -this is true. But don’t believe it. That any gentleman in my day ever -put himself into the power of these blacklegs, by selling matches, -I can’t credit. Still, one day, I thought I would try how far these -tales were true. So, going down into Kent, with “one of high degree,” -he said to me, “Will, if this match is won, I lose a hundred pounds!” -“Well,” said I, “my Lord, you and I _could_ order that.” He smiled as -if nothing were meant, and talked of something else; and, as luck would -have it, he and I were in together, and brought up the score between -us, though every run seemed to me like “a guinea out of his Lordship’s -pocket.” - -In those days, foot races were very common. Lord Frederick and Mr. Budd -were first-rate runners, and bets were freely laid. So, one day, old -Fennex laid a trap for the gentlemen: he brought up, to act the part -of some silly conceited youngster with his pockets full of money, a -first-rate runner out of Hertfordshire. This soft young gentleman ran -a match or two with some known third-rate men, and seemed to win by a -neck, and no pace to spare. Then he calls out, “I’ll run any man on the -ground for 25_l._, money down.” A match was quickly made, and money -laid on pretty thick on Fennex’s account. Some said, “Too bad to win -of such a green young fellow!” others said, “He’s old enough--serve him -right.” So the laugh was finely against those who were taken in; “the -green one” ran away like a hare! - -“You see, sir,” said one fine old man, with brilliant eye and quickness -of movement, that showed his right hand had not yet forgot its -cunning, “matches were bought, and matches were sold, and gentlemen -who meant honestly lost large sums of money, till the rogues beat -themselves at last. They overdid it; they spoilt their own trade; and, -as I said to one of them, ‘a knave and a fool makes a bad partnership; -so, you and yourself will never prosper.’ Well, surely there was -robbery enough: and, not a few of the great players earned money to -their own disgrace; but, if you’ll believe me, there was not half the -selling there was said to be. Yes, I can guess, sir, much as you have -been talking to all the old players over this good stuff (pointing to -the brandy and water I had provided), no doubt you have heard that -B---- sold as bad as the rest. I’ll tell the truth: one match up the -country I did sell,--a match made by Mr. Osbaldeston at Nottingham. -I had been sold out of a match just before, and lost 10_l._, and -happening to hear it I joined two others of our eleven to sell, and get -back my money. I won 10_l._ exactly, and of this roguery no one ever -suspected me; but many was the time I have been blamed for selling when -as innocent as a babe. In those days, when so much money was on the -matches, every man who lost his money would blame some one. Then, if A -missed a catch, or B made no runs,--and where’s the player whose hand -is always in?--that man was called a rogue directly. So, when a man was -doomed to lose his character and to bear all the smart, there was the -more temptation to do like others, and after ‘the kicks’ to come in for -‘the halfpence.’ But I am an old man now, and heartily sorry I have -been ever since: because, but for that Nottingham match, I could have -said with a clear conscience to a gentleman like you, that all that was -said was false, and I never sold a match in my life; but now I can’t. -But, if I had fifty sons, I would never put one of them, for all the -games in the world, in the way of the roguery that I have witnessed. -The temptation really was very great,--too great by far for any poor -man to be exposed to,--no richer than ten shillings a week, let alone -harvest time.--I never told you, sir, the way I first was brought to -London. I was a lad of eighteen at this Hampshire village, and Lord -Winchelsea had seen us play among ourselves, and watched the match -with the Hambledon Club on Broadhalfpenny, when I scored forty-three -against David Harris, and ever so many of the runs against David’s -bowling, and no one ever could manage David before. So, next year, in -the month of March, I was down in the meadows, when a gentleman came -across the field with Farmer Hilton: and, thought I, all in a minute, -now this is something about cricket. Well, at last it was settled I was -to play Hampshire against England, at London, in White-Conduit-Fields -ground, in the month of June. For three months I did nothing but think -about that match. Tom Walker was to travel up from this country, and I -agreed to go with him, and found myself at last with a merry company of -cricketers--all the men, whose names I had ever heard as foremost in -the game--met together, drinking, card-playing, betting, and singing -at the Green Man (that was the great cricketer’s house), in Oxford -Street,--no man without his wine, I assure you, and such suppers as -three guineas a game to lose, and five to win (that was then the sum -for players) could never pay for long. To go to London by the waggon, -earn five guineas three or four times told, and come back with half the -money in your pocket to the plough again, was all very well talking. -You know what young folk are, sir, when they get together: mischief -brews stronger in large quantities: so, many spent all their earnings, -and were soon glad to make more money some other way. Hundreds of -pounds were bet upon all the great matches, and other wagers laid on -the scores of the finest players, and that too by men who had a book -for every race and every match in the sporting world; men who lived -by gambling; and, as to honesty, gambling and honesty don’t often go -together. What was easier, then, than for such sharp gentlemen to -mix with the players, take advantage of their difficulties, and say, -‘your backers, my Lord this, and the Duke of that, sell matches and -overrule all your good play, so why shouldn’t you have a share of the -plunder?’--That was their constant argument. ‘Serve them as they serve -you.’--You have heard of Jim Bland, the turfsman, and his brother -Joe--two nice boys. When Jemmy Dawson was hanged for poisoning the -horse, the Blands never felt safe till the rope was round Dawson’s -neck: to keep him quiet, they persuaded him to the last hour that -no one dared hang him; and a certain nobleman had a reprieve in his -pocket. Well, one day in April, Joe Bland traced me out in this parish, -and tried his game on with me. ‘You may make a fortune,’ he said, ‘if -you will listen to me: so much for the match with Surrey, and so much -more for the Kent match--’ ‘Stop,’ said I: ‘Mr. Bland, you talk too -fast; I am rather too old for this trick; you never buy the same man -but once: if their lordships ever sold at all, you would peach upon -them if ever after they dared to win. You’ll try me once, and then -you’ll have me in a line like him of the mill last year.’ No, sir, a -man was a slave when once he sold to these folk: ‘fool and knave aye -go together.’ Still, they found fools enough for their purpose; but -rogues can never trust each other. One day, a sad quarrel arose between -two of them, which opened the gentlemen’s eyes too wide to close again -to those practices. Two very big rogues at Lord’s fell a quarrelling, -and blows were given; a crowd drew round, and the gentlemen ordered -them both into the pavilion. When the one began, ‘You had 20_l._ to -lose the Kent match, bowling leg long hops and missing catches.’ ‘And -you were paid to lose at Swaffham.’--‘Why did that game with Surrey -turn about--three runs to get, and you didn’t make them?’ Angry words -come out fast; and, when they are circumstantial and square with -previous suspicions, they are proofs as strong as holy writ. In one -single-wicket match,” he continued,--“and those were always great -matches for the sporting men, because usually you had first-rate men on -each side, and their merits known,--dishonesty was as plain as this: -just as a player was coming in, (John B. will confess this if you talk -of the match,) he said to me, ‘You’ll let me score five or six, for -appearances, won’t you, for I am not going to make many if I can?’ -‘Yes,’ I said, ‘you rogue, you shall if I can _not_ help it.’--But, -when a game was all but won, and the odds heavy, and all one way, it -was cruel to see how the fortune of the day then would change about. In -that Kent match,--you can turn to it in your book (Bentley’s scores), -played 28th July, 1807, on Penenden Heath,--I and Lord Frederick had -scored sixty-one, and thirty remained to win, and six of the best men -in England went out for eleven runs. Well, sir, I lost some money by -that match, and as seven of us were walking homewards to meet a coach, -a gentleman who had backed the match drove by and said, ‘Jump up, my -boys, we have all lost together. I need not mind if I hire a pair of -horses extra next town, for I have lost money enough to pay for twenty -pair or more.’ Well, thought I, as I rode along, you have rogues enough -in your carriage now, sir, if the truth were told, I’ll answer for it; -and, one of them let out the secret, some ten years after. But, sir, I -can’t help laughing when I tell you: once, there was a single-wicket -match played at Lord’s, and a man on each side was paid to lose. One -was bowler, and the other batsman, when the game came to a near point. -I knew their politics, the rascals, and saw in a minute how things -stood; and how I did laugh to be sure. For seven balls together, one -would not bowl straight, and the other would not hit; but at last a -straight ball must come, and down went the wicket.” - -From other information received, I could tell this veteran that, even -in his much-repented Nottingham match, his was not the only side that -had men resolved to lose. The match was sold for Nottingham too, and -that with less success, for Nottingham won: an event the less difficult -to accomplish, as Lord Frederick Beauclerk broke a finger in an attempt -to stop an angry and furious throw from Shearman, whom he had scolded -for slack play. His Lordship batted with one hand. Afterwards lock-jaw -threatened; and Lord Frederick was, well nigh, a victim to Cricket! - -It is true, Clarke, who played in the match, thought all was fair: -still, he admits, he heard one Nottingham man accused, on the field, -by his own side of foul play. This confirms the evidence of the Rev. -C. W., no slight authority in Nottingham matches, who said he was -cautioned before the match that all would not be fair. - -“This practice of selling matches,” said Beldham, “produced strange -things sometimes. Once, I remember, England was playing Surrey, and, -in my judgment, Surrey had the best side; still I found the Legs were -betting seven to four against Surrey! This time, they were done; for -they betted on the belief that some Surrey men had sold the match: but, -Surrey then played to win.” - -“Crockford used to be seen about Lord’s, and Mr. Gully also -occasionally; but, only for the society of sporting men: they did not -understand the game, and I never saw them bet. Mr. Gully was often -talking to me about the game for one season; but,” said the old man, as -he smoothed down his smockfrock, with all the confidence in the world, -“I could never put any sense into him! He knew plenty about fighting, -and afterwards of horse-racing; but a man cannot learn the odds of -cricket unless he is something of a player.” - - - - -CHAP. VII. - -Βαττολογια, OR THE SCIENCE AND ART OF BATTING. - - -A writer in “Blackwood” once attributed the success of his magazine to -the careful exclusion of every bit of science, or reasoning, above half -an inch long. The Cambridge Professors do not exclusively represent the -mind of Parker’s Piece; so, away with the stiffness of analysis and the -mysteries of science: the laws of dynamics might puzzle, and the very -name of _physics_ alarm, many an able-bodied cricketer; so, invoking -the genius of our mother tongue, let us exhibit science in its more -palatable form. - -All the balls that can be bowled may, for all practical purposes, be -reduced to a few simple classes, and plain rules given for all and -each. There are what are called good balls, and bad balls. The former, -good lengths, and straight, while puzzling to the eye; the latter, bad -lengths and wide, while easy to see and to hit. - -But, is not a good hand and eye quite enough, with a little practice, -without all this theory? Do you ignore the Pilches and the Parrs, who -have proved famous hitters from their own sense alone?--The question -is, not how many have succeeded, but how many more have failed. Cricket -by nature is like learning from a village dame; it leaves a great deal -to be untaught before the pupil makes a good scholar. If you have -Caldecourt’s, Wisden’s, or Lillywhite’s instructions, _vivâ voce_, why -not on paper also? What, though many excellent musicians do not know -a note, every good musician will bear witness that the consequence of -Nature’s teaching is, that men form a vicious habit almost impossible -to correct, a lasting bar to brilliant execution. And why?--because -the piano or the violin leaves no dexterity or rapidity to spare. The -muscles act freely in one way only, in every other way with loss of -power. So with batting. A good ball requires all the power and energy -of the man! And, as with riding, driving, rowing, or every other -exercise, it depends on a certain form, attitude, or position, whether -this power be forthcoming or not. - -The scope for useful instructions for _forming good habits of hitting -before their place is preoccupied with bad_--for, “there’s the rub”--is -very great indeed. If Pilch, and Clarke, and Lillywhite, averaging -fifty years each, are still indifferent to pace in bowling,--and if -Mr. Ward, as late as 1844, scored forty against Mr. Kirwan’s swiftest -bowling, while some of the most active young men, of long experience in -cricket, are wholly unequal to the task; then, it is undeniable that a -batsman may form a certain invaluable habit, which youth and strength -cannot always give, nor age and inactivity entirely take away. - -The following are simple rules for forming correct habits of play; for -adding the judgment of the veteran to the activity of youth, or putting -an old head on young shoulders, and teaching the said young shoulders -not to get into each other’s way. - -All balls that can be bowled are reducible to “length balls” and “not -lengths.” - -_Not lengths_, are the toss, the tice, the half volley, the long hop, -and ground balls. - -These are _not length balls_, not pitched at that critical length -which puzzles the judgment as to whether to play forward or back, as -will presently be explained. These are all “bad balls;” and among good -players considered certain hits; though, from the delusive confidence -they inspire, sometimes they are bowled with success against even the -best of players. - -These _not lengths_, therefore, being the easiest to play, as requiring -only hand and eye, but little judgment, are the best for a beginner to -practise; so, we will set the tyro in a proper position to play them -with certainty and effect. - -POSITION.--Look at any professional player,--observe how he stands -and holds his bat. Much, very much, depends on position,--so look -at the figure of Pilch. This is substantially the attitude of every -good batsman. Some think he should bend the right knee a little; but -an anatomist reminds me that it is when the limb is straight that -the muscles are relaxed, and most ready for sudden action. Various -as attitudes appear to the casual observer, all coincide in the main -points marked in the figure of Pilch in our frontispiece. For, all good -players,-- - -1st. Stand with the right foot just within the line. Further in, would -limit the reach and endanger the wicket: further out, would endanger -stumping. - -2dly. All divide their weight between their two feet, though making the -right leg more the pillar and support, the left being rather lightly -placed, and more ready to move on, off, or forward, and this we will -call the Balance-foot. - -3rdly. All stand as close as they can without being before the wicket; -otherwise, the bat cannot be upright, nor can the eye command a line -from the bowler’s hand. - -4thly. All stand at guard as upright as is easy to them. We say _easy_, -not to forbid a slight stoop,--the attitude of extreme caution. Height -is a great advantage, “and a big man,” says Dakin, “is foolish to make -himself into a little man.” If the eye is low, you cannot have the -commanding sight, nor, as players say, “see as much of the game,” as if -you hold up your head, and look well at the bowler. - -5thly. All stand easy, and hold the bat lightly, yet firmly, in their -hands. However rigid your muscles, you must relax them, as already -observed, before you can start into action. Rossi, the sculptor, made a -beautiful marble statue of a batsman at guard, for the late Mr. William -Ward, who said, “You are no cricketer, Mr. Sculptor; the wrists are too -rigid, and hands too much clenched.” - -After standing at guard in the attitude of Pilch, _fig. 1._ shows the -bat taken up ready for action. But, at what moment are you to raise -your bat? Caldecourt teaches, and some very good players observe, the -habit of not raising the bat till they have seen the pitch of the -ball. This is said to tend both to safety and system in play; but a -first-rate player, who has already attained to a right system, should -aspire to more power and freedom, and rise into the attitude of _fig. -1._ as soon as the ball is out of the bowler’s hand. Good players -often begin an innings with their bat down, and raise it as they gain -confidence. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 1._ - -Preparing for Action. The toes are too much before Wicket, and foot -hardly within the crease. Foreshortening suits our illustration better -than artistic effect.] - -_Meet the ball with as full a bat as the case admits._ Consider the -full force of this rule. - -1st. _Meet the ball._ The bat must strike the ball, not the ball the -bat. Even if you block, you can block hard, and the wrists may do a -little; so, with a good player this rule admits of no exception. Young -players must not think I recommend a flourish, but an exact movement of -the bat at the latest possible instant. In playing back to a bail ball, -a good player meets the ball, and plays it with a resolute movement of -arm and wrist. Pilch is not caught in the attitude of what some call -Hanging guard, letting the ball hit his bat dead, once in a season. - -2dly. _With a full bat._ A good player has never less wood than 21 -inches by 4¼ inches before his wicket as he plays the ball, a bad -player has rarely more than a bat’s width alone. Remember the old -rule, to keep the left shoulder over the ball, and left elbow well up. -Good players must avoid doing this in excess; for, some play from leg -to off, across the line of the ball, in their over care to keep the -shoulder over it. Fix a bat by pegs in the ground, and try to bowl -the wicket down, and you will perceive what an unpromising antagonist -this simple rule creates. I like to see a bat, as the ball is coming, -hang perpendicular as a pendulum from the player’s wrists. The best -compliment ever paid me was this:--“Whether you play forward or back, -hitting or stopping, the wicket is always covered to the full measure -of your bat.” So said a friend well known in North Devon, whose -effective bowling, combined with his name, has so often provoked the -pun of “the falls of the _Clyde_.” - -3dly. _As full a bat as the case admits_: you cannot present a full bat -to any but a straight ball. A bat brought forward from the centre stump -to a ball Off or to leg, must be minutely oblique and form an angle -sufficient to make Off or On hits. - -Herein then consists the great excellence of batting, _in presenting -the largest possible face of the bat to the ball_. While the bat is -descending on the ball, the ball may rise or turn, to say nothing of -the liability of the hand to miss, and then the good player has always -half the width of his bat, besides its height, to cover the deviation; -whereas, the cross player is far more likely to miss, from the least -inaccuracy of hand and eye, or twist of the ball. - -And, would you bring a full bat even to a toss? Would you not cut it to -the Off or hit across to the On? - -This question tries my rule very hard certainly; but though nothing -less than a hit from a toss can satisfy a good player, still I have -seen the most brilliant hitters, when a little out of practice, lose -their wicket, or hit a catch from the edge of the bat, by this common -custom of hitting across even to a toss or long hop. - -To hit tosses is good practice, requiring good time and quick wrist -play. If you see a man play stiff, and “up in a heap,” a swift toss is -worth trying. Bowlers should practise both toss and tice. - -We remember Wenman playing well against fine bowling; when an underhand -bowler was put on, who bowled him with a toss, fourth ball. - -To play tosses, and ground balls, and hops, and every variety of -loose bowling, by the rigid rules of straight and upright play, is -a principle, the neglect of which has often given the old hands a -laugh at the young ones. Often have I been amused to see the wonder -and disappointment occasioned, when some noted member of a University -Eleven, or the Marylebone Club, from whom all expected of course the -most tremendous hitting “off mere underhand bowling,” has been easily -disposed of by a toss or a ground ball, yclept a “sneak.” - -A fast ball to the middle stump, however badly bowled, no player can -afford to treat too easily. A ball that grounds more than once may -turn more than once; and, the bat though properly 4¼ inches wide, is -considerably reduced when used across wicket; so _never hit across -wicket_. To turn to loose bowling, and hit from leg stump square -to the on side with full swing of the body, is very gratifying and -very effective; and, perhaps you may hit over the tent, or, as I -once saw, into a neighbour’s carriage; but, while the natives are -marvel-stricken, Caldecourt will shake his head, and inwardly grieve at -folly so triumphant. - -This reminds me of a memorable match in 1834, of Oxford against Cowley, -the village which fostered those useful members of university society; -who, during the summer term, bowl at sixpences on stumps sometimes -eight hours a day, and have strength enough left at the end to win one -sixpence more. - -The Oxonians, knowing the ground or knowing their bowlers, scored above -200 runs in their first innings. Then Cowley grew wiser; and even now -a Cowley man will tell the tale, how they put on one Tailor Humphreys -to bowl twisting underhand sneaks, at which the Oxonians laughed, and -called it “no cricket;” but it actually levelled their wickets for -fewer runs than were made against Bayley and Cobbett the following -week. The Oxonians, too eager to score, and thinking it so easy, hit -across and did not play their usual game. - -Never laugh at bowling that takes wickets. Bowling that is bad, often -for that very reason meets with batting that is worse. Nothing shows -a thorough player more than playing with caution even badly pitched -underhand bowling. - -One of the best judges of the game I ever knew was once offered by a -fine hitter a bet that he could not with his underhand bowling make -him “give a chance” in half an hour. - -“Then you know nothing of the game,” was the reply; “I would bowl you -nothing but Off tosses, which you must cut; you would not cut those -correctly for half an hour, for you could not use a straight bat once. -Your bet ought to be,--no chance before so many runs.” - -Peter Heward, an excellent wicket-keeper of Leicester,--of the same -day as Henry Davis, one of the finest and most graceful hitters ever -seen, as Dakin, or any midland player will attest,--once observed to -me, “Players are apt to forget that a bad bowler may bowl one or two -balls as well as the best; so, to make a good average, you must always -play the same guarded and steady game, and take care especially when -late in the season.” “Why late in the season?” “Because the ground is -damp and heavy--it takes the spring out of good bowling, and gives fast -underhand bowling as many twists as it has hops, besides making it hang -on the ground. This game is hardly worth playing it is true; but a man -is but half a player who is only prepared for true ground.” “We do not -play cricket,” he continued, “on billiard tables; wind and weather, -and the state of the turf make all the difference. So, if you play to -win, play the game that will carry you through; and that is a straight -and upright game; use your eyes well; play not at the pitch, nor by the -length, but always (what few men do) at the ball itself, and never hit -or ‘pull the ball’ across wicket.” - -Next as to the _half-volley_. This is the most delightful of all -balls to hit, because it takes the right part of the bat, with all -the quickness of its rise or rebound. Any player will show you what a -half-volley is, and I presume that every reader has some living lexicon -to explain common terms. A half-volley, then, is very generally hit -in the air, soaring far above every fieldsman’s head; and to know the -power of the bat, every hitter should learn so to hit at pleasure. -Though, as a rule, _high hits make a low average_. But I am now to -speak only of hitting half-volleys along the ground. - -Every time you play forcibly at the pitch of a ball you have more or -less of the half-volley; so this is a material point in batting. The -whole secret consists partly in timing your hit well, and partly in -taking the ball at the right part of the rise, so as to play the ball -down without wasting its force against the ground. - -Every player thinks he can hit a half-volley along the ground; but -if once you see it done by a really brilliant hitter, you will soon -understand that such hitting admits of many degrees of perfection. In -forward play, or driving, fine hitters seem as if they felt the ball -on the bat, and sprung it away with an elastic impulse; and, in the -more forcible hits, a ball from one of the All England batsmen appears -not so much like a hit as a shot from the bat: for, when a ball is hit -in the swiftest part of the bat’s whirl, and with that part of the bat -that gives the greatest force with the least jar, the ball appears to -offer no resistance; its momentum is annihilated by the whirl of the -bat, and the two-and-twenty fieldsmen find to their surprise how little -ground a fieldsman can cover against true and accurate hitting. - -Clean hitting requires a loose arm, the bat held firmly, but not -clutched in the hand till the moment of hitting; clumsy gloves are a -sad hindrance, the hit is not half so crisp and smart. The bat must be -brought forward not only by the free swing of the arm working well from -the shoulder, but also by the wrist. (Refer to _fig. 1._ p. 115.) Here -is the bat ready thrown back, and wrists proportionally bent; from that -position a hit is always assisted by wrist as well as arm. The effect -of the wrist alone, slight as its power appears, is very material in -hitting; this probably arises from the greater precision and better -time in which a wrist hit is commonly made. - -As to hard hitting, if two men have equal skill, the stronger man -will send the ball farthest. Many slight men drive a ball nearly as -far as larger men, because they exert their force in a more skilful -manner. We have seen a man six feet three inches in height, and of -power in proportion, hit a ball tossed to him--not once or twice, but -repeatedly--a hundred yards or more in the air. This, perhaps, is more -than any light man could do. But, the best man at putting the stone and -throwing a weight we ever saw, was a man of little more than ten stone. -In this exercise, as in wrestling, the application of a man’s whole -weight at the proper moment is the chief point: so also in hard hitting. - -The whirl of the bat may be accelerated by wrist, fore-arm, and -shoulder: let each joint bear its proper part. - -NUTS FOR STRONG TEETH.--All effective hits must be made with both hands -and arms; and, in order that both arms may apply their force, the point -at which the ball is struck should be opposite the middle of the body. - -Take a bat in your hand, poise the body as for a half-volley hit -forward, the line from shoulder to shoulder being parallel with the -line of the ball. Now whirl the bat in the line of the ball, and -you will find that it reaches that part of its circle where it is -perpendicular to the ground,--midway between the shoulders; at that -moment the bat attains its greatest velocity; so, then alone can the -strongest hit be made. Moreover, a hit made at this moment will drive -the ball parallel to and skimming the ground. And if, in such a hit, -the lower six inches of the bat’s face strike the ball, the hit is -properly called a “clean hit,” being free from all imperfections. The -same may be said of a horizontal hit, or cut. The bat should meet the -ball when opposite the body. I do not say that every hit should be made -in this manner; I only say that a perfect hit can be made in no other, -and that it should be the aim of the batsman to attain this position -of the body as often as he can. Nor is this mere speculation on the -scientific principle of batting; it arises from actual observation of -the movements of the best batsmen. All good hitters make their hits -just at the moment when the ball is opposite the middle of their body. -Watch any fine Off-hitter. If he hits to Mid-wicket, his breast is -turned to Mid-wicket; if he hits, I mean designedly, to Point, his -breast is turned to Point. I do not say that his hits would always go -to those parts of the field; because the speed and spin of the ball -will always, to a greater or less degree, prevent its going in the -precise direction of the hit; but I only say that the ball is always -hit by the best batsmen when just opposite to them. Cutting forms no -exception: the best cutters turn the body round on the basis of the -feet till the breast fronts the ball,--having let the ball go almost -as far as the bails,--and then the full power of the hitter is brought -to bear with the least possible diminution of the original speed of -the ball. This is the meaning of the observation,--that fine cutters -appear to follow the ball, and at the latest moment cut the ball off -the bails; for, if you do not follow the ball, by turning your breast -to it at the moment you hit, you can have no power for a fine cut. -It makes good “Chamber practice” to suspend a ball oscillating by a -string: you will thus see wherein lies that peculiar power of cutting, -which characterises Mr. Bradshaw, Mr. Felix, and Mr. C. Taylor; as of -old, Searle, Saunders, and Robinson. Robinson cut so late that the ball -often appeared past the wicket. - -And these hints will suffice to awaken attention to the powers of the -bat. Clean hitting is a thing to be carefully studied; the player who -has never discovered his deficiency in it, had better examine and see -whether there is not a secret he has yet to learn. - -_The Tice._ Safest to block: apt to be missed, because a dropping ball; -hard to get away, because on the ground. Drop the bat smartly on the -ground, and it will make a run, but do not try too much of a hit. The -Tice is almost a full pitch; the way to hit it, says Caldecourt, is to -go in and make it a full pitch: I cannot advise this for beginners. -Going in even to a Tice puts you out of form for the next ball, and -creates a dangerous habit. - -_Ground balls_, and all balls that touch the ground more than once -between wickets, I have already hinted, are reckoned very easy, -but they are always liable to prove very dangerous. Sometimes you -have three hops, and the last like a good length ball: at each hop -the ball may twist On or Off with the inequalities of the ground; -also, if bowled with the least bias, there is much scope for that -bias to produce effect. All these peculiarities account for a fact, -strange but true, that the best batsmen are often out with the worst -bowling. Bad bowling requires a game of its own, and a game of the -greatest care, where too commonly we find the least; because “only -underhand bowling,”--and “not by any means good lengths;” it requires, -especially, playing at the ball itself, even to the last inch, and not -by calculation of the pitch or rise. - -Let me further remark that hitting, to be either free, quick, or clean, -must be done by the arms and wrists, and not by the body; though the -weight of the body appears to be thrown in by putting down the left -leg; though, in reality, the leg comes down after the hit to restore -the balance. - -Can a man throw his body into a blow (at cricket)? About as much as he -can hold up a horse with a bridle while sitting on the same horse’s -back. Both are common expressions; both are at variance with the laws -of nature. A man can only hit by whirling his bat in a circle. If -he stands with both feet near together, he hits feebly because in a -smaller circle; if he throws his left foot forward, he hits harder -because in a wider circle. A pugilist cannot throw in his body with a -round hit; and a cricketer cannot make anything else but round hits. -Take it as a rule in hitting, that what is not elegant is not right; -for the human frame is rarely inelegant in its movements when all -the muscles act in their natural direction. Many men play with their -shoulders up to their ears, and their sinews all in knots, and because -they are conscious of desperate exertion, they forget that their force -is going anywhere rather than into the ball. It is often remarked that -hard hitting does not depend on strength. No. It depends not on the -strength a man has, but on the strength he exerts, at the right time -and in the right direction; and strength is exerted in hitting, as in -throwing a ball, in exact proportion to the rapidity of the whirl or -circle which the bat or hand describes. The point of the bat moves -faster in the circle than any other part; and, therefore, did not the -jar, resulting from the want of resistance, place the point of hitting, -as experience shows, a little higher up, the nearer the end the harder -would be the hit. The wrist, however slight its force, acting with a -multiplying power, adds greatly to the speed of this whirl. - -Hard hitting, then, depends, first, on the freedom with which the -arm revolves from the shoulder, unimpeded by constrained efforts and -contortions of the body; next, on the play of the arm at the elbow; -thirdly, on the wrists. Observe any cramped clumsy hitter, and you will -recognise these truths at once. His elbow seems glued to his side, his -shoulder stiff at the joint, and the little speed of his bat depends on -a twist and a wriggle of his whole body. - -Keep your body as composed and easy as the requisite adjustment of the -left leg will admit; let your arms do the hitting; and remember the -wrists. The whiz that meets the ear will be a criterion of increasing -power. Practise hard hitting,--that is, the full and timely application -of your strength, not only for the value of the extra score, but -because hard hitting and correct and clean hitting are one and the same -thing. Mere stopping balls and poking about in the blockhole is not -cricket, however successful; and I must admit, that one of the most -awkward, poking, vexatious blockers that ever produced a counterfeit of -cricket, defied Bayley and Cobbett at Oxford in 1836,--three hours, and -made five and thirty runs. Another friend, a better player, addicted to -the same teasing game, in a match at Exeter in 1845, blocked away till -his party, the N. Devon, won the match, chiefly by byes and wide balls! -Such men might have turned their powers to much better account. - -Some maintain that anything that succeeds is cricket; but not such -cricket as full-grown men should vote a scientific and a manly -exercise; otherwise, to “run cunning” might be Coursing, and to kill -sitting Shooting. A player may happen to succeed with what is not -generally a successful style,--winning in spite of his awkwardness, and -not by virtue of it. - -But there is another cogent reason for letting your arms, and not your -body, do the work,--namely, that it makes all the difference to your -sight whether the level of the eye remains the same as with a composed -and easy hitter; or, unsteady and changing, as with the wriggling and -the clumsy player. Whether a ball undulates in the air, or whether -there is an equal undulation in the line of the eye which regards that -ball, the confusion and indistinctness is the same. As an experiment, -look at any distant object, and move your head up and down, and you -will understand the confusion of sight to which I allude. The only -security of a good batsman, as of a good shot, consists in the hand and -eye being habituated to act together. Now, the hand may obey the eye -when at rest, but have no such habit when in unsteady motion. And this -shows how uncertain all hitting must be, when, either by the movement -of the body or other cause, the line of sight is suddenly raised or -depressed. - -The same law of sight shows the disadvantage of men who stand at guard -very low, and then suddenly raise themselves as the ball is coming. - -The same law of sight explains the disadvantage of stepping in to hit, -especially with a slow dropping ball: the eye is puzzled by a double -motion--the change in the level of the ball, and the change in the -level of the line of sight. - -So much for our theory; now for experience! Look at Pilch and all fine -players. How characteristic is the ease and repose of their figures--no -hurry or trepidation. How little do their heads or bodies move! Bad -players dance about, as if they stood on hot iron, a dozen times while -the ball is coming, with precisely the disadvantage that attends an -unsteady telescope. “Then you would actually teach a man how to see?” -We would teach him how to give his eyes a fair chance. Of sight, as of -quickness, most players have enough, if they would only make good use -of it. - -To see a man wink his eyes and turn his head away is not uncommon the -first day of partridge shooting, and quite as common at the wicket. -An undoubting judgment and knowledge of the principles of batting -literally improves the sight, for it increases that calm confidence -which is essential for keeping your eyes open and in a line to see -clearly. - -Sight of a ball also depends on a habit of undivided attention both -before and after delivery, and very much on health. A yellow bilious -eye bespeaks a short innings: so, be very careful what you eat and -drink when engaged to play a match. At a match at Purton in 1836, five -of the Lansdowne side, after supping on crab and champagne, could do -nothing but lie on the grass. But your sight may be seriously affected -when you do not feel actually ill. So Horace found at Capua:-- - - “_Namque pilâ lippis inimicum et ludere crudis._” - -STRAIGHT AND UPRIGHT PLAY.--To be a good judge of a horse, to have -good common sense, and to hit straight and upright at Cricket, are -qualifications never questioned without dire offence. Yet few, very -few, ever play as upright as they might play, and that even to guard -their three stumps. To be able, with a full and upright bat, to play -well over and to command a ball a few inches to the Off, or a little to -the leg, is a very superior and rare order of ability. - -The first exercise for learning upright play is to practise several -times against an easy bowler, with both hands on the same side of the -handle of the bat. Not that this is the way to hold a bat in play, -though the bat so held must be upright; but this exercise of rather -poking than playing will inure you to the habit and method of upright -play. Afterwards shift your hands to their proper position, and -practise slipping your left hand round into the same position, while in -the act of coming forward. - -But be sure you stand up to your work, or close to your blockhole; -and let the bowler admonish you every time you shrink away or appear -afraid of the ball. Much practice is required before it is possible -for a young player to attain that perfect composure and indifference -to the ball that characterises the professor. The least nervousness -or shrinking is sure to draw the bat out of the perpendicular. As to -shrinking from the ball--I do not mean any apprehension of injury, but -only the result of a want of knowledge of length or distance, and the -result of uncertainty as to how the ball is coming, and how to prepare -to meet it. Nothing distinguishes the professor from the amateur more -than the composed and unshrinking posture in which he plays a ball. - -Practice alone will prevent shrinking: so encourage your bowler -continually to remind you of it. As to practising with a bowler, you -see some men at Lord’s and the University grounds batting hour after -hour, as if cricket were to be taken by storm. To practise long at one -time is positively injurious. For about one hour a man may practise to -advantage; for a second hour, he may rather improve his batting even -by keeping wicket, or acting long stop. Anything is good practice for -batting which only habituates the hand and eye to act together. - -The next exercise is of a more elegant kind, and quite coincident -with your proper game. Always throw back the point of the bat, while -receiving the ball, to the top of the middle stump, as in figure, page -114; then the handle will point to the bowler, and the whole bat be in -the line of the wicket. By commencing in this position, you cannot fail -to bring your bat straight and full upon the ball. If you take up your -bat straight, you cannot help hitting straight; but if once you raise -the point of the bat across the wicket, to present a full bat for that -ball is quite impossible. - -One advantage of this exercise is that it may be practised even without -a bowler. The path of a field, with ball and bat, and a stick for a -stump, are all the appliances required. Place the ball before you, -one, two, or more feet in advance, and more or less On or Off, at -discretion. Practise hitting with right foot always fixed, and with as -upright and full a bat as possible: keep your left elbow up, and always -over the ball. - -This exercise will teach, at the same time, the full powers of the bat; -what style of hitting is most efficacious; at what angle you smother -the ball, and at what you can hit clean; only, be careful to play in -form; and always see that your right foot has not moved before you -follow to pick up the ball. Fixing the right foot is alone a great help -to upright play; for while the right foot remains behind, you are so -completely over a straight ball, and in a form to present a full bat, -that you will rarely play across the ball. Firmness in the right foot -is also essential to hard hitting, for you cannot exert much strength -unless you stand in a firm and commanding position. - -Upright and straight hitting, then, requires, briefly, the point of the -bat thrown back to the middle stump as the ball is coming; secondly, -the left elbow well up; and, thirdly, the right foot fixed, and near -the blockhole. - -Never play a single ball without strict attention to these three -rules. At first you will feel cramped and powerless; but practice will -soon give ease and elegance, and form the habit not only of all sure -defence, but of all certain hitting: for, the straight player has -always wood enough and to spare in the way of the ball; whereas, a -deviation of half an inch leaves the cross-player at fault. Mr. William -Ward once played a single-wicket match with a thick stick, against -another with a bat; yet these are not much more than the odds of good -straight play against cross play. At Cheltenham College the first -Eleven plays the second Eleven “a broomstick match.” - -When a player hits almost every time he raises his bat, the remark is, -What an excellent eye that batsman has! But, upright play tends far -more than eye to certainty in hitting. It is not easy to miss when you -make the most of every inch of your bat. But when you trust to the -width alone, a slight error produces a miss, and not uncommonly a catch. - -The great difficulty in learning upright play consists in detecting -when you are playing across. So your practice-bowler must remind you -of the slightest shifting of the foot, shrinking from the wicket, or -declination of your bat. Straight bowling is more easy to stand up to -without nervous shrinking, and slow bowling best reveals every weak -point, because a slow ball must be played: it will not play itself. -Many stylish players are beaten by slow bowling; some, because never -thoroughly grounded in the principles of correct play and judgment of -lengths; others, because hitting by rule and not at the ball. System -with scientific players is apt to supersede sight; so take care as the -mind’s eye opens the natural eye does not shut. - -Underhand bowling is by far the best for a learner, and learners are, -or should be, a large class. Being generally at the wicket, it produces -the straightest play: falling stumps are “no flatterers, but feelingly -remind us what we are.” Caldecourt, who had a plain, though judicious, -style of bowling, once observed a weak point in Mr. Ward’s play, and -levelled his stumps three times in about as many balls. Many men -boasting, as Mr. Ward then did, of nearly the first average of his day, -would have blamed the bowler, the ground, the wind, and, in short, any -thing but themselves; but Mr. Ward, a liberal patron of the game, in -the days of his prosperity, gave Caldecourt a guinea for his judgment -in the game and his useful lesson. “Such,” Dr. Johnson would say, “is -the spirit and self-denial of those whose memories are not doomed to -decay” with their bats, but play cricket for “immortality.” - -PLAYING FORWARD AND BACK.--And now about length-balls, and when to play -forward at the pitch, and when back for a better sight of the rebound. - -A length-ball is one that pitches at a puzzling length from the bat. -This length cannot be reduced to any exact and uniform measurement, -depending on the delivery of the bowler and the reach of the batsman. - -For more intelligible explanation, I must refer you to your friends. - -[Illustration] - -Every player is conscious of one particular length that puzzles -him,--of one point between himself and the bowler, in which he would -rather that the ball should not pitch. “There is a length-ball that -almost blinds you,” said an experienced player at Lord’s. There is a -length that makes many a player shut his eyes and turn away his head; -“a length,” says Mr. Felix, “that brings over a man most indescribable -emotions.” There are two ways to play such balls: to discriminate is -difficult, and, “if you doubt, you are lost.” Let A be the farthest -point to which a good player can reach, so as to plant his bat at the -proper angle, at once preventing a catch, stopping a shooter, and -intercepting a bailer. Then, at any point short of A, should the bat -be placed, the ball may rise over the bat if held to the ground, or -shoot under if the bat is a little raised. At B the same single act of -planting the bat cannot both cover a bailer and stop a shooter. Every -ball which the batsman can reach, as at A, may be met with a full bat -forward; and, being taken at the pitch, it is either stopped or driven -away with all its rising, cutting, shooting, or twisting propensities -undeveloped. If not stopped at A, the ball may rise and shoot in six -lines at least; so, if forced to play back, you have six things to -guard against instead of one. Still, any ball you cannot cover forward, -as at B, must be played back; and nearly in the attitude shown in page -115. This back play gives as long a sight of the ball as possible, and -enables the player either to be up for a bailer or down for a shooter. - -MORE HARD NUTS.--Why do certain lengths puzzle, and what is the nature -of all this puzzling emotion? It is a sense of confusion and of doubt. -At the moment of the pitch, the ball is lost in the ground; so you -doubt whether it will rise, or whether it will shoot--whether it will -twist, or come in straight. The eye follows the ball till it touches -the ground: till this moment there is no great doubt, for its course -is known to be uniform. I say no great doubt, because there is always -some doubt till the ball has passed some yards from the bowler’s hand. -The eye cannot distinguish the direction of a ball approaching till it -has seen a fair portion of its flight. Then only can you calculate what -the rest of the flight will be. Still, before the ball has pitched, the -first doubt is resolved, and the batsman knows the ball’s direction; -but, when once it touches the ground, the change of light alone (earth -instead of air being the background) is trying to the eye. Then, at -the rise, recommences all the uncertainty of a second delivery; for, -the direction of the ball has once more to be ascertained, and that -requires almost as much time for sight as will sometimes bring the ball -into the wicket. - -All this difficulty of sight applies only to the batsman; to him the -ball is advancing and foreshortened in proportion as it is straight. -If the ball is rather wide, or if seen, as by Point, from the side, -the ball may be easily traced, without confusion, from first to last. -It is the fact of an object approaching perfectly straight to you, -that confuses your sense of distance. A man standing on a railway -cannot judge of the nearness of the engine; nor a man behind a target -of the approach of the arrow; whereas, seen obliquely, the flight is -clear. Hence a long hop is not a puzzling length, because there is -time to ascertain the second part of the course or rebound. A toss is -easy because one course only. The tice also, and the half-volley, or -any over-pitched balls, are not so puzzling, because they may be met -forward, and the two parts of the flight reduced to one. Such is the -philosophy of forward play, intended to obviate the batsman’s chief -difficulty, which is, with the second part, or, the rebound of the -ball. - -The following are good rules:-- - -1. Meet every ball at the pitch by forward play which you can -conveniently cover. - -Whatever ball you can play forward, you can play safely--as by one -single movement. But in playing the same ball back, you give yourself -two things to think of instead of one--stopping and keeping down a -bailer; and, stopping a shooter. Every ball is the more difficult -to play back in exact proportion to the ease with which it might be -played forward. The player has a shorter sight, and less time to see -the nature of the rise; so the ball crowds upon him, affording neither -time nor space for effective play. Never play back but of necessity; -meet every ball forward which you can conveniently cover--I say -_conveniently_, because, if the pitch of the ball cannot be reached -without danger of losing your balance, misplacing your bat, or drawing -your foot out of your ground, that ball should be considered out of -reach, and be played back. This rule many fine players, in their -eagerness to score, are apt to violate; so, if the ball rises abruptly, -they are bowled or caught. There is also danger of playing wide of the -ball, if you over-reach. - -2. Some say, When in doubt play back. Certainly all balls may be -played back; but many it is almost impracticable to play forward. But -since the best forward players may err, the following hint, founded -on the practice of Fuller Pilch, will suggest an excellent means of -getting out of a difficulty:--Practise the art of _half-play_; that is, -practise going forward to balls a little beyond your reach, and then, -instead of planting your bat near the pitch, which is supposed too far -distant to be effectually covered, watch for the ball about half-way, -being up if it rises, and down if it shoots. By this half-play, which -I learnt from one of Pilch’s pupils, I have often saved my wicket when -I found myself forward for a ball out of reach; though before, I felt -defenceless, and often let the ball pass either under or over my bat. -Still half-play, though a fine saving clause for proficients, is but a -choice of evils, and no practice for learners, as forming a bad habit. -By trying too many ways, you spoil your game. - -3. Ascertain the extent of your utmost reach forward, and practise -accordingly. The simplest method is to fix your right foot at the -crease, and try how far forward you can conveniently plant your bat at -the proper angle; then, allowing that the ball may be covered at about -three feet from its pitch, you will see at once how many feet you can -command in front of the crease. Pilch could command from ten to twelve -feet. Some short men will command ten feet; that is to say, they will -safely meet forward every ball which pitches within that distance from -the crease. - -There are two ways of holding a bat in playing forward. The position of -the hands, as of Pilch, in the frontispiece, standing at guard, will -not admit of a long reach forward. But by shifting the left hand behind -the bat, the action is free, and the reach unimpeded. - -[Illustration] - -Every learner must practise this shifting of the left hand in forward -play. The hand will soon come round naturally. Also, learn to reach -forward with composure and no loss of balance. Play forward evenly and -gracefully, with rather an elastic movement. Practice will greatly -increase your reach. Take care you do not lose sight of the ball, as -many do; and, look at the ball itself, not merely at the spot where you -expect it to pitch. Much depends on commencing at the proper moment, -and not being in a hurry. Especially avoid any catch or flourish. Come -forward, foot and bat together, most evenly and most quietly. - -Forward play may be practised almost as well in a room as in a -cricket-field: better still with a ball in the path of a field. To -force a ball back to the bowler or long-field by hard forward play -is commonly called Driving; and driving you may practise without any -bowler, and greatly improve in balance and correctness of form, and -thus increase the extent of your reach, and habituate the eye to a -correct discernment of the point at which forward play ends and back -play begins. By practice you will attain a power of coming forward -with a spring, and playing hard or driving. All fine players drive -nearly every ball they meet forward, and this driving admits of so many -degrees of strength that sometimes it amounts to quite a hard hit. “I -once,” said Clarke, “had thought there might be a school opened for -cricket in the winter months; for, you may drill a man to use a bat as -well as a broad-sword.” With driving, as with half-play, be not too -eager--play forward surely and steadily at first, otherwise the point -of the bat will get in advance, or the hit be badly timed, and give a -catch to the bowler. This is one error into which the finest forward -players have sometimes gradually fallen--a vicious habit, formed from -an overweening confidence and success upon their own ground. Comparing -notes lately with an experienced player, we both remembered a time -when we thought we could make hard and free hits even off those balls -which good players play gently back to the bowler; but eventually a -succession of short innings sent us back to safe and sober play. - -Sundry other hits are made, contrary to every rule, by players -accustomed to one ground or one set of bowlers. Many an Etonian has -found that a game, which succeeded in the Shooting fields, has proved -an utter failure when all was new at Lord’s or in a country match. - -Every player should practise occasionally with professional bowlers; -for, they look to the principle of play, and point out radical errors -even in showy hits. Even Pilch will request a friend to stand by him -in practice to detect any shifting of the foot or other bad habit, -into which experience teaches that the best men unconsciously fall. I -would advise every good player to take one or two such lessons at the -beginning of the season. A man cannot see himself, and will hardly -believe that he is taking up his bat across wicket, sawing across at a -draw, tottering over instead of steady, moving off his ground at leg -balls, or very often playing forward with a flourish instead of full on -the ball, and making often most childish mistakes which need only be -mentioned to be avoided. - -One great difficulty, we observed, consists in correct discrimination -of length and instantaneous decision. To form correctly as the ball -pitches, there is time enough, but none to spare: time only to act, -no time to think. So also with shooting, driving, and various kinds -of exercises, at the critical moment all depends not on thought, but -habit: by constant practice, the time requisite for deliberation -becomes less and less, till at length we are unconscious of any -deliberation at all,--acting, as it were, by intuition or instinct, for -the occasion prompts the action: then, in common language, we “do it -naturally,” or, have formed that habit which is “a second nature.” - -In this sense, a player must form a habit of correct decision in -playing forward and back. Till he plays by habit, he is not safe: -the sight of the length must prompt the corresponding movement. Look -at Fuller Pilch, or Mr. C. Taylor, and this rule will be readily -understood; for, with such players, every ball is as naturally and -instinctively received by its appropriate movement as if the player -were an automaton, and the ball touched a spring: so quickly does -forward play, or back, and the attitude for off-cut or leg-hit, appear -to coincide with, or rather to anticipate, each suitable length. All -this quickness, ease, and readiness marks a habit of correct play; and -the question is, how to form such a habit. - -All the calmness or composure we admire in proficients results from a -habit of playing each length in one way, and in one way only. To attain -this habit, measure your reach before the crease, as you begin to -practise with a bowler; and, make a mark visible to the bowler, but not -such as will divert your own eye. - -Having fixed such a mark, let your bowler pitch, as nearly as he can, -sometimes on this side of the mark, sometimes on that. After every -ball, you have only to ask, Which side? and you will have demonstrative -proof whether your play has been right or wrong. Constant practice, -with attention to the pitch, will habituate your eye to lengths, and -enable you to decide in a moment how to play. - -For my own part, I have rarely practised for years without this mark. -It enables me to ascertain, by referring to the bowler, where any ball -has pitched. To know at a glance the exact length of a ball, however -necessary, is not quite as easy to the batsman as to the bowler; and, -without practising with a mark, you may remain a long time in error. - -After a few days’ practice, you will become as certain of the length of -each ball, and of your ability to reach it, as if you actually saw the -mark, for you will carry the measurement in “your mind’s eye.” - -So far well: you have gained a perception of lengths and distance; the -next thing is, to apply this knowledge. Therefore, bear in mind you -have a HABIT TO FORM. No doubt, many will laugh at this philosophy. -Pilch does not know the “theory of moral habits,” I dare say; but he -knows well enough that wild practice spoils play; and if to educated -men I please to say that, wild play involves the formation of a set -of bad habits to hang about you, and continually interfere with good -intentions, where is the absurdity? How should you like to be doomed -to play with some mischievous fellow, always tickling your elbow, and -making you spasmodically play forward, when you ought to play back, -or, hit round or cut, when you ought to play straight? Precisely such -a mischievous sprite is a bad habit. Till you have got rid of him, he -is always liable to come across you and tickle you out of your innings: -all your resolution is no good. Habit is a much stronger principle than -resolution. Accustom the hand to obey sound judgment, otherwise it will -follow its old habit instead of your new principles. - -To borrow an admirable illustration from Plato, which Socrates’ pupil -remarked was rather apt than elegant,--“While habit keeps up itching, -man can’t help scratching.” And what is most remarkable in bad habits -of play is, that, long after a man thinks he has overcome them, by some -chance association, the old trick appears again, and a man feels (oh! -fine for a moralist!) _one law in his mind and another law_--or rather, -let us say, he feels a certain latent spring in him ever liable to be -touched, and disturb all the harmony of his cricketing economy. - -Having, therefore, a habit to form, take the greatest pains that -you methodically play forward to the over-pitched, and back to the -under-pitched, balls. My custom was, the moment the ball pitched, to -say audibly to myself “forward,” or “back.” By degrees I was able to -calculate the length sooner and sooner before the pitch, having, of -course, the more time to prepare; till, at last, no sooner was the ball -out of the bowler’s hand, than ball and bat were visibly preparing for -each other’s reception. After some weeks’ practice, forward and back -play became so easy, that I cease to think about it: the very sight of -the ball naturally suggesting the appropriate movement; in other words, -I had formed a habit of correct play in this particular. - -“_Suave mari magno_,” says Lucretius; that is, it is delightful, from -the vantage ground of science, to see others floundering in a sea of -error, and to feel a happy sense of comparative security;--so, was it -no little pleasure to see the many wickets that fell, or the many -catches which were made, from defects I had entirely overcome. - -For, without the habit aforesaid, a man will often shut his eyes, and -remove his right fingers, as if the bat were hot, and then look behind -him and find his wicket down. A second, will advance a foot forward, -feel and look all abroad, and then try to seem unconcerned, if no -mischief happens. A third, will play back with the shortest possible -sight of the ball, and hear his stumps rattle before he has time to do -anything. A fourth, will stand still, a fixture of fuss and confusion, -with the same result; while a fifth, will go gracefully forward, with -straightest possible bat, and the most meritorious elongation of limb, -and the ball will pass over the shoulder of his bat, traverse the -whole length of his arms, and back, and colossal legs, tipping off the -bails, or giving a chance to the wicket-keeper. Then, as Poins says of -Falstaff, “The virtue of this jest will be the incomprehensible lies -that this same fat rogue will tell us.” For, when a man is out by this -simple error in forward or backward play, it would take a volume to -record the variety of his excuses. - -The reason so much has been said about Habit is, partly, that the -player may understand that bad habits are formed as readily as good; -that a repetition of wild hits, or experimentalising with hard hits off -good lengths, may disturb your quick perception of critical lengths, -and give you an uncontrollable habit of dangerous hitting. - -THE SHOOTER.--This is the surest and most destructive ball that is -bowled. Stopping shooters depends on correct position, on a habit of -playing at the ball and not losing it after the pitch, and on a quick -discernment of lengths. - -The great thing is decision; to doubt is to lose time, and to lose time -is to lose your wicket. And this decision requires a correct habit -of forward and back play. But since prevention is better than cure, -by meeting at the pitch every ball within your reach, you directly -diminish the number, not only of shooters, but of the most dangerous of -all shooters, because of those which afford the shortest time to play. -But, supposing you cannot cover the ball at the pitch, and a shooter it -must be, then-- - -The first thing is, to have the bat always pointed back to the wicket, -as in _fig. 1._ page 115; thus you will drop down on the ball, and have -all the time and space the case admits of. If the bat is not previously -thrown back, when the ball shoots the player has two operations,--the -one, to put the bat back: and the other, to ground it: instead of one -simple drop down alone. I never saw any man do this better than Wenman, -when playing the North and South match at Lord’s in 1836. Redgate was -in his prime, and almost all his balls were shooting down the hill; -and, from the good time and precision with which Wenman dropped down -upon some dozen shooters, with all the pace and spin for which Redgate -was famous--the ground being hardened into brick by the sun--I have -ever considered Wenman equal to any batsman of his day. - -The second thing is, to prepare for back play with the first possible -intimation that the ball will require it. A good player descries the -enemy, and drops back as soon as the ball is out of the bowler’s hand. - -The third--a golden rule for batsmen--is: expect a good length to -shoot, and you will have time, if it rises: but if you expect it to -rise, you are too late if it shoots. - -THE BAIL BALL.--First, the attitude is that of _fig. 1._ The bat thrown -back to the bails is indispensable for quickness: if you play a bailer -too late, short slip is placed on purpose to catch you out; therefore -watch the ball from the bowler’s hand, and drop back on your wicket in -good time. Also, take the greatest pains in tracing the ball every inch -from the hand to the bat. Look hard for the twist, or a “break” will -be fatal. To keep the eye steadily on the ball, and not lose it at the -pitch, is a hint even for experienced players: so make this the subject -of attentive practice. - -The most difficult of all bailers are those which ought not to be -allowed to come in as bailers at all, those which should be met at the -pitch. Such over-pitched balls give neither time nor space, if you -attempt to play them back. - -Every length ball is difficult to play back, just in proportion to the -ease with which it could be covered forward. A certain space, from nine -to twelve feet, before the crease is, to a practised batsman, so much -_terra firma_, whereon pitching every ball is a safe stop or score. -Practise with the chalk mark, and learn to make this _terra firma_ as -wide as possible. - -THE DRAW is so called, I suppose, because, when perfectly made, there -is no draw at all. Look at _fig. 2._ The bat is not drawn across the -wicket, but hangs perpendicularly from the wrists; though the wrists -of a good player are never idle, but bring the bat to meet the ball a -few inches, and the hit is the natural angle formed by the opposing -forces. “Say also,” suggests Clarke, “that the ball meeting the bat, -held easy in the hand, will turn it a little of its own force, and the -wrists _feel_ when to help it.” This old rule hardly consists with the -principle of meeting the ball. - -The Draw is the spontaneous result of straight play about the two leg -stumps: for if you begin, as in _fig. 1._, with point of bat thrown -back true to middle stump, you cannot bring the bat straight to meet -a leg-stump ball without the line of the bat and the line of the ball -forming an angle in crossing each other; and, by keeping your wrists -well back, and giving a clear space between body and wicket, the Draw -will follow of itself. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 2._] - -The bat must not be purposely presented edgeways in the least degree. -Draw a full bat from the line of the middle stump to meet a leg-stump -ball, and, as the line of the ball must make a very acute angle, you -will have the benefit of a hit without lessening your defence. “A Draw -is very dangerous with a ball that would hit the leg stump,” some say; -but only when attempted in the wrong way; for, how can a full bat -increase your danger? - -This mode of play will also lead to, what is most valuable but most -rare, a correct habit of passing every ball the least to the Near side -of middle stump clear away to the On side. This blocking between legs -and wickets, first, obviates the ball going off legs into wicket; -secondly, it keeps many awkward balls out of Slip’s hands; and, -thirdly, it makes single runs off the best balls. - -Too little, now-a-days, is done with the Draw; too much is attempted by -the “blind swipe,” to the loss of many wickets. - -Every man in a first-rate match who loses his wicket, while swiping -round, ought to pay a forfeit to the Reward Fund. - -The only balls for the Draw are those which threaten the wicket. To -shuffle backwards half a yard, scraping the bat on the ground, or to -let the ball pass one side the body with a blind swing on the other, -are hits which to mention is to reprove. - -Our good friend, Mr. Abraham Bass,--and what cricketer in the Midland -Counties defers not to his judgment?--thinks that the Draw cannot be -made quite so much of as we say, except by a left-handed man. The -short-pitched balls which some draw, he thinks, are best played back to -middle On, by a turn of the left arm to the On side. - -Here Mr. Bass mentions a very good hit--a good variety--and one, -too, little practised: his hit and the Draw are each good in their -respective places. To discriminate every shade is impossible. “Mr. -Taylor had most hits I ever saw,” said Caldecourt, “and was a better -player even than Lord Frederick; though Mr. Taylor’s hits were not all -_legitimate_:” so much the better; new combinations of old hits. - -As to the old-fashioned hit under leg, Mr. Mynn, at Leicester, in 1836, -gave great effect to one variety of it; a hit which Pilch makes useful, -though hard to make elegant. Some say, with Caldecourt, such balls -ought always to be drawn: but is it not a useful variety? - -DRAW OR GLANCE FROM OFF STUMP.--What is true of the Leg stump is true -of the Off, care being taken of catch to Slips. Every ball played from -two Off stumps, by free play of wrist and left shoulder well over, -should go away among the Slips. Play hard on the ball; the ball must -never hit a dead bat; and every so-called block, from off stumps, must -be a hit. - -Commence, as always, from _fig. 1._; stand close up to your wicket; -weight on pivot-foot; balance-foot ready to come over as required. This -is the only position from which you can command the off stump. - -Bear with me, my friends, in dwelling so much on this Off-play. Many -fine cutters could never in their lives command off stump with a full -and upright bat. Whence come the many misses of off-hits? Observe, and -you will see, it is because the bat is slanting, or it must sweep the -whole space through which the ball could rise. - -By standing close up, and playing well over your wicket with straight -bat, and throwing, by means of left leg, the body forwards over a -ball rising to the off-stump, you may make an effective hit from an -off-bailer without lessening your defence; for how can hard blocking, -with a full bat, be dangerous? All that is required is, straight -play and a free wrist, though certainly a tall man has here a great -advantage. - -A FREE WRIST.--Without wrist play there can be no good style of -batting. Do not be puzzled about “throwing your body into your hit.” -Absurd, except with straight hits--half-volley, for instance. Suspend a -ball, oscillating by a string from a beam, keep your right foot fixed, -and use the left leg to give the time and command of the ball and to -adjust the balance, and you will soon learn the power of the wrists and -arms. Also, use no heavy bats; 2 lbs. 2 oz. is heavy enough for any man -who plays with his wrists. The wrist has, anatomically, two movements; -the one up and down, the other from side to side; and to the latter -power, by much the least, the weight of the bat must be proportioned. -“My old-fashioned bat,” said Mr. E. H. Budd, “weighed nearly three -pounds, and Mr. Ward’s a pound more.” - -THE OFF-HIT, here intended, is made with upright bat, where the -horizontal cut were dangerous or uncertain. It may be made with any -off-ball, one or two feet wide of the wicket. The left shoulder must be -well over the ball, and this can only be effected by crossing, as in -_fig. 3._ p. 159, left leg over. This, one of the best players agrees, -is a correct hit, provided the ball be pitched well up; otherwise he -would apply the Cut: but the cut serves only when a ball rises; and I -am unwilling to spare one that comes in near the ground. - -This upright off-hit, with left leg crossed over, may be practised -with a bat and ball in the path of a field. You may also devise -some “Chamber Practice,” without any ball, or with a soft ball -suspended--not a bad in-door exercise in cold weather. When -proficient, you will find that you have only to hit at the ball, and -the balance-foot will naturally cross over and adjust itself. - -In practising with a bowler, I have often fixed a fourth stump, about -six inches from off-stump, and learnt to guard it with upright bat. -_Experto crede_, you may learn to sweep with almost an upright bat -balls as much as two feet to the Off. But this is a hit for balls -requiring back play, but-- - -COVER-HIT is the hit for over-pitched off-balls. Come forward hard to -meet an off-ball; and then, as your bat moves in one line, and the ball -meets it in another, the resultant will be Cover-hit. By no means turn -the bat: a full face is not only safe but effective. - -With all off-hits beware of the bias of the ball to the off, and play -well over the ball--very difficult for young players. Never think about -what off-hits you can make, unless you keep the ball safely down. - -The fine square leg-hit is similar to cover-hit, though on the other -side. To make cover-hit clean, and not waste power against the ground, -you must take full advantage of your height, and play the bat well down -on the ball from your hip, timing nicely, eye still on the ball, and -inclining the bat neither too little nor too much. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 3._] - -THE FORWARD CUT, a name by which I would distinguish another off-hit -is a hit made by Butler, Guy, Dakin, Parr, and indeed especially by -the Nottingham men, who, Clarke thinks, “hit all round them” better -than men of any other county (see _fig. 3._). The figures being -foreshortened as seen by the bowler, the artist unwillingly sacrifices -effect to show the correct position of the feet. This hit may be made -from balls too wide and too low for the backward cut. Cross the left -leg over, watch the ball from its pitch, and you may make off-hits from -balls low or cut balls high (unless very high, and then you have time -to drop the bat) with more commanding power than in any other position. -Some good players do not like this crossing of left foot, preferring -the cutting attitude of _fig. 3._; but I know from experience and -observation, that there is not a finer or more useful hit in the field; -for, if a ball is some two feet to the Off, it matters not whether -over-pitched or short-pitched, the same position, rather forward, -equally applies. - -The Forward Cut sends the ball between Point and Middle-wicket, an -open part of the field, and even to Long-field sometimes: no little -advantage. Also, it admits of much greater quickness. You may thus -intercept forward, what you would be too late to cut back. - -To learn it, fix a fourth stump in the ground, one foot or more wide to -the Off; practise carefully keeping right foot fixed, and crossing left -over, and preserve the cutting attitude; and this most brilliant hit is -easily acquired. - -When you play a ball Off, do not lose your balance and stumble -awkwardly one foot over the other, but end in good form, well on your -feet. Even good players commit this fault; also, in playing back some -players look as if they would tumble over their wicket. - -THE CUT is generally considered the most delightful hit in the game. -The Cut proper is made by very few. Many make Off-hits, but few “cut -from the bails between short slip and point with a late horizontal -bat--cutting, never by guess but always by sight, at the ball itself; -the cut applying to rather short-pitched balls, not actually long hops; -and that not being properly a cut which is in advance of the point.” -Such is the definition of Mr. Bradshaw, whom a ten years’ retirement -has not prevented from being known as one of the best hitters of the -day. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 4._] - -The attitude of cutting is faintly given (because foreshortened) in -_fig. 4._ This represents a cut at rather a wide ball; and a comparison -of _figs. 3._ and _4._ will show that, with rather wide Off-balls, -the Forward Cut is the better position; for you more easily intercept -balls before they are out of play. Right leg would be thrown back -rather than advanced, were the ball nearer the wicket. Still, the -attitude is exceptional. Look at the other figures, and the cutter -alone will appear with right foot shifted. Compare _fig. 1._ with the -other figures, and the change is easy, as in the left foot alone; but, -compare it with the cuts (_figs. 4._ and _5._), and the whole position -is reversed: right shoulder advanced, and right foot shifted. There -is no ball that can be cut which may not be hit by one of the other -Off-hits already mentioned, and that with far greater certainty, -though not with so brilliant an effect. Pilch and many of the steadiest -and best players never make the genuine cut. “Mr. Felix,” says Clarke, -“cuts splendidly; but, in order to do so, he cuts before he sees the -ball, and thus misses two out of three.” Neither do I believe that any -man will reconcile the habitual straight play and command of off-stump, -which distinguishes Pilch, with a cutting game. Each virtue, even in -Cricket, has its excess: fine Leg-hitters are apt to endanger the -leg-stump; fine Cutters, the Off. For, the Cutter must begin to take -up his altered position so soon, that the idea must be running in his -head almost while the ball is being delivered; then, the first impulse -brings the bat at once out of all defensive and straight play. Right -shoulder involuntarily starts back; and, if at the wrong kind of ball, -the wicket is exposed, and all defence at an end. But with long-hops -there is time enough to cut; the difficulty is with good balls: and, to -cut them, not by guess but, by sight. _Fig. 5._ represents a cut at a -ball nearer the wicket, the right foot being drawn back to gain space. - -So much for the abuse of Cutting. If the ball does not rise, there -can be no Cut, however loose the bowling; though, with the other -Off-hits, two or three might be scored. The most winning game is that -which plays the greatest number of balls--an art in which no man can -surpass Baldwinson of Yorkshire. Still a first-rate player should have -a command of every hit: a bowler may be pitching uniformly short, and -the balls may be rising regularly: in this case, every one would like -to see a good Cutter at the wicket. - -To learn the Cut, suspend a ball from a string and a beam, oscillating -backwards and forwards--place yourself as at a wicket, and -experimentalise. You will find:-- - -1. You have no power in Cutting, unless you Cut late--“off the bails:” -then only can you use the point of your bat. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 5._] - -2. You have no power, unless you turn on the basis of your feet, and -front the ball, your back being almost turned upon the bowler, at the -moment of cutting. - -3. Your muscles have very little power in Cutting quite horizontally, -but very great power in Cutting down on the ball. - -This agrees with the practice of the best players. Mr. Bradshaw -follows the ball and cuts very late, cutting down. He drops his bat, -apparently, on the top of the ball. Lord Frederick used to describe -the old-fashioned Cutting as done in the same way. Mr. Bradshaw never -Cuts but by sight; and since, when the eye catches the rise of a good -length ball, not a moment must be lost, his bat is thrown back just a -little--an inch or two higher than the bails (he stoops a little for -the purpose)--and dropped on the ball in an instant, by play of the -wrist alone. Thus does he obtain his peculiar power of Cutting even -fair-length balls by sight. - -Harry Walker, Robinson, and Saunders were the three great Cutters; -and they all Cut very late. But the underhand bowling suited cutting -(proper) better than round-armed; for all Off-hitting is not cutting. -Mr. Felix gives wonderful speed to the ball, effected by cutting down, -adding the weight of a descending bat to the free and full power of the -shoulder: he would hardly have time for such exertion if he hit with -the precision of Mr. Bradshaw, and not hitting till he saw the ball. - -Lord Frederick found fault with Mr. Felix’s picture of “the Cut,” -saying it implied force from the whirl of the bat; whereas a cut should -proceed from wrists alone, descending with bat in hand,--precisely Mr. -Bradshaw’s hit. “Excuse me, my Lord,” said Mr. Felix, “that’s not a -Cut, but only a _pat_.” The said _pat_, or wrist play, I believe to be -the only kind of cutting by sight, for good-length balls. - -To encourage elegant play, and every variety of hit, we say practise -each kind of cut, both Lord Frederick’s _pat_ and Mr. Felix’s off-hit, -and the Nottingham forward cut, with left leg over; but beware of using -either in the wrong place. A man of one hit is easily managed. A good -off-hitter should send the ball according to its pitch, not to one -point only, but to three or four. Old Fennex used to stand by Saunders, -and say no hitting could be finer--“no hitter such a fool--see, sir, -they have found out his hit--put a man to stop his runs--still, -cutting, nothing but cutting--why doesn’t the man hit somewhere else?” -So with Jarvis of Nottingham, a fine player and one of the best cutters -of his day, when a man was placed for his cut, it greatly diminished -his score. For off-balls we have given, Off-play to the slips--Cover -hit--the Nottingham hit more towards middle wicket; and, the Cut -between slip and point--four varieties. Let each have its proper place, -till an old player can say, as Fennex said of Beldham, “He hit quick -as lightning all round him. He appeared to have no hit in particular: -you could never place a man against him: where the ball was pitched -there it was hit away.” - -[Illustration: _Fig. 6._] - -LEG-HITTING.--Besides the draw, there are two distinct kinds of -leg-hits--one forward, the other back. The forward leg-hit is made, as -in _fig. 6._, by advancing the left foot near the pitch of the ball, -and then hitting down upon the ball with a free arm, the bat being -more or less horizontal, according to the length of the ball. A ball -so far pitched as to require little stride of left leg, will be hit -with nearly a straight bat: a ball as short as you can stride to, will -require nearly a horizontal bat. The ball you can reach with straight -bat, will go off on the principle of the cover-hit--the more square -the better. But, when a ball is only just within reach, by using a -horizontal bat, you know where to find the ball just before it has -risen; for, your bat covers the space about the pitch. If you reach -far enough, even a shooter may be picked up; and if a few inches short -of the pitch, you may have all the joyous spring of a half-volley. The -better pitched the bowling, the easier is the hit, if the ball be only -a little to the leg. In using a horizontal bat, if you cannot reach -nearer than about a foot from the pitch, sweep your bat through the -line in which the ball should rise. Look at _fig. 7._ p. 173. The bat -should coincide with or sweep a fair bat’s length of that dotted line. -But if the point of the bat cannot reach to within a foot of the pitch, -that ball must be played back. - -THE SHORT-PITCHED LEG BALL needs no comment, save that, according as it -is more or less to the wicket, you may,--1. Draw it; 2. Play it by a -new hit, to be explained, a Draw or glance outside your leg; 3. You may -step back on your wicket to gain space, and play it away to middle On, -or cut it round, according to your sight of it. - -But in leg-hitting, beware of a “blind swipe,” or that chance hit, by -guess of where the ball will rise, which some make when the bat cannot -properly command the pitch. This blind hit is often made at a ball -not short enough to play by sight back, nor long enough to command -forward. Parr advances left foot as far as he can, and hits where the -ball ought to be. But this he would hardly advise, except you can -nearly command the pitch; otherwise, a blind swing of the bat, although -the best players are sometimes betrayed into it, is by no means to be -recommended. - -Reader, do you ever make the square hit On? Or, do you ever drive a -ball back from the leg-stump to long-field On? Probably not. Clarke -complains that this good old hit is gone out, and that one more man -is thereby brought about the wicket. If you cannot make this hit, you -have evidently a faulty style of play. So, practise diligently with -leg-balls, till balls from two leg-stumps go to long-field On, and -balls a little wide of leg-stump go nearly square; and do not do this -by a kind of push--much too common,--but by a real hit, left shoulder -forward. - -Also, do you ever draw out of your ground in a leg-hit? Doubly -dangerous is this--danger of stumping and danger of missing easy hits. -If once you move your pivot foot, you lose that self-command essential -for leg-hits. So, practise, in your garden or your room, the stride and -swing of the bat, till you have learnt to preserve your balance. - -One of the best leg-hitters is Dakin: and his rule is: keep your right -foot firm on your ground; advance the left straight to the pitch, and -as far as you can reach, and hit as straight at the pitch as you can, -just as if you were hitting to long-field: as the lines of bat and ball -form an angle, the ball will fly away square of itself. - -My belief is, the Wykehamists introduced the art of hitting leg-balls -at the pitch. When, in 1833, at Oxford, Messrs. F. B. Wright and -Payne scored above sixty each off Lillywhite and Broadbridge, it was -remarked by the players, they had never seen their leg-hit before. -Clarke says he showed how to make forward leg-hits at Nottingham. For, -the Nottingham men used to hit after leg-balls, and miss them, till he -found the way of intercepting them at the rise, and hitting square. - -And this will be a fair occasion for qualifying certain remarks which -would appear to form what is aptly called a “toe-in-the-hole” player. - -When I spoke so strongly about using the right foot as a pivot, and the -left as a balance foot, insisting, also, on not moving the right foot, -I addressed myself not to proficients, but to learners. Such is the -right position for almost all the hits on the ball, and this fixing of -the foot is the only way to keep a learner in his proper form. - -Experienced players--I mean those who have passed through the -University Clubs, and aspire to be chosen in the Gentlemen’s Eleven of -All England--must be able to move each foot on its proper occasion, -especially with slow bowling. Clarke says, “If I see a man set fast on -his legs, I know he can’t play my bowling.” The reason is, as we shall -explain presently, that the accurate hitting necessary for slow bowling -requires not long reaching, but a short, quick action of the arms -and wrists, and activity on the legs, to shift the body to suit this -hitting in narrow compass. - -A practised player should also be able to go in to over-pitched balls, -to give effect to his forward play. To be stumped out looks ill -indeed; still, a first-rate player should have confidence and coolness -enough to bide his time, and then go boldly and steadily in and hit -away. If you do go in, take care you go far enough, and as far as the -pitch; and, only go in to straight balls, for to those alone can you -carry a full bat. And, never go in to make a free swing of the bat or -tremendous swipe. Go in with a straight bat, not so much to hit, as to -drive or block the ball hard away, or, as Clarke says, “to run the ball -down.” Stepping in only succeeds with cool and judicious hitters, who -have some power of execution. All young players must be warned that, -for any but a most practised player to leave his ground, is decidedly a -losing game. - -Supposing the batsman knows how to move his right foot back readily, -then, a long-hop to the leg admits of various modes of play, which -I feel bound to mention, though not to recommend; for, a first-rate -player should at least know every hit: whether he will introduce it -much or little into his game is another question. - -A leg-ball that can be played by sight is sometimes played by raising -the left leg. This is quite a hit of the old school,--of Sparkes and -Fennex, for instance. Fennex’s pupil, Fuller Pilch, commonly makes -this hit. Some first-rate judges--Caldecourt among others--maintain -it should never be made, but the Draw always used instead. Mr. Taylor -found it a useful variety; for, before he used it, Wenman used to stump -him from balls inside leg stump. For some lengths it has certainly the -advantage of placing the ball in a more open part of the field. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 7._] - -Another way to play such balls is to step back with the right foot, and -thus gain time and length of hop, and play the ball away, with short -action of the arm and wrist, about middle On. This also is good, as -making one hit more in your game. Another hit there is which bears -a name not very complimentary to Mr. James Dean; though Sampson, of -Sheffield, attains in a similar manner remarkable certainty in meeting -leg-balls, and not inelegantly. My attention was first called to this -hit by watching the play of Mr. E. Reeves, who makes it with all the -ease and elegance of the Draw, of which I consider it one variety. -Clarke says, that with a ball scarcely wide of your leg, he thinks it -a good hit: I have, therefore, given a drawing of it in the last page. -When done correctly, and in its proper place, it is made by an easy and -elegant movement of the wrists, and looks as pretty as the Draw; but -this kind of forward play, which takes an awkward ball at its rise and -places it on the On-side, however useful to Sampson of Sheffield and -the very few who introduce it in its proper place,--this is a hit which -_nascitur non fit_, must come naturally, as a variety of forward play. -To study it, makes a poking game, and spoils the play of hundreds. So, -beware how you practise the poke. - -“The best way to score from short-pitched leg-balls,” writes a very -good hitter, “is to make a sort of sweep with the left foot, almost -balancing yourself by the toe of the said left foot, and resting -chiefly on the right foot,--at the same time drawing yourself upright -and retiring towards the wicket. This of course is all one movement. -In this position you make the heel of your right the pivot on which -you turn, and move your left (but in a greater circle), so that both -preserve the same parallel as at starting, and come round together; and -this I regard as the great secret of a batsman’s movement in this hit. -This gives you the power of simply playing the ball down, if it rises -much, and likewise of hitting hard if it keep within a foot of the -ground. Both Sampson and Parr score very much in this style.” - -However, with fast bowling, there are almost as many mistakes as runs -made by hitting at these short-pitched leg-balls. Pilch, in his later -days, would hardly meddle with them. - -Lastly, as to leg-balls, remember that almost any one can learn to hit -clean up (square, especially); the art is to play them down. Also, -leg-hitting alone is very easy; but, to be a good Off-player, and an -upright and straight player, and yet hit to leg freely, is very rare. -We know a fine leg-hitter who lost his leg-hit entirely when he learnt -to play better to the off. - - - - -CHAP. VIII. - -HINTS AGAINST SLOW BOWLING. - - -While our ideas on Slow Bowling were yet in a state of solution, they -were, all at once, precipitated and crystallised into natural order by -the following remarks from a valued correspondent:-- - -“I have said that Pilch was unequalled with the bat, and his great -excellence is in _timing_ the ball. No one ever mastered Lillywhite -like Pilch; because, in his forward play, he was not very easily -deceived by that wary individual’s repeated change of pace. He plays -forward with his eye on, not only the pitch, but on the ball itself, -being faster or slower in his advance by a calm calculation of time--a -point too little considered by some even of the best batsmen of the -day. No man hits much harder than Pilch; and, be it observed, hard -hitting is doubly hard, in all fair comparison, when combined with -that steady posture which does not sacrifice the defence of the wicket -for some one favourite cut or leg-hit. Compare Pilch with good general -hitters, who, at the same time, guard their wicket, and I doubt if you -can find from this select class a harder hitter in England.” - -This habit of playing each ball by correct judgment of its time and -merits has made Pilch one of the few who play Old Clarke as he should -be played. He plays him back all day if he bowls short, and hits him -hard all along the ground, whenever he overpitches; and sometimes -he will go in to Clarke’s bowling, but not to make a furious swipe, -but to “run him down” with a straight bat. This going in to Clarke’s -bowling some persons think necessary for every ball, forgetting that -“discretion is the better part of” cricket; the consequence is that -many wickets fall from positive long hops. Almost every man who begins -to play against Clarke appears to think he is in honour bound to hit -every ball out of the field: and, every one who attempts it comes out -saying, “What rubbish!--no play in it!” The truth being that there is a -great deal of play in it, for it requires real knowledge of the game. -You have curved lines to deal with instead of straight ones. “But, what -difference does that make?” We shall presently explain. - -The amusing part is, that this cry of “What rubbish!” has been going -on for years, and still the same error prevails. Experience is not -like anything hereditary: the generations of eels do not get used to -being skinned, nor do the generations of men get tired of doing the -same foolish thing. Each must suffer _propriâ personâ_, and not by -proxy. So, the gradual development of the human mind against Clarke’s -bowling is for the most part this:--first, a state of confidence in -hitting every ball; secondly, a state of disgust and contempt at what -seems only too easy for a scientific player to practise; and, lastly, a -slowly increasing conviction that the batsman must have as much head as -the bowler, with patience to play an unusual number of good lengths. - -Slow bowling is most effective when there is a fast bowler at the other -end. It is very puzzling to alter your time in forward play from fast -to slow, and slow to fast, every Over: so, Clarke and Wisden work well -together. A shooter from a slow bowler is sometimes found even more -difficult than one from a fast bowler: and this for two reasons; first, -because the batsman is made up for slow time and less prepared for -fast; and, secondly, because a good slow ball is pitched further up, -and, therefore, though the fast ball shoots quicker, the slow ball has -the shorter distance to shoot into the wicket. - -Compare the several styles of bowling in the following diagram. A good -length ball, you see, pitches nearer to the bat in proportion to the -slowness of its pace. Wisden is not so fast, nor is Clarke as slow, -practically, as they respectively appear. With Wisden’s straight lines, -it is far easier to calculate where the ball will pitch, than with the -curved lines and dropping balls of Clarke; and when Wisden’s ball has -pitched, though its pace is quicker, the distance it has to come is so -much longer, that Clarke, in effect, is not so much slower, as he may -appear. Lillywhite and Hillyer are of a medium kind; having partly the -quickness of Wisden’s pace, and partly the advantage of Clarke’s curved -lines and near pitch. From this diagram it appears that the slower the -bowling the nearer it may be pitched, and the less the space the bat -can cover; also, the more difficult is the ball to judge; for, the -curved line of a dropping ball is very deceiving to the eye. - -[Illustration: Slow Bail balls--Clarke’s. - -Fast Bail balls--Wisden’s. - -Medium pace--Lillywhite’s. - -Slow Shooters--Clarke’s. - -Medium pace Shooters--Lillywhite’s. - -Fast Shooters--Wisden’s.] - -In speaking of Clarke’s bowling, men commonly imply that the slowness -is its only difficulty. Now a ball cannot be more difficult for hand -or eye because it moves slowly. No; the slower the easier; but the -difficulty arises from the following qualities, wholly distinct from -the pace, though certainly it is the slowness that renders those -qualities possible:-- - -1st. Clarke’s lengths are more accurate. - -2dly. He can vary his pace unobserved, without varying his action or -delivery. - -3dly. More of his balls would hit the wicket. - -4thly. A slow ball must be played: it will not play itself. - -5thly. Clarke can more readily take advantage of each man’s weak point. - -6thly. Slow bowling admits of more bias. - -7thly. The length is more difficult to judge, owing to the curved lines. - -8thly. It requires the greatest accuracy in hitting. You must play at -the ball with short, quick action where it actually is, and not by -calculation of its rise, or where it will be. - -9thly. Slow balls can be pitched nearer to the bat, affording a shorter -sight of the rise. - -10thly. Catches and chances of stumping are more frequent, and less -likely to be missed. - -11thly. The curved lines and the straightness preclude cutting, and -render it dangerous to cross the ball in playing to leg. - -One artifice of Clarke, and of all good slow bowlers, is this: to begin -with a ball or two which may easily be played back; then, with a much -higher toss and slower pace, as in the diagram, he pitches a little -short of the usual spot. If the batsman’s eye is deceived as to the -distance, he at once plays forward to a length which is at all times -dangerous; and, as it rises higher, the play becomes more dangerous -still. - -The difficulty of “going in” to such bowling as Clarke’s, depends on -this:-- - -The bat is only four inches and a quarter wide: call half that width -two inches of wood. Then, you can only have two inches to spare for the -deviation of your hit; therefore, if a ball turns about two inches, -while you are in the act of hitting, the truest hitter possible must -miss. - -The obvious conclusion from these facts is,-- - -1st. That you can safely go in to such balls only as are straight, -otherwise you cannot present a full bat; and, only when you can step -right up to the pitch of the ball, otherwise, by a twist it will escape -you; and slow balls turn more than fast in a given space. 2ndly. You -can only go in to such lengths as you can easily and steadily command: -a very long step, or any unusual hurry, will hardly be safe with only -the said two inches of wood to spare. - -Now the question is, with what lengths, against such bowling as -Clarke’s, can you step in steadily and safely, both as far as the -pitch, and with full command of hand and eye? Remember, you cannot -begin your step till you have judged the length; and this, with the -curved line of a slow dropping ball, you cannot judge till within a -little of its grounding; so, the critical time for decision and action -is very brief, and, in that brief space, how far can you step secure -of all optical illusions, for, Clarke can deceive you by varying both -the pace and the curve of his ball?--Go and try. Again, when you have -stepped in, where will you hit? On the ground, of course, and straight. -And where are the men placed? Besides, are you aware of the difficulty -of interchanging the steady game with right foot in your ground, with -that springy and spasmodic impulse which characterises this “going in?” -At a match at Lord’s in 1849, I saw Brockwell score some forty runs -with many hits off Clarke: he said to me, when he came out, “Clarke -cannot bowl his best to me; for, sometimes, I go in to the pitch of the -ball, when pitched well up, and hit her away; at other times, I make -a feint, and then stand back, and so Clarke gets off his bowling.” He -added, “the difficulty is to keep your temper and not to go in with a -wrong ball.” This, I believe, is indeed a difficulty,--a much greater -difficulty than is commonly imagined. My advice to all players who have -not made a study of the art of going in, and have not fully succeeded -on practising days, is, by no means to attempt it in a match. It is not -so easy as it appears. You will find Clarke, or any good slow bowler, -too much for you.--“But, supposing I should stand out of my ground, -or start before the ball is out of the bowler’s hand?” Why, with an -unpractised bowler, especially if in the constrained attitude of the -overhand delivery, this manœuvre has succeeded in producing threes and -fours in rapid succession. But Clarke would pitch over your head, or -send in a quick underhand ball a little wide, and you would be stumped; -and Wisden would probably send a fast toss about the height of your -shoulder, and, being prepared to play perfectly straight at the pitch, -you would hardly raise your bat in time to keep a swift toss out of the -wicket-keeper’s hands. - -The difficulty of curvilinear bowling is this:-- - -1st. As in making a catch, every fieldsman finds that, in proportion -as the ball has been hit up in the air, it is difficult to judge where -to place himself: by the same law of sight, a fast ball that goes -almost point-blank to its pitch, is far easier to judge than a slow -ball that descends in a curve. - -2ndly. As the slow ball reaches the ground at a greater angle, it -must rise higher in a given space; so, if the batsman misjudges the -pitch of a slow ball by a foot, he will misjudge the rise to a greater -extent than with a fast ball, which rises less abruptly. Hence, playing -forward is less easy with slow, than with fast, bowling. - -3dly. As to timing the ball, all the eye can discern in a body moving -directly towards it, is the angle with the ground: to see the curve of -a dropping ball you must have a side view. The man at Point can see the -curve clearly; but not so the batsman. Consequently, the effect of the -curve is left out in the calculation, and the exact time of the ball’s -approach is, to that extent, mistaken. Every one knows the difficulty -of making a good half-volley-hit off a slow ball, because the timing -is so difficult: great speed without a curve is less puzzling to the -eye than a curvilinear movement, however slow. It were odd, indeed, -if it were harder to hit a slow than a fast ball. No. It is the curve -that makes difficult what of its pace alone would be easy. All forward -play, with slow bowling, is beset with the great difficulty of allowing -for the curve. And what style of play does this suggest? Why, precisely -what Clarke has himself remarked,--namely, that to fix the right foot -as for fast bowling, and play with long reach forward, does not answer. -You must be quick on your feet, and, by short quick action of the arms, -hit the ball actually as it is, and not as you calculate it will be a -second later. This is the system of men who play Clarke best; of Mr. -Vernon, of Fuller Pilch, of Hunt of Sheffield, and of C. Browne: though -these men also dodge Clarke; and, pretending sometimes to go out, -deceive him into dropping short, and so play their heads against his. -The best bowling is sometimes hit; but I have not heard of any man who -found it much easier to score off Clarke than off other good bowlers. -To play Clarke “on any foregone conclusion” is fatal. Every ball must -be judged by its respective merits and played accordingly. - -Again, as to cutting, or in any way crossing, these dropping or -curvilinear balls. As a slow ball rises twice as much in a given space -as a fast ball, of course the chances are greater that the bat will not -cover the ball at the point at which, by anticipation, you cut. If you -cut at a fast ball, the height of its rise is nearly uniform, and its -course a straight line: so, most men like very fast bowling, because, -if the hand is quick enough, the judgment is not easily deceived, for -the ball moves nearly in straight lines. But, in cutting or in crossing -a slow ball, the height of the rise varies enough to produce a mistake -while the bat is descending on the ball. - -Once more, in playing at a ball after its rise, a safe and forcible hit -can only be made in two ways. You must either meet the ball with full -and straight bat, or cut horizontally across it. Now, as slow balls -generally rise too high for a hard hit with perpendicular bat, you are -reduced generally to the difficulties of cutting or back play. Add to -all this, that the bias from the hand and from the inequalities of the -ground is much greater, and also that a catch, resulting from a feeble -hit and the ball spinning off the edge of the bat, remains commonly -so long in the air that every fieldsman can cover double his usual -quantity of ground, and then we shall cease to wonder that the best -players cannot score fast off slow bowling. - - - - -CHAP. IX. - -BOWLING.--AN HOUR WITH “OLD CLARKE.” - - -In cricket wisdom Clarke is truly “Old:” what he has learnt from -anybody, he learnt from Lambert. But he is a man who thinks for -himself, and knows men and manners, and has many wily devices, -“_splendidè mendax_.” “I beg your pardon, sir,” he one day said to a -gentleman taking guard, “but ain’t you Harrow?”--“Then we shan’t want -a man down there,” he said, addressing a fieldsman; “stand for the -‘Harrow drive,’ between point and middle wicket.” - -The time to see Clarke is on the morning of a match. While others are -practising, he walks round with his hands under the flaps of his coat, -reconnoitring his adversaries’ wicket. - -“Before you bowl to a man, it is worth something to know what is -running in his head. That gentleman,” he will say, “is too fast on his -feet, so, as good as ready money to me: if he doesn’t hit he can’t -score; if he does I shall have him directly.” - -Going a little further, he sees a man lobbing to another, who is -practising stepping in. “There, sir, is ‘practising to play Clarke,’ -that is very plain; and a nice mess, you will see, he will make of it. -Ah! my friend, if you do go in at all, you must go in further than -that, or my twist will beat you; and, going in to swipe round, eh! -Learn to run me down with a straight bat, and I will say something to -you. But that wouldn’t score quite fast enough for your notions. Going -in to hit round is a tempting of Providence.” - -“There, that man is purely stupid: alter the pace and height with a -dropping ball, and I shall have no trouble with him. They think, sir, -it is nothing but ‘Clarke’s vexatious pace:’ they know nothing about -the curves. With fast bowling, you cannot have half my variety; and -when you have found out the weak point, where’s the fast bowler that -can give the exact ball to hit it? There is often no more head-work in -fast bowling than there is in the catapult: without head-work I should -be hit out of the field.” - -“A man is never more taken aback than when he prepares for one ball, -and I bowl him the contrary one: there was Mr. Nameless, the first time -he came to Nottingham, full of fancies about playing me. The first -ball, he walked some yards out to meet me, and I pitched over his head, -so near his wicket, that, thought I, that bird won’t fight again. Next -ball, he was a little cunning, and made a feint of coming out, meaning, -as I guessed, to stand back for a long hop; so I pitched right up to -him; and he was so bent upon cutting me away, that he hit his own -wicket down!” - -Look at diagrams page 179. Clarke is there represented as bowling two -balls of different lengths; but the increased height of the shorter -pitched ball, by a natural ocular delusion, makes it appear as far -pitched as the other. If the batsman is deceived in playing at both -balls by the same forward play, he endangers his wicket. “See, there,” -continues Clarke, “that gentleman’s _is_ a dodge certainly, but not a -new one either. He does step in, it is true; but while hitting at the -ball, he is so anxious about getting back again, that his position has -all the danger of stepping in, and none of its advantages.” - -“Then there is Mr. ----,” naming a _great_ man struggling with -adversity. “He gives a jump up off his feet, and thinks he is stepping -in, but comes flump down just where he was before.” - -“Pilch plays me better than any one. But he knows better than to step -in to every ball, or to stand fast every ball. He plays steadily, and -discriminates, waiting till I give him a chance, and then makes the -most of it.” - -Bowling consists of two parts: there is the mechanical part, and the -intellectual part. First, you want the hand to pitch where you please, -and then the head to know where to pitch, according to the player. - -To LEARN THE ART OF BOWLING.--1. First, consult with some Lillywhite -or Wisden, and fix on one, and one only, plan of holding the ball, -manageable pace, and general style of delivery. Consult and experiment -till you have chosen the style that suits the play of your muscles and -your strength. If you choose a violent and laborious style, you will -certainly become tired of it: but a style within your strength will -be so delightful that you will be always practising. Secondly, having -definitely chosen one form and style of bowling, the next thing is to -fix it and form it into a habit: for, on the law of Habit a bowler’s -accuracy entirely depends. - -To form a steady habit of bowling, the nerves and muscles being a very -delicate machinery, you must be careful to use them in one way, and one -way only; for then they will come to serve you truly and mechanically: -but, even a few hours spent in loose play--in bowling with few steps or -many, or with a new mode of delivery--will often establish conflicting -habits, or call into action a new set of muscles, to interfere with -the muscles on which you mainly depend. Many good players (including -the most destructive of the Gentleman’s Eleven!) have lost their -bowling by these experiments: many more have been thrown back when near -perfection. Therefore, - -2. Never bowl a single ball but in your chosen and adopted form and -style--with the same steps, and with the ball held in the same way. “If -these seem small things, habit is not a small thing.” Also, never go -on when you are too tired to command your muscles; else, you will be -twisting yourself out of form, and calling new and conflicting muscles -into action. - -As to Pace, if your strength and stature is little, your pace cannot -be fast. Be contented with being rather a slow bowler. By commencing -slowly, if any pace is in you, it will not be lost; but by commencing -fast, you will spoil all. - -3. Let your carriage be upright though easy; and start composedly from -a state of perfect rest. Let your steps, especially the last, be short; -and, for firm foothold, and to avoid shaking yourself or cutting up the -ground, learn to descend not on the heel but more on the toe and flat -of the foot, and so as to have both feet in the line of the opposite -wicket. For, - -4. A golden rule for straight bowling is to present, at delivery, a -full face to the opposite wicket; the shoulders being in the same line, -or parallel with, the crease. That is the moment to quit the ball--a -moment sooner and you will bowl wide to the leg, a moment later and -you will bowl wide to the Off. Observe Wisden and Hillyer. They deliver -just as their front is square with the opposite wicket. They look well -at their mark, and bowl before they have swung too far round for the -line of sight to be out of the line of the wicket. Observe, also, bad -bowlers, and you will see a uniformity in their deviation: some bowl -regularly too much to the On; others as regularly to the Off. Then, -watch their shoulders; and you will recognise a corresponding error in -their delivery. The wonder is that such men should ever bowl straight. - -Also, adopt a run of from five to seven yards. Let your run be quite -straight; not from side to side, still less crossing your legs as you -run. - -5. “Practise,” says Lillywhite, “both sides of the wicket. To be able -to change sides, is highly useful when the ground is worn, and it often -proves puzzling to the batsman.” - -6. Hold the ball in the fingers, not in the palm, and always the same -way. If the tips of the fingers touch the seam of the ball, it will -assist in the spin. The little finger “guides” the ball in the delivery. - -7. The essence of a good delivery is to send the ball forth rotating, -or turning on its own axis. The more spin you give the ball, the better -the delivery; because then the ball will twist, rise quickly, or cut -variously, the instant it touches the ground. - -8. This spin must not proceed from any conscious action of the fingers, -but from some mechanical action of the arm and wrist. Clarke is not -conscious of any attempt to make his ball spin or twist: a certain -action has become habitual to him. He may endeavour to increase this -tendency sometimes; but no bowling could be uniform that depended so -much on the nerves, or on such nice feeling as this attention to the -fingers would involve. A bowler must acquire a certain mechanical -swing, with measured steps and uniform action and carriage of the body, -till at length, as with a gun, hand and eye naturally go together. In -rowing, if you look at your oar, you cut crabs. In skating, if you look -at the ice and think of your steps, you lose the freedom and the flow -of your circles. So, with bowling, having decided on your steps and one -mode of delivery, you must practise this alone, and think more of the -wicket than of your feet or your hand. - -To assist the spin of the ball, a good bowler will not stop short, but -will rather follow the ball, or, give way to it, after delivery, for -one or two steps. Some bowlers even continue the twisting action of the -hand after the ball has left it. - -9. Commence with a very low delivery. Cobbett, and others of the best -bowlers, began underhand. The lower the hand, the more the spin, -and the quicker the rise. Unfair or throwing bowlers never have a -first-rate delivery. See how easy to play is a throw, or a ball from a -catapult; and simply because the ball has then no spin. Redgate showed -how bowling may be most fair and most effective. No man ever took -Pilch’s wicket so often. His delivery was easy and natural; he had a -thorough command of his arm, and gave great spin to the ball. In Kent -against England, at Town Malling, he bowled the finest Over on record. -The first ball just grazed Pilch’s wicket; the second took his bails; -the third ball levelled Mynn, and the fourth Stearman; three of the -best bats of the day. - -10. Practise a little and often. If you over-fatigue the muscles, you -spoil their tone for a time. Bowling, as we said of batting, must -become a matter of habit; and habits are formed by frequent repetition. -Let the bowlers of Eton, Harrow, and Winchester resolve to bowl, if -it be but a dozen balls, every day, wet or fine. Intermission is very -prejudicial. - -11. The difficulty is to pitch far enough. Commence, according to your -strength, eighteen or nineteen yards, and increase to twenty-two by -degrees. Most amateurs bowl long hops. - -12. Seek accuracy more than speed: a man of fourteen stone is not -to be imitated by a youth of eight stone. Many batsmen like swift -bowling, and why? Because the length is easier to judge; the lines are -straighter for a cut; the ball wants little accuracy of hitting; fast -bowlers very rarely pitch quite as far even as they might, for this -requires much extra power; fast balls twist less in a given space than -slow balls, and rarely increase their speed at the rise in the same -proportion as slow balls; fast bowling gives fewer chances that the -fieldsman can take advantage of, and admits generally of less variety; -fewer fast balls are pitched straight, and fewer even of those would -hit the wicket. You may find a Redgate, a Wisden, or a Mynn, who can -bring fast bowling under command for one or two seasons; but these are -exceptions too solitary to afford a precedent. Even these men were -naturally of a fast pace: swiftness was not their chief object. So, -study accurate bowling, and let speed come of itself. - -So much for attaining the power of a bowler; next to apply it. Not only -practise, but _study_ bowling: to pelt away mechanically, with the -same lengths and same pace, is excusable in a catapult, but not in a -man.--Can your adversary guard leg-stump or off-stump? Can he judge a -length? Can he allow for a curve? Can he play well over an off-ball to -prevent a catch? Can you deceive him with time or pace? Is he a young -gentleman, or an old gentleman?-- - - “_Ætatis cujusque notandi sunt tibi mores._” - -1. Pitch as near the bat as you can without being hit away. The -bowler’s chance is to compel back play with the shortest possible sight -of the rise. - -2. If three good balls have been stopped, the fourth is often -destructive, because the batsman’s patience is exhausted: so take pains -with the fourth ball of the Over. - -3. The straighter the ball, the more puzzling to the eye, and the more -cramping to the hand of the batsman. - -4. Short-pitched balls are not only easier to hit, but have more scope -for missing the wicket, though pitched straight. - -5. A free leg-hitter may often be put out by placing an extra man On -side, and bowling repeatedly at leg-stump--only do not pitch very far -up to him. Short-pitched leg-balls are the most difficult to hit, and -produce most catches. By four or five attempts at leg-hitting, a man -gains a tendency to swing round, and is off his straight play. - -6. Besides trying every variety of length, vary your pace to deceive -the batsman in timing his play; and practise the same action so as not -to betray the change of pace. Also, try once or twice a high dropping -ball. - -7. Learn to bowl tosses and tices. With a stiff player, before his eye -is in, a toss often succeeds; but especially practise high lobs--a most -useful variety of ball. In most Elevens there are one or two men with -whom good roundhand bowling is almost thrown away. A first-rate player -in Warwickshire was found at fault with lobs: and till he learnt the -secret, all his fine play was at an end. - -8. Find out the farthest point to which your man can play forward -safely, and pitch just short of that point with every variety of pace -and dropping balls. Lillywhite’s delight is by pitching alternately -just within and just out of the batsman’s reach, “_to catch him in two -minds_.” Here we have positive metaphysics! Just such a wary antagonist -as Lillywhite is described by Virgil,-- - - “Ille, velut celsam oppugnat qui molibus urbem, - Nunc hos, nunc illos aditus, omnemque pererrat - Arte locum; et variis adsultibus irritus urget.” - -Of course _aditus_ means an unguarded stump, and _locum_ where to pitch -the ball. - -9. A good underhand ball of two high curves--that is, a dropping ball -rising high--with a twist in to leg-stump, and a third man to On side, -is very effective, producing both catch and stumping. This is well -worth trying, with four men on the On side, even if some great player -is brought to win a country match. - -10. Most men have a length they cannot play. The fault of young bowlers -is, they do not pitch far enough: they thus afford too long a sight of -the ball. In the School matches and the University matches at Lord’s, -this is very observable, especially with fast bowlers. - -11. The old-fashioned underhand lobbing, if governed by a good -head--dropping short when a man is coming out, and sometimes tossed -higher and sometimes lower,--is a valuable change in most Elevens; but -it must be high and accurately pitched, and must have head-work in it. -Put long-stop upon the On side, and bring long-slip nearer in; and be -sure that your long-fields stand far away. - -12. Lastly, the last diagram explains that curvilinear bowling (the -effect of a moderate pace with a spin) gives the batsman a shorter -sight of the rise than is possible with the straighter lines of swift -bowling. A man has nearly as much time to make up his mind and prepare -for Wisden as for Clarke; because, he can judge Wisden’s ball much -sooner, and, though the rise is faster, the ball has farther to come in. - -THEORY OF BOWLING.--What characterises a good delivery? If two men -bowl with equal force and precision, why does the ball come in from the -pitch so differently in respect of cutting, twisting, or abrupt rise? - -“Because one man gives the ball so much more rotatory motion on its own -axis, or, so much more spin than the other.” - -A throw, or the catapult which strikes the ball from its rest, gives no -spin; hence, the ball is regular in its rise, and easy to calculate. - -Cobbett gave a ball as much spin as possible: his fingers appeared -wrapped round the ball: his wrist became horizontal: his hand thrown -back at the delivery, and his fingers seemingly unglued joint by joint, -till the ball quitted the tips of them last, just as you would spin -a top. Cobbett’s delivery designed a spin, and the ball at the pitch -had new life in it. No bowling so fair, and with so little rough play -or violence, ever proved more effective than Cobbett’s. Hillyer is -entitled to the same kind of praise. - -A spin is given by the fingers; also, by turning the hand over in -delivering the ball. - -A good ball has two motions; one, straight, from hand to pitch; the -other, on its own axis. - -The effect of a spin on its own axis is best exemplified by bowling a -child’s hoop. Throw it from you without any spin, and away it rolls; -but spin or revolve it against the line of its flight with great -power, and the hoop no sooner touches the ground than it comes back to -you. So great a degree of spin as this cannot possibly be given to a -cricket ball; but you see the same effect in the “draw-back stroke” at -billiards. Revolve the hoop with less power, and it will rise abruptly -from the ground and then continue its course--similar to that awkward -and abrupt rise often seen in the bowling of Clarke among others. - -Thirdly, revolve the hoop as you bowl it, not _against_ but _in_ the -line of its flight, and you will have its tendency to bound expended in -an increased quickness forward. This exemplifies a low swimming ball, -quickly cutting in and sometimes making a shooter. This is similar to -the “following stroke” at billiards, made by striking the ball high and -rotating it in the line of the stroke. - -Such are the effects of a ball spinning or rotating vertically. - -Now try the effect of a spin from right to left, or left to right: try -a side stroke at billiards; the apparent angle of reflection is not -equal to the angle of incidence. So a cricket ball, with lateral spin, -will work from Leg to Off, or Off to Leg, according to the spin. - -But why does not the same delivery, as it gives the same kind of spin, -always produce the same vertical or lateral effect on a ball? In other -words, how do you account for the fact that (apart from roughness of -ground) the same delivery produces sometimes a contrary twist? “Because -the ball may turn in the air, and the vertical spin become lateral. The -side which on delivery was under, may, at the pitch, be the upper side, -or the upper side may become under, or any modification of either may -be produced in conjunction with inequality in the ground.” - -With throwing bowling, the ball comes from the ends of the fingers; -why, then, does it not spin? Because, unlike Cobbett’s delivery, as -explained, wherein the ball left the fingers by degrees, and was sent -spinning forth, the ball, in a throw, is held between fingers and -thumb, which leave their hold at the same instant, without any tendency -to rotate the ball. The fairer and more horizontal the delivery the -more the fingers act, the more spin, and the more variety, after the -pitch. A high and unfair delivery, it is true, is difficult from -the height of the rise; otherwise it is too regular and too easy to -calculate, to make first-rate bowling. - -A LITTLE LEARNING IS A DANGEROUS THING--and not least at cricket. The -only piece of science I ever hear on a cricket field is this: “Sir, how -can that be? The angle of reflection must always be equal to the angle -of incidence.” - -That a cricketer should have only one bit of science, and that, as he -applies it, a blunder, is indeed a pity. - -I have already shown that, in bowling, the _apparent_ angle of -reflection is rendered unequal to the angle of incidence by the -rotatory motion or spin of the ball, and also by the roughness of the -ground. - -I have now to explain that this law is equally disturbed in batting -also; and by attention to the following observations, many a forward -player may learn so to adapt his force to the inclination of his bat as -not to be caught out, even although (as often happens to a man’s great -surprise) he plays over the ball! - -The effect of a moving body meeting another body moving, and that same -body quiescent, is very different. To prove this, - -Fix a bat _immoveably_ perpendicular in the ground, and suppose a -ball rises to it from the ground in an angle of 45° as the angle of -incidence; then supposing the ball to have no rotatory motion, it will -be reflected at an equal angle, and fall nearly under the bat. - -But supposing the bat is not fixed, but brought forcibly forward to -meet that ball, then, according to the weight and force of the bat, the -natural direction of the ball will be annihilated, and the ball will be -returned, perhaps nearly point blank, not in the line of reflection, -but in some other line more nearly resembling the line in which the bat -is moved. - -If the bat were at rest, or only played very gently forward, the angles -of reflection would not be materially disturbed, but the ball would -return to the ground in proportion nearly as it rose from it; but by -playing very hard forward, the batsman annihilates the natural downward -tendency of the ball, and drives it forward, perhaps, into the bowler’s -hands; and then, fancying the laws of gravitation have been suspended -to spite him, he walks back disgusted to the pavilion, and says, “No -man in England could help being out then. I was as clean over the ball -as I could be, and yet it went away as a catch!” - -Lastly, as to “being out by luck,” always consider whether, with the -same adversaries, Pilch or Parr would have been so put out. Our opinion -is, that could you combine the experience and science of Pilch with -the hand and eye of Parr, luck would be reduced to an infinitesimal -quantity. - -_Fortuna fortes adjuvat_, men of the best nerve have the best luck; -and _nullum numen habes si sit prudentia_, when a man knows as much of -the game as we would teach him, he will find there is very little luck -after all. Young players should not think about being out by chance: -there is a certain intuitive adaptation of play to circumstances, -which, however seemingly impossible, will result from observation and -experience, unless the idea of chance closes the ears to all good -instruction. - - - - -CHAP. X. - -HINTS ON FIELDING. - - -The essence of good fielding is, to start before the ball is hit, -and to pick up and return straight to the top of the bails, by one -continuous action. This was the old Wykehamist style--old, I hope -not yet extinct, past revival--(thus had we written, March 1851, and -three months after the Wykehamists won both their school matches -at Lord’s);--for, some twenty years since, the Wykehamist fielding -was unrivalled by any school in England. Fifteen years ago Mr. Ward -and, severally and separately, Cobbett instanced a Winchester Eleven -as the first fielding they had ever seen at Lord’s. And among this -chosen number were the yet remembered names of B. Price, F. B. Wright, -Knatchbull, and Meyrick. These hardy Trojans--for the ball never came -too fast for them--commenced fagging out long, very long, before they -were indulged in batting, and were forced to qualify, even for fagging, -by practising till they could throw over a certain neighbouring barn, -and were always in bodily fear of the pains and penalties of the middle -stump if ever they missed a ball. But these days of the voluntary -system are far less favourable for fielding. To become a good fieldsman -requires persevering practice, with a “big fellow” to fag for who will -expect a little more smartness than is always developed by pure love of -the game. - -And now, Etonians, Harrovians, Wykehamists, I mention you -alphabetically, a few words on training your Eleven for Lord’s. Choose -first your bowlers and wicket-keeper and long-stop; these men you must -have, though not worth a run: then if you have any batsmen decidedly -superior, you may choose them for their batting, though they happen not -to be first-rate fieldsmen. But in most school Elevens, after naming -four or five men, among the other six or seven, it is mere chance who -scores; so let any great superiority in fielding decide the choice. -I remember playing a match in which I had difficulty in carrying the -election of a first-rate fieldsman against a second-rate bat. Now, -the said batsman could not certainly be worth above fourteen runs; -say seven more than the fieldsman. But the fieldsman, as it happened, -made a most difficult catch, put one runner out, and, above all, -kept the bowlers in good heart, during an uphill game, by stopping -many hard hits. A bad fieldsman is a loose screw in your machinery; -giving confidence to the adversary, and taking the spirit out of his -own party. Therefore, let the captain of an Eleven proclaim that men -must qualify by fine fielding: and let him encourage the following -exercises:-- - -Put in two batsmen, whose play is not good enough to spoil, to tip and -run. You will then find what very clean fielding is required to save -one run, with men determined to try it. - -Let every man practise long-stop. - -Long-leg is a fieldsman nearly as essential as a good long-stop. A -man who can run and throw well should make a long-leg his forte, and -practise judging distances for a long catch, covering ground both -to right and left, neat handling, with allowance for the twist, and -especially an arrow-like and accurate return. No thing is so likely to -put the runner out as a swift throw to the hands from a long distance. -Aspire to foil the usual calculation, that, at a long distance, the -runner can beat the throw. - -Let the wicket-keeper take his place, and while some one throws or -hits, let him require the quickest and most accurate throwing. A -ball properly thrown comes in like an arrow--no time being lost by -soaring high in air. At short distances, throw at once to the hands; -where unavoidable, with a long hop. But this hop should result from -a low and skimming throw; or, the ball will lose its speed. Practise -throwing, without any flourish, by a single action of the arm. Any good -fieldsman will explain, far better than our pen, the art of picking -up a ball in the only position consistent with a quick return. A good -throw often runs a man out; an advantage very rarely gained without -something superior in fielding. Young players should practise throwing, -and remember never to throw in a long hop when they can throw to the -hands. “Many a ‘run out,’” says Mr. R. T. King, “has been lost by -that injudicious practice of throwing long hops to the wicket-keeper, -instead of straight, and, when necessary, hard, to his hands;” a -practice that should be utterly reprobated, especially as many rising -players will fancy it is the most correct, instead of the slowest, -style of throwing. To throw in a long hop is only allowable when you -might fail to throw a catch, and, which is worst of all, make too short -a hop to the wicket-keeper. The Captain should keep an account of the -best runners, throwers, clean pickers-up, and especially of men who can -meet and anticipate the ball, and of those who deserve the praise given -to Chatterton--“the safest pair of hands in England.” - -So much for quick throwing; but for a throw up from long-field, Virgil -had a good notion of picking up and sending in a ball:-- - - “Ille manu raptum trepidâ torquebat in hostem; - Altior assurgens, et cursu concitus, heros.” - - _Æn._ xii. 901. - -Here we have snatching up the ball with a quiver of the wrist, rising -with the effort, and a quick step or two to gain power.--Meeting the -ball requires a practice of its own, and is a charming operation when -you can do it; for the same impetus with which you run in assists the -quickness of your return. Practice will reveal the secret of running -in; only, run with your hands near the ground, so as not to have -suddenly to stoop; and, keep your eyes well open, not losing the ball -for an instant. In fielding, as in batting, you must study all the -varieties of balls, whether tices, half-volleys, or other lengths. - -A fast runner _nascitur non fit_: still, practice does much, and -especially for all the purposes of a fieldsman near the wicket. A -spring and quick start are things to learn; and that, both right and -left: few men spring equally well with both feet. Anticipating the -ball, and getting the momentum on the proper side, is everything in -fielding; and practice will enable a man to get his proper footing and -quick shifting step. A good cricketer, like a good skater, must have -free use of both feet: and of course a fine fieldsman must catch with -both hands. - -Practise left-handed catching in a ring; also picking up with left: -“Any one can catch with his right,” says the old player; “now, my boy, -let us see what you can do with your left.” Try, also, “slobbering” -a ball, to see how many arts there are of recovering it afterwards. -I need hardly say that jumping off your feet for a high catch, and -rushing in to a ball and patting it up in the air and catching it the -second attempt, are all arts of first-rate practitioners. - -SAFE HANDS.--Your hands should be on the rat-trap principle,--taking -anything in, and letting nothing out again. Of course a ball has a -peculiar feeling and spin off a bat quite different from a throw; so -practise accordingly. By habit hand and eye will go together: what the -eye sees the right part of the hand will touch by a natural adjustment. -There is a way of allowing for the spin of the ball in the air: as to -its tendency at Cover, to twist especially to the left, this is too -obvious to require notice. - -I am ashamed to be obliged to remind players, old as well as young, -that there is such a thing as being a good judge of a short run: and I -might hold up, as an example, an _Honourable_ gentleman, who, though -a first-rate long-stop and fine style of batting, has a distinct -reputation for the one run. It is a tale, perhaps, thrice told, but -more than thrice forgotten, that the partner should follow up the ball; -how many batsmen destroy the very life of the game by standing still -like an extra umpire. Now, in a school Eleven, running notches can be -practised with security, because with mutual dependence; though I -would warn good players that, among strangers in a country match, sharp -running is a dangerous game. - -SYMPTOMS OF A LOSER OF RUNS.--He never follows up the ball, but leans -on his bat, or stands sociably by the umpire; he has 20 yards to -run from a state of rest, instead of 16, already on the move; he is -addicted to checks and false starts; he destroys the confidence of -his partner’s running; he condemns his partner to play his worst, -because in a state of disgust; he never runs and turns, but runs and -stops, or shoots past his wicket, making ones for twos, and twos for -threes; he often runs a man out, and, besides this loss, depresses his -own side, and animates the other; he makes slow fieldsmen as good as -fast; having no idea of stealing a run for the least miss, he lets the -fieldsmen stand where they please, saving both the two and the one; -he lets the bowler coolly experiment with the wicket, when one run -breaks the dangerous series, and destroys his confidence; he spares the -bowler that disturbance of his nerves which results from stolen runs -and suspicion of his fieldsmen; he continues the depressing influence -of maiden Overs, when a Single would dispel the charm; he deserves -the name of the “_Green_ man and _Still_,” and usually commences -his innings by saying, “Pray don’t run me out, Sir,”--“We’ll run no -risks whatever.” When there is a long hit, the same man will tear -away like mad, forgetting that both he and his partner (a heavier -man perhaps) want a little wind left for the next ball.--_O Ignavum -pecus!_ so-called “steady” players. Steady, indeed! You stand like -posts, without the least intuition of a run. The true cricketer runs -while another is thinking of it; indeed, he does not think--he sees and -feels it is a run. He descries when the fieldsman has a long reach with -his left hand, or when he must overbalance and right himself, or turn -before he can throw. He watches hopefully the end of a long throw, or -a ball backed carelessly up.--Bear witness, bowlers, to the virtue of -a single run made sharply and vexatiously. Just as your plot is ripe, -the batsmen change, and an ordinary length supersedes the very ball -that would have beguiled your man. Is it nothing to break in upon the -complete Over to the same man? And, how few the bowlers who repeat -the length from which a run is made! To repeat, passionless as the -catapult, a likely length, hit or not hit, here it is the professional -beats the amateur.--“These indirect influences of making each possible -run,” says Mr. R. T. King, “are too little considered. Once I saw, -to my full conviction, the whole fortune of a game changed by simply -effecting two single runs; one, while a man was threatening to throw, -instead of throwing, in the ball; the other, while a ball was dribbling -in from about middle wicket. This one run ended thirteen maiden Overs, -set the bowlers blaming the fieldsmen at the expense, as usual, of -their equanimity and precision, and proved the turning-point in a match -till then dead against us. Calculate the effect of ‘stolen runs’ on -the powers of a bowler and his tactics as against a batsman, on the -places of the fieldsmen, on their insecurity when hurried, and the -spirit it puts into the one party and takes away from the other; and -add to this the runs evidently lost; and, I am confident that the same -Eleven that go out for sixty would, with better running, generally make -seventy-five, and not uncommonly a hundred.” - -Attend, therefore, to the following rules:--1. Back up every ball as -soon as actually delivered, and as far as consistent with safe return. -2. When both men can see the ball, as before wicket, let the decision -depend on the batsman, as less prepared to start, or on the elder -and heavier man, by special agreement; and let the decision be the -partner’s when the ball is behind the hitter. 3. Let men run by some -call: mere beckoning with strangers leads to fatal errors, backing -up being mistaken for “run.” “Yes,” “no,” or “run,” “stop,” are the -words. “Away” sounds like “stay.” 4. Let the hitter also remember that -he can often back up a few yards in anticipation of a ball passing the -fieldsman. 5. Let the first run be made quickly when there is the -least chance of a second. 6. Let the ball be watched and followed up, -as for a run, on the chance of a miss from wicket-keeper or fieldsmen. -So, never over-run your ground. 7. Always run with judgment and -attention, never beyond your strength: good running between wickets -does not mean running out of wind, to the suffusion of the eye and -the trembling of the hand, though a good batsman must train for good -wind. Henry Davis of Leicester was fine as ever in practice, when too -heavy to run, and therefore to bat, in a game. The reason of running -out and losing runs is, generally, the want of an established rule -as to who decides the run. How rarely do we see a man run out but -from hesitation! How often does a man lose his chance of safety by -stopping to judge what is his partner’s ball! Let cricketers observe -some rule for judging the run. There will then be no doubt who is to -blame,--though, to censure the batsman because his partner is run -out, when that partner is not backing up, is too bad. Let the man -who has to decide bear all the responsibility if his partner is out; -only, let prompt obedience be the rule. When a man feels he must run -because called, he will take more pains to be ready; and, when once it -is plain that a batsman has erred in judgment and lost one wicket of -his eleven, he will, if worth anything, make a study of running, and -avoid so unpleasant a reflection for the future. Fancy such a _mem._ as -this:--“Pilch run out because Rash hesitated,” or “Rash run out because -when the hitter called he was not backing up.” - -These and many other ideas on this most essential, yet most neglected, -part of the game, I shall endeavour to illustrate by the following -computation of runs which might have been added to an innings of 100. - -Suppose, therefore, 100 runs scored; 90 by hits, 4 by wide balls, and 6 -by byes and leg byes--the loss is commonly as follows:-- - - 1. Singles lost from hits about 10 - 2. Ones instead of twos, by not making the - former run quickly and turning for a second, - but over-running ground and stopping ” 4 - 3. Runs that might have been stolen from balls - dropped and slovenly handled ” 3 - 4. Loss from fieldsmen standing where they - please, and covering more ground than they - dare do with sharp runners ” 5 - 5. Loss from not having those misses which result - from hurrying the field ” 4 - 6. Loss from bowlers not being ruffled, as they - would be if feeling the runs should be - stopped ” 7 - 7. Extra loss from byes not run (with the least - “slobbering” the runners may cross--though - Dean is cunning) ” 6 - 8. From having draws and slips stopped, which - long-stop could not stop if nearer in ” 5 - 9. One man run out ” 8 - 10. Depressing influence of the same ” ? - 11. From not having the only long-stop disgusted - and hurried into missing everything ” ? - 12. From not having the adversary all wild by - these combined annoyances ” ? - -- - Total ” 52 - 13. Loss from adversary playing better when - going in against a score of 100 than against - 152 ” ? - -Now, though I have put down nothing for four sources of loss, not -the less material because hard to calculate, the difference between -good runners and bad seems to be above half the score. That many will -believe me I can hardly expect; but, before they contradict, let them -watch and reckon for themselves, where fielding is not first-rate. - -It was only after writing as above that I read that in “North _v._ -South,” 1851, the North lost six wickets, and the South two, by running -out! In the first Gentlemen and Players’ match, of the same year, it -was computed that one man, who made a long score, actually lost as many -runs as he made! In choosing an eleven, such men should be marked, and -the loser of runs avoided on the same principle as a bad fieldsman. -Reckon not only the runs a man may make, but the runs he may lose, and -how the game turns about sometimes by a man being run out. A perfect -cricketer, like a perfect whist-player, must qualify his scientific -rules, and make the best of a bad partner--but, how few are perfect, -especially in this point! Talk not alone of good batsmen, I have often -said.--Choose me some thorough-bred public-school cricketers; for, -“the only men,” says Clarke, “I ever see judges of a run, are those -who have played cricket as boys with sixpenny bats, used to distances -first shorter, then longer as they grew stronger, and learnt, not from -being bowled to by the hour, but by years of practice in real games. -You blame me because the All England Eleven don’t learn not to run out, -though always practising together. Why, a run is a thing not learnt -in a day. There’s that gentleman yonder--with all his fine hitting he -is no cricketer; he can’t run; he learnt at a catapult, and how can a -catapult teach a man the game?” - -Great men have the same ideas, or Clarke would seem to have borrowed -from Horace - - “Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam - Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit.” - -A good innings disdains a sleeping partner. Be alive and moving; -and--instead of saying, “Well played!” “Famous hit!” &c.; or, as we -sometimes hear in the way of encouragement, “How near!” “What a close -shave!” “Pray, take care, Smith!”--think of the runs, and say “run” -or “stop” as the case may be. Thus, you may avoid the ludicrous scene -of two big men rushing from their wickets, pausing, turning back, -starting again, and having a small talk together at the eleventh yard, -and finding, one or the other, a prostrate wicket, while apologies and -recrimination are the only solace. - -Old players need keep up a habit of throwing and of active movements. -For, the redundant spirit and buoyancy of youthful activity soon -evaporates. Many a zealous cricketer loses his once-famed quickness -from mere disuse--_Sic omnia fatis, in pejus ruere_. Instead of always -batting, and practising poor Hillyer and Wisden till their dodges are -dodges no more, and it is little credit to score from them, go to your -neighbour’s wicket and practise fielding for an hour, or else, next -match, you may find your throwing at fault. - -Fielding, I fear, is retrograding: a good general player, famed for -that quick return which runs the adversary out, one who is, at the -same time, a useful change in bowling, a safe judge of a run, and -respectable at every point of the game--this is becoming a scarce -character, and Batting is a word supposed coextensive with Cricket,--a -sad mistake. - -SPARE THE BOWLER.--One reason for returning the ball not to bowler, but -to wicket-keeper, who should advance quietly, like Box, and return -a catch. A swift throw, or any exertion in the field which hurts the -bowler’s hand, or sets it shaking, may lose a game. If a bowler has -half-volleys returned to him, by stretching and stooping after them, -he gets out of his swing. Now, this same swing is a great point with -a bowler. Watch him after he has got his footsteps firm for his feet, -and when in his regular stride, and see the increased precision of his -performance. Then comes the time when your great gun tumbles down his -men: and that is the time that some sure, judicious batsman, whose -eminence is little seen amidst the loose hitting of a scratch match, -comes calmly and composedly to the wicket and makes a stand; and, as -he disposes of maiden Overs, and steals ones and twos, he breaks the -spell that bound his men, and makes the dead-straight bowling good -for Cuts and leg-hits. In no game or sport do I ever witness half -the satisfaction of the bowler who can thus bowl maiden Overs and -defy a score; or of the batsman who takes the edge off the same, runs -up the telegraph to even betting, and gives easier work and greater -confidence to those who follow. A wicket-keeper, too, may dart off and -save a bowler from fielding a three or four; and, whenever he leaves -his wicket, slip must take wicket-keeper’s place. “How stale,” “true; -but,--_instantly_’s the word,”--from neglect of which, we have seen -dreadful mistakes made even in good matches. - -Ay, and what beautiful things are done by quick return and a low shy; -no time wasted in parabolic curves: ball just skimming the ground when -it comes in a long hop, but quickest of all returns is a throw to the -top of the bails into wicket-keeper’s hands. - -POINT.--Your great strength lies in anticipation: witness Ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν. -To that gentleman every ball seems hit, because he always gets -thereabouts; yet is he near-sighted withal! ’Tis the mind that sees, -eyes are its glasses, and he is too good a workman to want excuse for -his tools. With slow bowling and a bad batsman, Point can anticipate -easily enough. Still, with all bowling, fast and slow, the common fault -of Point is, that he stands, if near, too near; and if far off, yet not -far off enough. Stand where you yourself can catch and stop. If slow -in hand and eye stand off for longer catches, else, by standing where -a quick man would catch sharp catches, you miss everything. With fast -bowling, few balls which could be caught at seven yards ground short of -twelve. Though, if the ground is very rough, or the bowling slow, the -ball may be popped up near the bat, even by good players. Whenever a -ball is hit Off, Point must cross instanter, or he’ll be too late to -back up, especially the bowler’s wicket. - -Point is sometimes Point proper, like a Wicket-keeper or Short-slip, -to cramp the batsman, and take advantage of his mistakes; but with -fast bowling and good batsmen, Point may advantageously stand off like -any other fieldsman. For then, he will save many more runs, and may -make quite as many catches. If Mr. King stood as Point, and Chatterton -as Cover in the same line, with Pilch batting and Wisden bowling, -they would not (as I presume they are well aware) work to the best -advantage. When Clarke is bowling he generally wants a veritable Point -for the catch. But, to stand near, as a Scientific Point, with wild -bowling is absurd. - -SHORT-LEG is often a very hardly used personage, expected to save runs -that seem easy, but are actual impossibilities. A good ball, perhaps, -is pushed forward to middle wicket On, Short-leg being square, and -the bowler looks black at him. Then a Draw is made, when Short-leg is -standing rather forward, and no man is ubiquitous. If the batsman often -does not know where the rise or bias may reflect the ball, how should -the fieldsman know? - -COVER-POINT and LONG-SLIP are both difficult places; the ball comes so -fast and curling, that it puzzles even the best man. No place in the -field but long-stop has the work of long-slip. This used to be Pilch’s -place. - -The chief point in these places is to stand either to save one or -to save two. This depends on the quickness of the fieldsman and the -judgment of the runners. With such judges of a run as Hon. F. Ponsonby, -Parr, Wisden, and J. Lillywhite, you must stand rather near to save -one; but quick return is every thing. Here Caldecourt was, years since, -first-rate. I have seen him, at Cover, when past his best, judge well, -start quick, run low, up and in like a shot to wicket-keeper’s hands; -and what more would you have in fielding? When E. H. Budd played and -won a second match for 100_l._ with Mr. Brand--two fieldsmen given,--so -much was thought of Mr. Brand’s having engaged Caldecourt, that it -was agreed he should field on both sides. He did so, and shied Mr. -Budd out at a single stump. To save two, a good man may stand a very -long way off on hard ground, and reduce the hardest cuts to singles. -But a common fault is, “standing nowhere,” neither to save one nor to -save two. Remember not to stand as sharp when fast bowling is replaced -by slow. Cover is the place for brilliant fielding. Watch well the -batsman, and start in time. Half a spring in anticipation puts you -already under weigh, and makes yards in the ground you can cover. The -following is curious;-- - -“You would think,” said Caldecourt, “that a ball to the right hand may -be returned more quickly than a ball to the left.” But ask him, and he -will show you how, if at a long reach, he always found it otherwise. -The right shoulder may be even in the better position to return (in -spite of change of hands), when the left picks up the ball than when -the right picks it. - -Some good Covers have been quicker with a hard jerk than a throw, for -the attitude of fielding is less altered. Still a jerk is less easy -to the wicket-keeper. A long-slip with good head and heels may assist -long-stop; his triumph is to run a man out by anticipating the balls -that bump off long-stop’s wrists and shins. - -A third man up, or a middle-slip, is at times very killing: this -allows long-slip to stand back for hard hits, and no catch escapes. A -forward Point, or middle wicket close in, often snaps up a catch or -two, particularly when the ground is dangerous for forward play, or the -batsman plays hesitatingly. - -Thick-soled shoes save colds in soppy weather, and do not jar when the -ground is hard; for the Cantabs say that - - Thin soles + hard ground = tender feet, - -is an undeniable equation. Bowlers should wear worsted socks to save -blisters, and mind the thread is not fastened off in a knot, just -under the most sensitive part of the heel. - -Much inconvenience arises in a match (for the best player may be out) -by spectators standing in the eye of the ball; so, stretch strips of -white canvass on poles five feet high; for this, while it keeps the -stupid away, provides a white background for each wicket. - -This is good also in a park, where the deep shade of trees increases -the confessed uncertainty of the game. Some such plan is much wanted -on all public grounds where the sixpenny freeholders stand and hug -their portly corporations, and, by standing in the line of the wicket, -give the ball all the shades of green coat, light waistcoat, and drab -smalls. Still, batsmen must try to rise superior to such annoyances; -for, if the bowler changes his side of the wicket, the umpire will -often be in the light of the ball. - -Oh! that ring at Lord’s; for, as in olden time,-- - - --“si quid fricti ciceris probat et nucis emptor;” - -that is, if the swillers of half-and-half and smokers of pigtail,--a -preponderating influence and large majority of voices,--applaud a -hit, it does not follow that it is a good one: nor, if they cry -“Butterfingers!” need the miss be a bad one. No credit for good -intentions!--no allowance for a twisting catch and the sun enough -to singe your eyelids!--the hit that wins the “half-and-half” is the -finest hit for that select assemblage, whose “sweet voices” quite drown -the nicer judgment of the pavilion, even as vote by ballot would swamp -the House of Lords. - -LONG-STOP.--If you would estimate the value of a practised long-stop, -only try to play a match with a bad one. Still, patient merit is rarely -appreciated; for, what is done very well looks so easy. Long-stopping -requires the cleanest handling and quickest return. The best in form -I ever saw was an Oxonian about 1838,--a Mr. Napier. One of the worst -in form, however, was the best of his day in effect,--Good; for he -took the ball sideways. A left-handed man, as Good was, has a great -advantage in stopping slips under-leg. Among the ancients, Old Beagley -was the man. But there is many a man whose praise is yet unsung; for -when Mr. E. H. Budd saw Mr. R. Stothert at Lansdown, Bath, stop right -and left to Mr. Kirwan’s bowling, he alluded to Beagley’s doings, and -said Beagley never came up to R. Stothert. Mr. Marshall (jun.) in -the same Club stopped for Mr. Marcon without one bye through a long -innings. The gentleman who opposed the firmest front, however, for -years, to Messrs. Kirwan and Fellowes,--bowlers, who have broken studs -into the breast-bone of a long-stop, and then, to make amends, taken -fourpenny-bits of skin off his shins, is Mr. Hartopp, pronounced, by -Mr. Charles Burt,--himself undeniable at that point,--to be the best -for a continuance he has ever seen. _Vigeat vireatque!_ His form is -good; and he works with great ease and cool attention. Among the most -celebrated at present are Mr. C. Ridding, W. Pilch, Guy, and Dean. - -On Long-stopping, Mr. Hartopp kindly writes:--“No place requires so -much patient perseverance: the work is so mechanical. I have seen many -a brilliant fieldsman there for a short innings, while the bowling is -straight and rarely passes; but, let him have to humdrum through 150 -or 200 runs, and he will get bored, tired, and careless; then, runs -come apace. Patience is much wanted, if a sharp runner is in; for -he will often try a long-stop’s temper by stealing runs; in such a -case, I have found it the best plan to prepare the wicket-keeper for -a hard throw to his, the nearer, wicket; for, if this does not run -the man out, it frightens him down to steadier running. Throwing over -may sometimes answer; but a cunning runner will get in your way, or -beat a ball thrown over his head. Long-stop’s distance must often be -as much as four or five yards less for a good runner than for a bad. -Short distance does not make stopping more difficult; because, it gives -fewer hops and twists to the ball; but a longer distance enables you -to cover more tips and draws, and saves leg-byes. Good runners ought -to cross if the ball is in the least fumbled; but clean fielding, with -quick underhand return, would beat the Regent Street Pet himself, did -he attempt a run. Long-stop is wholly at fault if he requires the -wicket-keeper to stand aside: this would spoil the stumping. As to -gloves and pads, let every one please himself; we must choose between -gloves and sore hands; but wrist gauntlets are of great use, and no -hindrance to catches, which often come spinning to the long-stop, and -otherwise difficult. - -“As to form, dropping on one knee is a bad position for any fielding: -you are fixed and left behind by any sudden turn of the ball. The best -rule is to watch the ball from the bowler’s hand and move accordingly, -and you will soon find for how much bias to allow; and beware of -a slope like Lord’s: it causes a greater deviation than you would -imagine in thirty yards. Just as the ball comes, draw yourself up heels -together (thus many a shooter have I stopped), and, picking as neatly -as you can, pitch it back to wicket-keeper as if it were red hot. Quick -return saves many byes, and keeps up an appearance which prevents the -attempt. The same discrimination of lengths is required with hands as -with bat. Long hops are easy: a tice is as hard almost as a shooter; -half-volley is a teaser. Such balls as pitch up to you should be -‘played forward’ by pushing or sweeping your hands out to meet them; -even if you do not field them clean, still you will often save a run by -forcing the ball up towards the wicket-keeper, and having it before you. - -“A Long-stop wants much command of attention,--eye never off the -ball; and this, so little thought of, is the one great secret of all -fielding: you must also play your hardest and your very best; a habit -which few have energy to sustain. If you miss a ball, rattle away after -it; do not stand, as many do, to apologise by dumb show. If the ball -bumps up at the moment of handling, throw your chin up and let it hit -your chest as full as it may: this is Horace’s advice;-- - - ‘_Fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus._’ - -“Long-stop should assist the backing up on the On side, and must start -at once to be in time. The attention he has to sustain is very trying -to the eyes, especially in windy weather.” - -WICKET-KEEPING.--If not born with better ocular nerves than the -average, I doubt whether any degree of practice would make a first-rate -wicket-keeper. Still, since Lillywhite succeeded in training one of -the Winchester eleven in Wicket-keeping, by bowling accordingly, -wicket-keeping seems an art to be acquired. To place the hands -accurately, right or left, according to the pitch of the ball, and -to take that ball, however fast, unbaulked by the bat or body of -the player, is really very difficult. But what if we add--and how -few, very few, can accomplish it!--taking the ball in spite of an -unexpected bias or turn from the bat. Still, practice will do much -where nature has done a little; but with modern bowling you want a -man both “rough and ready.” Mr. Herbert Jenner was “the ready man;” -so also are Messrs. Anson, Nicholson, and W. Ridding, and Box; but -Wenman was ready and rough too. He had fine working qualities, and -could stand a deal of pounding, day after day: others have had a -short life and a merry one, and mere transient popularity; but, for -wicket-keeping under difficulties, give me Wenman. At wicket-keeping, -the men of labour ought to beat the men of leisure. Hard hands are -essential: and, hard hands can only come from hard work. Wenman’s -calling, that of a wheelwright and carpenter, is in his favour. “I -found my hands quite seasoned,” writes an amateur, “after a two-month’s -work at the oar.” Chatterton fears no pace in bowling. But Lockyer’s -name now stands highest of all: the certainty and facility with which -he takes Wisden’s bowling, both with right and left, can hardly be -surpassed. We leave wicket-keepers to emulate Lockyer, especially in -his every-day lasting and working qualities against fast bowling, -for that is the difficulty. Like Wenman, he does not stand too near, -so he is well placed for catches. Moreover, they both have weight and -power--a decided advantage: a feather weight may be shaken. Winterton, -of Cambridge, carries great weight with him at the wicket. This gives a -decided advantage over a player of the weight of Mr. Ridding: albeit, -in the Players’ Match in 1849, Mr. Ridding stumped Hillyer off Mr. -Fellowes’s bowling, and that with an Off-ball nearly wide! Hammond -was the great wicket-keeper of former days: but then, the bowling was -often about Clarke’s pace. Browne, of Brighton, and Osbaldeston put -wicket-keepers to flight; but the race reappeared in--the finest ever -seen for moderate pace--Mr. Jenner, famed not only for the neatest -stumping, but for the marvellous quantity of ground he could cover, -serving, as a near Point, Leg, and Slip, as well as Wicket-keeper. -Box’s powers, though he has always been a first-rate man, are rather -limited to pace.--“Have me to bowl,” Lillywhite used to say, “Box to -keep wicket, and Pilch to hit, and then you’ll see Cricket;” for Box -is best with Lillywhite.--As to making mistakes as wicket-keeper, what -mortal combination of flesh and blood can help it. One of the most -experienced Long-stops, after many years at Lord’s and in the country, -says, to take even one out of three of possible chances, has proved, -in his experience, good average wicket-keeping; for, think of leg -shooters! though Mr. Ridding could take even them wonderfully well. - -“I have seen,” writes Mr. E. S. E. H., “Mr. C. Taylor--who was capital -at running in, and rarely stumped out, having an excellent eye, and if -the twist of the ball beat him it was enough to beat the wicket-keeper -also--I have seen him, after missing a ball, walk quietly back to -his ground, poor wicket-keeper looking foolish and vexed at not -stumping him, and the ring, of course, calling him a muff.” Really, -wicket-keepers are hardly used; the spectators little know that a twist -which misses the bat, may as easily escape the hand. - -Again, “the best piece of stumping I ever saw was done by Mr. Anson, -in the Players’ Match, in 1843. Butler, one of the finest of the -Nottingham batsmen, in trying to draw one of Mr. Mynn’s leg shooters, -just lifted, for an instant, his right foot; Mr. Anson timed the feat -beautifully, and swept the ball with his left hand into the wicket. I -fancy a feat so difficult was never done so easily.”--“I also saw Mr. -Anson, in a match against the Etonians, stump a man with his right, -catch the flying bail with his left, and replace it so quickly that -the man’s surprise and puzzle made all the fun: stumped out, though -wicket seemingly never down!” Mr. Jenner was very clever in these -things, skimming off one bail with his little finger, ball in hand, and -not troubling the umpire. Once his friend, Mr. R. K., had an awkward -trick of pulling up his trousers, which lifted his leg every time he -had missed a ball: Mr. Jenner waited for his accustomed habit, caught -him in the act, and stumped him. “A similar piece of fun happened in -Gentlemen of England _v._ Gentlemen of Kent in 1845. A Kent player sat -down to get wind, after a run, his bat in his ground but with seat of -honour out, and for a moment let go the handle, and the wicket-keeper -stumped him out. He was very angry, and said he never would play again: -however, he did play the return match at Canterbury, where he was put -out in precisely the same manner. Since which, like Monsieur Tonson, he -has never been heard of more.” - -That a fieldsman wants wits to his fingers’ ends, was shown by -Martingell one day: being just too far to command a ball he gave it a -touch to keep it up, and cried, “Catch it, Slip.” Slip, so assisted, -reached the ball. - -The great thing in Wicket-keeping is, for hand and eye to go together, -just as with batting, and what is exercise for the former, assists the -latter. Any exercise in which the hand habitually tries to obey the -eye, is useful for cricket; fielding improves batting, and batting -improves fielding. - -Twelve of the principal wicket-keepers of the last fifty years were all -efficient Batsmen; namely, Hammond, Searle, Box, Wenman, Dorrington, C. -Brown, Chatterton, Lockyer, with Messrs. Jenner, Anson, Nicholson, and -Ridding. - -“How would you explain, sir,” said Cobbett, “that the player’s batting -keeps pace with the gentleman’s, when we never take a bat except in a -game?”--Because you are constantly following the ball with hand and -eye together, which forms a valuable practice for judging pace, and -time, and distance: not enough certainly to teach batting, but enough -to keep it up. Besides, if you practise too little, most gentlemen -practise too much, ending in a kind of experimental and speculative -play, which proves--like gentleman’s farming--more scientific than -profitable. Amateurs often try at too much, mix different styles, and, -worse than all, _form conflicting habits_. The game, for an average, is -the player’s game; because, less ambitious, with less excitement about -favourite hits, of a simple style, with fewer things to think of, and a -game in which, though limited, they are better grounded. - -Amateurs are apt to try a bigger game than they could safely play with -twice their practice. Many a man, for instance, whose talent lies in -defence, tries free hitting, and, between the two, proves good for -nothing. Others, perhaps, can play straight and fairly Off;--and, -should not they learn to hit On also? Certainly: but while in a -transition state, they are not fit for a county match; and some men are -always in this transition state. Horace had good cricket ideas, for, -said he, - - “_Aut famam sequere, aut sibi convenientia finge._” - -Either play for show off, and “that’s villanous,” says Hamlet, “and -shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it;” or, adopt a -style you can put well together--and _sumite materiam--æquam viribus_, -adopt a style that suits your capabilities; _cui lecta potenter erit -res_; try at no more than you can do--_nec deseret hunc_,--and that’s -the game to carry you through. - -“A mistake,” said an experienced bowler, “in giving a leg ball or two, -is not all clear loss; for, a swing round to the leg often takes a man -off his straight play. To ring the changes on Cutting with horizontal -bat, and forward play with a straight bat, and leg-hitting, which takes -a different bat again, this requires more steady practice than most -amateurs have either time or perseverance to learn thoroughly. So, one -movement is continually interfering with the other.” - - - - -CHAP. XI. - -CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS.--MISCELLANEOUS. - - -William Beldham saw as much of cricket as any other man in England, -from the year 1780 to about 1820. Mr. E. H. Budd and Caldecourt are the -best of chroniclers from the days of Beldham down to George Parr. Yet -neither of these worthies could remember any injury at cricket, which -would at all compare with those “moving accidents of flood and field” -which have thinned the ranks of Nimrod, Hawker, or Isaac Walton. A -fatal accident in any legitimate game of cricket is almost unknown. Mr. -A. Haygarth, however, kindly informed me that the father of George III. -died from the effects of a blow from a cricket ball. His authority is -Wraxall’s Memoirs:-- - -“Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of George II., expired suddenly in -1751, at Leicester House, in the arms of Desnoyèrs, the celebrated -dancing master. His end was caused by an internal abscess that had long -been forming in consequence of a blow which he received in the side -from a cricket ball while he was engaged in playing at that game on the -lawn at Cliefden House in Buckinghamshire, where he then principally -resided. It did not take place, however, till several months after the -accident, when a collection of matter burst and instantly suffocated -him.” - -A solicitor at Romsey, about 1825, was, says an eye-witness, struck so -hard in the abdomen that he died in a week of mortification. There is a -rumour of a boy at school, about eighteen years since, and another boy -about twenty-eight years ago, being severally killed by a blow on the -head with a cricket ball. A dirty boy also, of Salisbury town, in 1826, -having contracted a bad habit of pocketing the balls of the pupils of -Dr. Ratcliffe, was hit rather hard on the head with a brass-tipped -stump, and, by a strange coincidence, died, as the jury found, of -“excess of passion,” a few hours after. - -The most likely source of serious injury, is when a hitter returns -the ball with all his force, straight back to the bowler. Caldecourt -and the Rev. C. Wordsworth, severally and separately, remarked in my -hearing that they had shuddered at cricket once, each in the same -position, and each from the same hitter! Each had a ball hit back -to him by that powerful hitter Mr. H. Kingscote, which whizzed, in -defiance of hand or eye, most dangerously by. A similar hit, already -described, by Hammond who took a ball at the pitch, just missed Lord -F. Beauclerk’s head, and spoiled his nerve for bowling ever after. -But, what if these several balls had really hit? who knows whether the -respective skulls might not have stood the shock, as in a case which -I witnessed in Oxford, in 1835; when one Richard Blucher, a Cowley -bowler, was hit on the head by a clean half-volley, from the bat of -Henry Daubeny--than whom few Wykehamists _used_ (_fuit!_) to hit with -better eye or stronger arm. Still “Richard was himself again” the very -next day; for, we saw him with his head tied up, bowling at shillings -as industriously as ever. Some skulls stand a great deal. Witness the -sprigs of Shillelah at Donnibrook fair; still most indubitably tender -is the face; as also--which _horresco referens_; and here let me -tell wicket-keepers and long-stops especially, that a cricket jacket -made long and full, with pockets to hold a handkerchief sufficiently -in front, is a precaution not to be despised; though “the race of -inventive men” have also devised a cross-bar india-rubber guard, aptly -described in Achilles’ threat to Thersites, in the Iliad.[2] - -[2] Hom. Il. II. 262. - -The most alarming accident I ever saw occurred in one of the many -matches played by the Lansdown Club against Mr. E. H. Budd’s Eleven, -at Purton, in 1835. Two of the Lansdown players were running between -wickets; and good Mr. Pratt--_immani corpore_--was standing mid way, -and hiding each from the other. Both were rushing the same side of him, -and as one held his bat most dangerously extended, the point of it met -his partner under the chin, forced back his head as if his neck were -broken, and dashed him senseless to the ground. Never shall I forget -the shudder and the chill of every heart, till poor Price--for he it -was--being lifted up, gradually evinced returning consciousness; and, -at length, when all was explained, he smiled, amidst his bewilderment, -with his usual good-nature, on his unlucky friend. A surgeon, who -witnessed the collision, feared he was dead, and said, afterwards, that -with less powerful muscles (for he had a neck like a bull-dog) he never -could have stood the shock. Price told me next day that he felt as if a -little more and he never should have raised his head again. - -And what Wykehamist of 1820-30 does not remember R---- Price? or what -Fellow of New College down to 1847, when - - “_Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit_,” - -has not enjoyed his merriment in the Common Room or his play on -Bullingdon and Cowley Marsh? His were the safest hands and most -effective fielding ever seen. To attempt the one run from a cover hit -when Price was there, or to give the sight of one stump to shy at, -was a wicket lost. When his friend, F. B. Wright, or any one he could -trust, was at the wicket, well backed up, the ball, by the fine old -Wykehamist action, was up and in with such speed and precision as I -have hardly seen equalled and never exceeded. When he came to Lord’s, -in 1825, with that Wykehamist Eleven which Mr. Ward so long remembered -with delight, their play was unknown and the bets on their opponents; -but when once Price was seen practising at a single stump, his Eleven -became the favourites immediately; for he was one of the straightest of -all fast bowlers; and I have heard experienced batsmen say, “We don’t -care for his underhand bowling, only it is so straight we could take -no liberties, and the first we missed was Out.” I never envied any man -his sight and nerve like Price--the coolest practitioner you ever saw: -he always looked bright, though others blue; and you had only to glance -at his sharp grey eyes, and you could at once account for the fact that -one stump to shy at, a rook for a single bullet, or the ripple of a -trout in a bushy stream, was so much fun for R. Price. - -Some of the most painful accidents have been of the same kind--from -collision; therefore I never blame a man who, as the ball soars high -in air, and the captain of his side does not (as he ought if he can) -call out “Johnson has it!” stops short, for fear of three spikes in his -instep, or the buttons of his neighbour’s jacket forcibly coinciding -with his own. Still, these are not distinctively the dangers of -cricket: men may run their heads together in the street. - -The principal injuries sustained are in the fingers; though, I did once -know a gentleman who played in spectacles, and seeing two balls in -the air, he caught at the shadow, and nearly had the substance in his -face. The old players, in the days of underhand bowling, played without -gloves; and Bennet assured me he had seen Tom Walker, before advancing -civilisation made man tender, rub his bleeding fingers in the dust. -The old players could show finger-joints of most ungenteel dimensions; -and no wonder, for a finger has been broken even through tubular -india-rubber. Still, with a good pair of cricket gloves, no man need -think much about his fingers; albeit flesh will blacken, joints will -grow too large for the accustomed ring, and finger-nails will come off. -A spinning ball is the most mischievous; and when there is spin and -pace too (as with a ball from Mr. Fellowes, which you can hear humming -like a top) the danger is too great for mere amusement; for when, as -in the Players’ Match of 1849, Hillyer plays a bowler a foot away from -his stumps, and Pilch cannot face him--which is true when Mr. Fellowes -bowls on any but the smoothest ground--why then, we will not say that -any thing which that hardest of hitters and thorough cricketer does, is -not cricket, but certainly it is anything but _play_. - -Some of the worst injuries of the hands occur rather in fielding than -in batting. A fine player of the Kent Eleven, about three years ago, so -far injured his thumb that one of the joints was removed, and he has -rarely played since. Another of the best gentleman players broke one of -the bones of his hand in putting down a wicket: but, strangest of all, -I saw one of the Christchurch eleven at Oxford, in 1835, in fielding at -Cover, split up his hand an inch in length between his second and third -fingers: still, all was well in a few weeks. - -Add to all these chances of war, the many balls which are flying at the -same time at Lord’s and at the Universities, and other much frequented -grounds, on a practising day. At Oxford you may see, any day in the -summer, on Cowley Marsh, two rows of six wickets each facing each -other, with a space of about sixty yards between each row, and ten -yards between each wicket. Then, you have twelve bowlers, _dos à dos_, -and as many hitters--making twelve balls and twenty-four men, all in -danger’s way at once, besides bystanders. The most any one of these -bowlers can do is to look out for the balls of his own set; whether -hit or not by a ball from behind, is very much a matter of chance. -A ball from the opposite row once touched my hair. The wonder is, -that twelve balls should be flying in a small space nearly every day, -yet I never heard of any man being hit in the face--a fact the more -remarkable because there was usually free hitting with loose bowling. -Pierce Egan records that, in 1830, in the Hyde Park Ground, Sheffield, -nine double-wicket games were playing at once--TWO HUNDRED PLAYERS -within six acres of grass! One day, at Lord’s, just before the match -bell rung after dinner, I saw one of the hardest hitters in the M.C.C. -actually trying how hard he could drive among the various clusters of -sixpenny amateurs, every man thinking it fun, and no one dangerous. An -elderly gentleman cannot stand a bruise so well--matter forms or bone -exfoliates. But then, an elderly gentleman,--bearing an inverse ratio -in all things to him who calls him “governor,”--is the most careful -thing in nature; and as to young blood, it circulates too fast to be -overtaken by half the ills that flesh is heir to. - -A well known Wykehamist player of R. Price’s standing, was lately -playing as wicket-keeper, and seeing the batsman going to hit Off, ran -almost to the place of a near Point; the hit, a tremendously hard one, -glanced off from his forehead--he called out “Catch it,” and it was -caught by bowler! He was not hurt--not even marked by the ball. - -Four was scored at Beckenham, 1850, by a hit that glanced off Point’s -head; but the player suffered much in this instance. - -A spot under the window of the tavern at Lord’s was marked as the -evidence of a famous hit by Mr. Budd, and when I played, Oxford _v._ -Cambridge, in 1836, Charles, son of Lord F. Beauclerk, hitting above -that spot elicited the observation from the old players. Beagley hit a -ball from his Lordship over a bank 120 yards. Freemantle’s famous hit -was 130 yards in the air. Freemantle’s bail was once hit up and fell -back on the stump: Not out. A similar thing was witnessed by a friend -on the Westminster Ground. “One hot day,” said Bayley, “I saw a new -stump bowled out of the perpendicular, but the bail stuck in the groove -from the melting of the varnish in the sun, and the batsman continued -his innings.” I have seen Mr. Kirwan hit a bail thirty yards. A bail -has flown forty yards. - -I once chopped hard down upon a shooter, and the ball went a foot away -from my bat straight forward towards the bowler, and then, by its -rotary motion, returned in the same straight line exactly, like the -“draw-back stroke” at billiards, and shook the bail off. - -At a match played at Cambridge, a lost ball was found so firmly fixed -on the point of a broken glass bottle in an ivied wall, that a new ball -was necessary to continue the game. - -Among remarkable games of cricket, are games on the ice--as on -Christchurch meadow, Oxford, in 1849, and other places. The one-armed -and one-legged pensioners of Greenwich and Chelsea is an oft-repeated -match. - -Mr. Trumper and his dog challenged and beat two players at single -wicket in 1825, on Harefield common, near Rickmansworth. - -Female cricketers Southey deemed worthy of notice in his Common-place -Book. A match, he says, was played at Bury between the Matrons and -the Maids of the parish. The Matrons vindicated their superiority and -challenged any eleven petticoats in the county of Suffolk. A similar -match, it is noted, was played at West Tarring in 1850. Southey also -was amused at five legs being broken in one match--but only wooden -legs--of Greenwich pensioners. - -Eleven females of Surrey were backed against Eleven of Hampshire, -says Pierce Egan, at Newington, Oct. 2. 1811, by two noblemen for 500 -guineas a side. Hants won. And a similar match was played in strict -order and decorum on Lavant Level, Sussex, before 3000 spectators. - -Matches of much interest have been played between members of the same -family and some other club. Besides “the Twelve Cæsars,” the four -Messrs. Walker and the Messrs. B Ridding have proved how cricket may -run in a family, not to forget four of the House of Verulam. - -Pugilists have rarely been cricket players. “We used to see the -fighting men,” said Beldham, “playing skittles about the ground, but -there were no players among them.” Ned O’Neal was a pretty good player; -and Bendigo had friends confident enough to make a p.p. match between -him and George Parr for 50_l._ When the day came, Bendigo appeared -with a lame leg, and Parr’s friends set an example worthy of true -cricketers; they scorned to play a lame man, or to profit by their -neighbour’s misfortunes. - -In the famous Nottingham match, 1817, Bentley, on the All England side, -was playing well, when he was given “run out,” having run round his -ground. “Why,” said Beldham, “he had been home long enough to take a -pinch of snuff.” They changed the umpire; but the blunder lost the -match. - -“Spiked shoes,” said Beldham, “were not in use in my country. Never -saw them till I went to Hambledon.” “Robinson,” said old Mr. Morton, -the dramatist, “began with spikes of a monstrous length, on one foot.” -“The first notion of a leg guard I ever saw,” said an old player, -“was Robinson’s: he put together two thin boards, angle-wise, on his -right shin: the ball would go off it as clean as off the bat, and made -a precious deal more noise: but it was laughed at--did not last long. -Robinson burnt some of his fingers off when a child, and had the handle -of his bat grooved, to fit the stunted joints. Still, he was a fine -hitter.” - -A one-armed man, who used a short bat in his right hand, has been known -to make a fair average score. - -SAWDUST.--Beldham, Robinson, and Lambert, played Bennett, Fennex, and -Lord F. Beauclerk, a notable single wicket match at Lord’s, 27th June, -1806. Lord Frederick’s last innings was winning the game, and no chance -of getting him out. His Lordship had then lately introduced sawdust -when the ground was wet. Beldham, unseen, took up a lump of wet dirt -and sawdust, and stuck it on the ball, which, pitching favourably, made -an extraordinary twist, and took the wicket. This I heard separately -from Beldham, Bennett, and also Fennex, who used to mention it as among -the wonders of his long life. - -As to LONG SCORES, above one hundred in an innings rather lessens than -adds to the interest of a game. - -The greatest number recorded, with overhand bowling, was in M.C.C. -_v._ Sussex, at Brighton, about 1844; the four innings averaged 207 -each. In 1815, Epsom _v._ Middlesex, at Lord’s, scored first innings, -476. Sussex _v._ Epsom, in 1817, scored 445 in one innings. Mr. Ward’s -great innings was 278, in M.C.C. _v._ Norfolk, 24th July, 1820, but -with underhand bowling. Mr. Mynn’s great innings at Leicester was in -North _v._ South, in 1836. South winning by 218 runs. Mr. Mynn 21 (not -out) and 125 (not out) against Redgate’s bowling. Wisden, Parr, and -Pilch, Felix, and Julius Cæsar, and John Lillywhite, have scored above -100 runs in one innings against good bowling. Wisden once bowled ten -wickets in one innings: Mr. Kirwan has done the same thing. - -IN BOWLING.--The greatest feat ever recorded is this:--that Lillywhite -bowled Pilch 61 balls without a run, and the last took his wicket. -True, Clarke bowled Daniel Day, at Weymouth, 60 balls without a run, -but then Daniel would hit at nothing. Clarke also bowled 64 balls -without a run to Caffyn and Box, in Notts _v._ England in 1853, no -doubt a great achievement; still, at slow bowling, these players have -not their usual confidence: they had over pitched balls which they did -not hit away. But Pilch was not the man to miss a chance, and the fact -that he made no run from 61 balls speaks wonders as to what Lillywhite -could do in his best day. - -Mr. Marcon, at Attlebury, 1850, bowled four men in four successive -balls. The Lansdown Club, in 1850, put the West Gloucestershire Club -out for six runs, and of these only two were scored by hits--so ten -ciphers! Eleven men last year (1850) were out for a run each; Mr. Felix -being one. Mr. G. Yonge, playing against the Etonians, put a whole side -out for six runs. A friend, playing the Shepton Mallet Club, put his -adversaries in, second innings, for seven runs to tie, and got all out -for five! In a famous Wykehamist match all depended on an outsider’s -making two runs, he made a hard hit; when, in the moment of exultation, -“Cut away, you young sinner,” said a big fellow; and lo! down he laid -his bat, and did indeed cut away, but--to the tent! while the other -side, amidst screams of laughter at the mistake, put down the wicket -and won the match. - -In a B. Match, 1810, the B.s, scored second innings, only 6; and four -of these were made at one hit, by J. Wells, a man given, though the -first innings scored 137. - -True, E. H. Budd was “_absent_,” still the Bentleys, Bennett, Beldham -and Lord Frederick Beauclerk were among the ten. - -On the Surrey ground, 1851, had not an easy catch been missed, the -Eleven of All England would have gone out for a run apiece. - -The Smallest Score on record is that of the Paltiswick Club, when -playing against Bury in 1824: their first innings was only 4 runs! -Pilch bowled out eight of them. In their next innings they scored 46. -Bury, first innings, 101. - -In a match at Oxford, in 1835, I saw the two last wickets, Charles -Beauclerk and E. Buller, score 110 runs; and in an I.Z. match at -Leamington, the last wickets scored 80. - -TIE MATCHES.--There have been only four of any note: the first was -played at Woolwich, in 1818, M.C.C. _v._ Royal Artillery, with E. H. -Budd, Esq.; the second, at Lord’s, in 1839, M. C. C. _v._ Oxford; -the third, at Lord’s, between Winchester and Eton; the fourth at the -Oval, in 1847, Surrey _v._ Kent. But at a scratch match of Woking _v._ -Shiere, in 1818, at Woking, there was a tie each innings and all four -innings the same number, 71! - -As to HARD HITTING.--“One of the longest hits in air of modern days,” -writes a friend, “was made at Himley about three years since by Mr. -Fellowes, confessedly one of the hardest of all hitters. The same -gentleman, in practice on the Leicester ground, hit, clean over the -poplars, one hundred long paces from the wicket: the distance from -bat to pitch of ball may be fairly stated as 140 yards. This was -ten yards further, I think, than the hit at Himley, which every one -wondered at; though, the former was off slow lobs in practice, the -latter in a match. Mr. Fellowes once made so high a hit over the -bowler’s (Wisden’s) head, that the second run was finished as the ball -returned to earth! He was afterwards caught by Armitage, Long-field On, -when half through the second run. I have also seen, I think, Mr. G. -Barker, of Trinity, hit a nine on Parker’s Piece. It took three average -throwers to throw it up. Mr. Bastard, of Trinity, hit a ten on the same -ground. Sir F. Heygate, this year, hit an eight at Leicester.” When Mr. -Budd hit a nine at Woolwich, strange to say, it proved a tie match: -an eight would have lost the game. Practise clean hitting, correct -position, and judgment of lengths with free arm, and the ball is sure -to go far enough. The habit of hitting at a ball oscillating from a -slanting pole will greatly improve any unpractised hitter. A soft ball -will answer the purpose, pierced and threaded on a string. - -The most vexatious of all stupid things was done by James Broadbridge, -in Sussex _v._ England, at Brighton, in 1827, one of the trial matches -which excited such interest in the early days of overhand bowling. “We -went in for 120 to win,” said our good friend, Captain Cheslyn. “Now,” -I said, “my boys, let every man resolve on a steady game and the match -is ours; when, almost at the first set off, that stupid fellow Jim -threw his bat a couple of yards at a ball too wide to reach, and Mr. -Ward caught him at Point! The loss of this one man’s innings was not -all, for the men went in disgusted; the quicksilver was up with the -other side, and down with us, and the match was lost by twenty-four -runs.” But, though stupid in this instance, Broadbridge was one of the -most artful dodgers that ever handled a ball. And once he practised for -some match till he appeared to all the bowlers about Lord’s to have -reduced batting to a certainty: but when the time came, amidst the most -sanguine expectations of his friends, he made no runs. - -Now for Generalship: A manager had better not be a bowler, least of all -a slow bowler, for he wants some impartial observer to tell him when -to go on and when to change,--a modest man will leave off too soon; a -conceited man too late. To say nothing of the effect of a change, so -well known to gain, not only wickets, but catches (because the timing -is different), it is too little considered that different bowlers are -difficult to different men,--a very forward player, and one eager for -a Cut, may respectively be _non-suited_, each by the bowling easiest -to the other. A manager requires the greatest equanimity and temper, -especially in managing his bowlers, on whom all depends. He should -lead while he appears only to consult them, and never let them feel -that the men are placed contrary to their wishes. By changing the best -fieldmen into the busiest places, four or five good men appear like a -good eleven. To put a man short slip who is slow of sight, and a man -long leg who does not understand a long catch, may lose a match. In -putting the batsmen in, it is a great point to have men in early who -are likely to make a stand,--falling wickets are very discouraging. -Also beware of the bad judges of a run; and match your men to the -bowling, I have seen a man score twenty against one bowler who was -at work two against another--keep your men in good spirits and good -humour; if the game is against you, save all you can, and wait one -of those wondrous changes that a single Over sometimes makes. Never -despair till the last man’s out. The M.C.C. in 1847 in playing Surrey -followed their innings, being headed by 106; still they won the match -by nine runs. - -The manager should always choose his own Eleven; and, we have already -hinted that fielding, rather than batting, is the qualification. A -good field is sure to save runs, though the best batsman may not make -any. When all are agreed on the bowlers, I would leave the bowlers to -select such men as they can trust. Then, in their secret conclave you -will hear such principles of selection as these:--“King must be Point, -Chatterton we cannot afford to put Cover unless you can ensure Wenman -to keep wicket; Dean must be long-stop: he works so hard and saves so -many draws; and I have not nerve to attack the leg stump as I ought to -with any other man. We shall have three men at least against us whom we -cannot reckon on bowling out; so if for Short-slip we have a Hillyer, -and at leg such a man as Coates of Sheffield, we may pick these men up -pretty easily.” “But as to Sir Wormwood Scrubbs, our secretary vows he -shall never get any more pine apples and champagne for our Gala days if -we don’t have him, and he is about our sixth bat.” “Can’t be helped, -for, what with his cigar and his bad temper, he will put us all wrong; -besides, we must have John Gingerley, whose only fault is chaffing, and -these two men will never do together: then for Middle-wicket we have -Young George.” “Why, Edwards is quite as safe.” “Yes; but not half as -tractable. I would never bowl without George if I could have him; his -eye is always on me, and he will shift his place for every ball in the -Over, if I wish it. A handy man to put about in a moment just where -you want him, is worth a great deal to a bowler.” “Then you leave out -Kingsmill, Barker, and Cotesworth? Why, they can score better than most -of the tail of the Eleven!” “Yes; on practising days, with loose play, -but, with good men against them, what difference can there be between -any two men, when the first ripping ball levels both alike?” - -When taking the field, good humour and confidence is the thing. A -general who expects every thing smooth, in dealing with ten fallible -fellow-creatures, should be at once dismissed the service: he must -always have some man he had rather change as Virgil says of the bees-- - - _Semper erunt quarum mutari corpora malis_; - -but if you can have four or five safe players, join your influence with -theirs, and so keep up an appearance of working harmoniously together. -Obviously two bowlers of different pace, like Clarke and Wisden, work -well together, as also a left-handed and right-handed batsman, like -Felix and Pilch, whom we have seen run up a hundred runs faster than -ever before or since; - - _Nunc dextrâ ingeminans ictus, nunc ille sinistrâ._ - -Never put in all your best men at first, and leave “a tail” to follow: -many a game has been lost in this manner, for men lose confidence -when all the best are out: add to this, most men play better for the -encouragement that a good player often gives. And take care that you -put good judges of a run in together. A good runner starts intuitively -and by habit, where a bad judge, seeing no chance, hesitates and runs -him out. If a good Off-hitter and a good Leg-hitter are in together, -the same field that checks the one will give an opening to the other. - -Frequent change of bowlers, where two men are making runs, is good: but -do not change good bowling for inferior, till it is hit; unless, you -know your batsman is a dangerous man, only waiting till his eyes are -open. - -With a fine forward player, a near Middle-wicket or forward Point often -snaps up a catch, when the Bowler varies his time; generally, a third -Slip can hardly be spared. - -If your Wicket-keeper is not likely to stump any one, make a Slip of -him, provided you play a Short-leg; otherwise he is wanted at the -wicket to save the single runs. - -And if Point is no good as Point for a sharp catch, make a field of -him. A bad Point will make more catches, and save more runs some yards -back. Many a time have I seen both Point and Wicket-keeper standing -where they were of no use. The general must place his men not on any -plan or theory, but where each particular man’s powers can be turned -to the best account. We have already mentioned the common error of -men standing too far to save One, and not as far as is compatible with -saving Two. - -With a free hitter, a man who does not pitch very far up answers -best; short leg-balls are not easily hit. A lobbing bowler, with the -Long-stop, and four men in all, on the On side, will shorten the -innings of many a reputed fine hitter. - -A good arrangement of your men, according to these principles, will -make eleven men do the work of thirteen. Some men play nervously at -first they come in, and it is so much waste of your forces to lay your -men far out, and equally a waste not to open your field as they begin -to hit. - - * * * * * - -We must conclude with comments on the Laws of the Game. - -I. The ball. Before the days of John Small a ball would not last a -match; the stitches would give way. To call for a new ball at the -beginning of each innings is not customary now. - -II. The bat. Here, the length of the blade of a bat may be any thing -the player likes short of thirty-eight inches. As to the width, an iron -frame was used in the old Hambledon Club as a gauge, in those primitive -days when the Hampshire yeomen shaped out their own bats. - -V. The popping crease must be four feet from the wicket, and -parallel to it: unlimited in length, but not shorter than the bowling -crease,--_unlimited_ in this sense that it shall not be said the runner -is out because he ran round his ground. - -The bowling crease is limited; because, otherwise, the batsman never -could take guard; and umpires should be very careful to call “No Ball,” -if the bowler bowls outside the return crease. - -The return, or crease, is not limited; because it is against a -batsman’s interest to run wide of his wicket; and a little latitude is -requisite to prevent dangerous collision with the wicket-keeper. - -VI. The wickets. Secretaries should provide a rule, or frame, -consisting of two wooden measures, six feet eight inches long, and four -feet apart, and parallel. Then, with a chain of twenty-two yards, the -relative positions of the two wickets may be accurately determined. - -IX. The bowler. “One foot on the ground.” No man can deliver a ball -with the foot not touching the ground in the full swing of bowling. So, -if the foot is over the crease, there is no doubt of its being on the -ground. - -X. The ball must be bowled: “not thrown or jerked:” here there is not a -word about “touching the side with the arm.” It is left to the umpire -to decide what is a jerk. We once heard an umpire asked, how could you -make that out to be a jerk? - -“I say it is a jerk because it is a jerk,” was the sensible reply. “I -know a jerk when I see one, and I have a right to believe my eyes, -though I cannot define wherein a jerk consists.” - -In a jerk there is a certain mechanical precision and curl of the ball -wholly unlike fair bowling. - -A throw may be made in two ways; one way with an arm nearly straight -from first to last: this throw with straight arm requires the hand to -be raised as high as the head, and brought down in a whirl or circle, -the contrary foot being used as the pivot on which the body moves in -the delivery. But the more common throw, under pretence of bowling, -results from the hand being first bent on the fore-arm, and then power -of delivery being gained by the sudden lash out and straightening of -the elbow. It is a mistake to say that the action of the wrist makes a -throw. - -“In delivery” means some action so called: if the mere opening of the -hand is delivery of the ball, then the only question is the height -of the hand the moment it opens. But if, as we think, “delivery” -comprehends the last action of the arm that gives such opening of the -hand effect, then in no part of that action may the hand be above the -shoulder. - -Further, in case of doubt as to fair bowling, the umpire is to decide -against the bowler; so the hand must be _clearly_ not above the -shoulder, and the ball as clearly not thrown, nor jerked. - -Now, as to high delivery as a source of danger, we never yet witnessed -that kind of high bowling that admitted of a dangerous increase of -speed in an angry moment. The only bowling ever deemed dangerous, has -been clearly below the shoulder, and savouring more of a jerk, or of an -underhand sling, or throw, than of the round-armed or high delivery. -Such bowlers were Mr. Osbaldestone, Browne of Brighton, Mr. Kirwan, Mr. -Fellowes, and Mr. Marcon, neither of whom, except on smooth ground, -should we wish to encounter. - -But, we have often been asked, do the law and the practice coincide? -Is it not a fact that few round-armed bowlers are clearly below -the shoulder? Undoubtedly this is the fact. The better the bowler, -as we have already explained, the more horizontal and the fairer -his delivery. Cobbett and Hillyer have eminently exemplified this -principle; but amongst amateurs and all but the most practised bowlers, -allowing, of course, for some exceptions, the law is habitually -infringed. In a country match a strict umpire would often cry “no ball” -to the bowlers on both sides, cramp their action, produce wide balls -and loose bowling, and eventually, not to spoil the day’s sport, the -two parties would come to a compromise. And do such things ever happen? -Not often. Because the umpires exercise a degree of discretion, and -the law in the country is often a dead letter. Practically, the 10th -law enables a fair umpire to prevent an undisguised and dangerous -throw; but, at the same time, it enables an unfair umpire to put aside -some promising player who is as fair as his neighbours, but has not the -same clique to support him. - -What, then, would we suggest? The difficulty is in the nature of -the case. To leave all to the umpire’s discretion would, as to fair -bowling, increase those evils of partiality, and, instead of an -uncertain standard, we should have no standard at all. With fair -umpires the law does as well as many other laws as it is; with unfair -umpires no form of words would mend the matter. I can never forget -the remark of the late Mr. Ward:--“Cricketers are a very peaceably -disposed set of men. We play for the love of play; the fairer the -play the better we like it. Otherwise, so indefinite is the nature -of round-arm bowling, that I never yet saw a match about which the -discontented might not find a pretext for a wrangle.” I am happy to -add, in the year 1850, the M.C.C. passed a _resolution_ to enforce the -law of fair delivery. The violation of this law had, we know, become -almost conventional; this convention the M.C.C. have now ignored in -the strongest terms; they have cautioned their umpires, promised to -support them in an independent judgment, and daily encourage them in -the performance of their unpleasant duty. This is beginning at the -right end. To expect a judge to do that which he believes will be the -signal for his own dismissal is too much. - -The absurdity of having a law and breaking it, is obvious; so let -me insist on a newer argument, namely, that “to indulge a bowler in -an unfair delivery is mistaken kindness, for the fairest horizontal -delivery, like Cobbett’s and Redgate’s, tends most to that spin, twist, -quick rise, shooting and cutting, and that variety after the pitch in -which effective bowling consists.” A throw is very easy to play--as it -comes down, so it bounds up: the batsman feels little credit due, and -the spectator feels as little interest. The ball leaves the hand at -once without any rotatory motion, and one ball of the same pitch and -pace is like another. Very different is that life and vitality in the -ball as it spins away from the skimming and low delivery of a hand like -Cobbett’s. The angle of reflection is not to be calculated by the angle -of incidence one in ten times, with such spinning balls. That rotatory -motion which makes a bullet glance instead of penetrating--that causes -the slowly-moving top to fly off with increased speed when rubbing -against the wall--that determines the angle from the cushion, and -either the “following” or the “draw back” of a billiard ball--that -same rotation round its own axis, or the same spin, which a cricket -ball receives in proportion as the hand is horizontal and the bowling -lawful, determines the variety of every ball of a similar pace and -pitch, at least when the ground is true. - -Whether precision and accuracy are as easily attained with a low -as with a high delivery, is another question; neither should I be -surprised nor sorry if fair delivery necessitated a wider wicket. -A higher wicket would favour rather rough ground than scientific -bowling; but a wider wicket would do justice to that spin and twist, -which often is the means of missing the wicket which with better luck -might have been levelled. Amateurs play cricket for recreation--as a -pleasure, not a business--and experience shows that any alteration -which would encourage the practice of bowling would greatly improve -cricket. In country matches, bowlers stipulate for four balls or six; -why not make matches to play with a wicket of eight inches, or even -twelve? I had rather see a ball go anywhere than into the long-stop’s -hands, or into the batsman’s face. So, give us fair bowling and a wider -wicket, and let amateurs have the gratification of seeing the bowlers, -on whom the science of the game and the honour of victory chiefly -depends, no longer “given” men to play the game for them, but the fair -representatives of their own club or their own county. - -XI. “He may require the striker at the wicket from which he is bowling, -to stand on that side of it which he may direct.” - -Query. Can a bowler give guard for one side of the wicket and bowl the -other? No law (though law XXXVI. may apply) plainly forbids it; still, -no gentleman would ever play with such a bowler another time. - -XII. “If the bowler shall toss the ball over the striker’s head.” As -to wide balls, some think there should be a mark, making the same ball -wide to a man of six feet and to a man of five. With good umpires, the -law is better as it is. Still, any parties can agree on a mark for wide -balls, if they please, before they begin the game. - -“Bowl it so wide.” These words say nothing about the ball pitching more -or less straight and turning off afterwards: the distance of the ball -when it passes the batsman is the point at issue. - -XVI. Or if the “ball be held before it touch the ground.” Query; is -it Out, if a ball is caught rolling back off the tent? If the ball -striking the tent is, by agreement, so many runs, then the ball is dead -and a man cannot therefore be out. Otherwise, I should reason that the -tent, being on the ground, is as part of the ground. By the spirit -of the law it is _not out_, by the letter _out_. But, to avoid the -question, the better plan would be not to catch the ball, and disdain -to win a match except by good play. - -XVIII. “Or, if in striking at the ball, he hit down his wicket.”-- - -“In striking,” not in running a notch, however awkwardly. - -XIX. “Or, if under pretence of running, or otherwise.” - -“Or otherwise;” as, for instance, by calling out, purposely to baulk -the catcher. - -XX. “Or, if the ball be struck, and he wilfully strike it again.” - -“Wilfully strike it again.” This obviously means, when a man blocks a -ball, and afterwards hits it away to make runs. A man may hit a ball -out of his wicket, or block it hard. The umpire is sole judge of the -striker’s intention, whether to score or to guard. - -This law was, in one memorable instance, applied to the case of T. -Warsop, a fine Nottingham player, who, in a match at Sheffield in 1822, -as he was running a notch, hit the ball to prevent it coming home to -the wicket-keeper’s hands. Clarke, who was then playing, thinks the -player was properly given out. Certainly he deserved to be out but old -laws do not always fit new offences, however flagrant. - -XXI. “With ball in hand.” The same hand. - -“Bat (in hand);” that is, not thrown. - -XXIII. “If the striker touch.” This applies to the Nottingham case -better than Law XX.; but neither of these laws contemplated the exact -offence. A ball once ran up a man’s bat, and spun into the pocket of -his jacket; and as he “touched” the ball to get it out of his pocket, -he was given out. The reply of Mr. Bell on the subject was, the player -was out for _touching_ the ball--he might have shaken it out of his -pocket. This we mention for the curiosity of the occurrence. - -XXIV. Or, if with any part of his person, &c. - -A man has been properly given out by stopping a ball with his arm below -the elbow. Also a short man, who stooped to let the ball pass over his -head, and was hit in the face, was once given out, as before wicket. - -“From it;” that is, the ball must pitch in a line, not from the hand, -but from wicket to wicket. - -Much has been said on the Leg-before-Wicket law. - -Clarke and others say that a round-arm bowler can rarely hit the wicket -at all with a ball not over-pitched, unless it pitch out of the line -of the wickets. If this is true, a ball that has been pitched straight -“would _not_ have hit it;” and a ball that “would have hit it,” could -not have been “pitched straight;” and therefore, it is argued the -condition “in a straight line from it (the wicket)” should be altered -to “in a straight line from the bowler’s hand.” - -And what do we say? - -Bring the question to an issue thus: stretch a thin white string from -the leg-stump of the striker’s wicket to the off-stump of the bowler’s -wicket; and let any round-armed bowler (who does not bowl “over the -wicket”) try whether good length balls, which do not pitch outside -of the said string, will hit the wicket regularly, that is, of their -common tendency and not as “a break.” - -My firm belief is, that this experiment (with a bowler and a -string) will convince any one that the two conditions of being out -leg-before-wicket (“straight pitch,” and “would have hit”) cannot, -except by accident, be fulfilled by an ordinary round-armed bowler; and -if so, the law of leg-before-wicket should require that the ball pitch -straight not from the bowler’s wicket, but straight from the bowler’s -hand. - -_Objection._ “This would make the umpire’s task too difficult: you -would thus make him guess what was straight from the hand, but he can -actually see what is straight from the wicket.” - -_Answer._ This difficulty is an imaginary one. An umpire must be blind -indeed, not to discern when the ball keeps its natural line from the -hand to the wicket, and when it pitches out of that line, and then -abruptly turns into it. Besides, as the law now stands, the umpire has -the same difficulty and the same discretion, for how can he decide the -condition, “would have hit,” without making allowance for the wide arm, -and the “working” of the ball, and bringing the said objectionable -_guessing_ into requisition? The judgment now proposed for the umpire, -is no difficulty at all, but the judgment he has already to exercise is -a great difficulty indeed. How often is a batsman convinced, that the -ball that hit him before wicket was making so abrupt a turn, that it -must have missed the wicket, and, but for that abrupt turn, would never -have hit him at all. I do not believe that of the men given out “leg -before wicket,” one in three are deservedly out. But, often do we see a -wicket saved by the leg and pads, when both the skill of the bowler and -the blunder of the batsman deserved falling stumps. - -With these observations, I must leave my friends to the free -exercise of their heads and hands, feet and faculties, patience and -perseverance, holding myself up to them as an example in one respect -only, that I am not too old to learn, and will thankfully receive any -contribution, whether from pen or pencil, that is calculated to enrich -or to illustrate a work, which, I am but too happy to acknowledge, the -community of cricketers have adopted as their own. - - - - LONDON: - A. and G. A. 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