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                     _The Cricket of Abel, Hirst,
                            and Shrewsbury_

                               EDITED BY
                             E. F. BENSON
                                  and
                           EUSTACE H. MILES

                           _ILLUSTRATED WITH
                        THIRTY-FOUR PHOTOGRAPHS
                                  BY
                           MASON AND BASEBE_

                               NEW YORK
                          E. P. DUTTON & CO.
                     31, West Twenty-Third Street
                                 1903

                  PRINTED BY KELLY’S DIRECTORIES LTD
                         LONDON AND KINGSTON.

EDITORS’ PREFACE.

There appear to be hardly any beginners or habitual players who know how
to profit by seeing experts at play and at work. The reason cannot well
be that we do not look on at games sufficiently often! No, one reason is
that we have not been trained to observe with a view to personal
experimentation afterwards; and another reason is that there is very
little time to catch and realise the different positions and movements
as they flash by. Hence the value of photographs, especially when they
are--as many of these thirty-four are--taken from behind: it is not easy
to reproduce for ourselves the action as shown by an ordinary photograph
(taken from in front), since it gives us everything the wrong way round.

But even photographs often fail to teach their lesson. The learner must
be told how to teach himself from photographs. After which he will find
it easy to teach himself from actual models, as soon as he knows just
what to look out for--the feet and their “stances” and changes, and so
on. It is to be hoped that these photographs, and the notes on them, and
the obvious inferences drawn from them, will train readers to study
various other experts besides these three, who are only a few out of a
host.

For the object of the book is not to tie any player down to any one
method, but rather to set him on the track of independent research and
self-instruction: to show him how to watch and _see_, and how to
practise the best things that he sees, and what the best things are most
likely to be. Not a single hint in these pages need be followed until
the reader is convinced that what I advise is what most if not all great
players actually do, whether consciously or by instinct.

The volume is not intended to compete with the many excellent books
edited by those who themselves play the game well. It boasts of a large
debt to these classics, but having gathered hints from them it moves
away on altogether different lines. The best player is seldom the best
teacher of average beginners. On the principle of “Set a thief to catch
a thief,” a duffer has here been set to teach a duffer, while at the
same time the whole teaching is, I hope, strictly according to the
actual play of good players, as shown by observation, by photographs,
and by answers to questions asked during special interviews. The three
chief players (whose ascertained positions and movements are made the
basis for all the simple lessons offered here) are Abel, Hirst, and
Shrewsbury.

The editor of this volume used to play Cricket at school about as well
or as badly as he used to play Racquets. After his school and
undergraduate days at Cambridge, he discovered many fundamental faults
in his play at Racquets--faults which abundant practice had strengthened
and fixed into bad habits--ineradicably and hopelessly bad habits, his
critics said. He had some hints from the best professionals (Smale,
Latham, and others); he studied their positions and movements carefully;
then, chiefly by the help of certain easy and healthy exercises in his
bedroom for less than five minutes a day (Mr. Edward Lyttelton
constantly recommends bedroom-practice for Cricket, and quotes the
success of Jupp thereby), he found that he was gradually removing those
habits, and building better habits which persisted in subsequent play in
the Court itself. Quite recently, after noticing the various positions
and movements of the great experts of Cricket (including the three
professionals whose photographs appear in this volume), he concluded
that there had been remarkably _similar_ faults, and no less fundamental
faults, in his _Cricket_, though of course the games of Cricket and
Racquets have marked differences. He thinks that these faults were amply
sufficient to account for his past failure to enjoy Cricket (that is, to
improve at Cricket), just as the other faults had proved sufficient to
account for his past clumsiness at Racquets. He therefore devised
special exercises by which he might eventually be enabled to do himself
less injustice at Cricket also.[1] These he intends to practise
regularly in order to secure the bodily mechanisms of play, to make them
his very own, before he once again meets those “disturbing elements” in
Cricket (as in Racquets and Tennis), the ball and the opponents.

Whether he will ever become a cricketer or not he cannot say--he does
not expect to become one in less than a year or two: so numerous and
deeply ingrained were his mistakes, so execrable was his style, if he is
to believe his most candid friends and enemies! But at least he can
safely say that these mistakes--which he observes to be _common to
nearly all duffers and most beginners_--are now so absolutely obvious as
to supply ample reasons for any amount of his failure in all kinds of
batting, in all departments of fielding, as well as in bowling. He can
safely say that _until_ he has mastered those positions and movements
which nearly all the experts already have _as a matter of course_, until
he has learnt the A B C, built the scaffolding, formed the skeleton, or
whatever one likes to call the process, he will certainly not become a
cricketer. He cannot reasonably expect the tree to bear fruit for a long
time yet; but he hopes the fact that he himself is practising what he
preaches will encourage others to give the method--sensibly adapted
according to their individual opinions and needs and models--a fair and
square trial, as thousands have already given a fair and square and
successful trial to the simpler diet. The method is urged as claiming a
reasonable experiment before condemnation: that is all. It is not meant
to harass and cramp all players, so as to make them uniform, any more
than the learning of the alphabet and of spelling is meant to harass and
cramp all writers. He only describes what he believes to be the correct
alphabet and spelling of words in Cricket. Out of this alphabet and
these words let each player subsequently form his own sentences and
paragraphs and chapters. Let each player develop to the full his
individual merits and specialities. But not until he has made the
alphabet and the vocabulary his very own, to use easily at will, is he
likely to develop his individuality satisfactorily and successfully, any
more than a builder would be likely to build a good house without good
bricks, mortar, and wood, and some knowledge and practice of the best
ways of using them.

The suggestions are one and all based upon the practice or the teaching
of successful players. Of the three special models here, not one has the
advantage of superior height, and at least one had not the advantage of
athletic physique. The instructions point out the apparent foundations
of batting, bowling, and fielding, and, by contrast, the apparent faults
to which the natural duffer like myself is liable. It is hoped that
critics and other readers will kindly offer every possible hint and
correction.

Each true lover of games, whether he play or watch or both watch and
play, must see that if this way be good--this mastery of the instruments
of play, _in addition to_ the usual net-practice and games--it surely
will improve the health and physique of the nation; will bring in more
recruits for Cricket; will enable the busy man to keep up at least his
muscular, if not his nervous apparatus, so that he need never get
considerably out of practice or training, and need never, as too many
thousands have done, give up the game merely because he has not time to
play the game itself regularly. The editor feels assured that any
feasible five-minutes-a-day system like this, which may tend to spread
the greatest of games more widely, and to raise our national standard of
skill, enjoyment, and physique, will be received by every patriot in the
spirit in which it is offered; namely, as perhaps useful for most, and
probably healthy and harmless for all. Every sensible person will agree
that if the game is going to be played _at all_--and it certainly
_is_--then it is worth playing well, and therefore worth learning well
and practising well.

Whether these exercises and general hints will help towards my
end--towards a game better played all-round (in batting, bowling, and
fielding), better watched, and so better enjoyed--experience must
decide. But all will concede that these exercises are not less pleasant
and wholesome than those of drill and dumb-bell and strain-apparatus;
that they are far better adapted than these are as a preparation for the
noblest of sports and for much of daily life itself, since they
encourage not mere strength and vastness of muscle, but also full
extensions in various directions, promptitude to start in any required
direction, rapidity to carry the movements through, endurance to repeat
them, self-control to keep or recover poise in spite of the fulness and
rapidity and promptitude and unforeseenness of the motion; to say
nothing of the corresponding mental and moral excellences. If the system
demands only a few minutes each day then in so far as it is correct--and
it will be gradually corrected as observations and criticisms pour
in--it will prove well worth while, especially on wet days (which are
not unknown in England), and in winter, for those who do not grudge many
hours a day to Cricket itself with all its waitings and watchings and
disappointments.

The system is the chief new feature of this book, which, however, does
not by any means underestimate the equally essential coaching by
schoolmasters and professionals and others, and net-practice and
practice-games as an addition to the system and as the test of its
merits or demerits.

These ought we to do, and not leave the other--the system which teaches
this very alphabet of Cricket--undone, especially to-day when the
majority of people are cooped up in cities without the chance of a
practice-game or even of a net. The plea is not for uniformity of style,
but for reasonable mastery of the spelling of words before we write
essays; for a system of self-teaching and self-correction; for a system
of training and practice when regular play is out of the question; for a
drill which fathers and uncles may teach their children and nephews; for
a healthy and interesting use of odd minutes which would otherwise be
wasted or worse than wasted.

POSTSCRIPTS.

1. Mr. C. B. Fry’s advice in “Cricket” (just published by C. Arthur
Pearson, in 1903) should be carefully read. He says: “To train his
muscles for heavy weight-lifting is precisely what a cricketer ought not
to do.... It is remarkable how much a player can improve himself ... by
simply _practising strokes with a bat and no ball or bowler_. But this
is easily understood when you perceive that _the actual correctness of a
stroke, so far as the movement of the feet and of the arms is concerned,
is entirely independent of the ball. To make a stroke with the correct
action and to time the ball are two distinct things_; both are necessary
in a match, and _you can learn the second only with a ball bowled at
you; but the first you can certainly to some extent acquire by mere
chamber drill_.

“It is also worth knowing that _much may be done with a ball hanging by
a cord from a beam or a tree. A little ingenuity renders practice at the
swinging ball quite valuable_.”

2. The death of Shrewsbury in May, 1903, has been a great loss to
Cricket and cricketers. His enthusiasm, his mastery of certain
mechanisms of batting, his calm confidence and patience, his gentleness
and good nature, made him an almost unique personality in the world of
Cricket.

CONTENTS.

                                                       PAGE

EDITORS’ PREFACE                                        vii

CHAP.

   I.--BATTING AND RUNNING                                1

  II.--BOWLING                                           56

 III.--FIELDING AND THROWING-IN                         103

  IV.--NOTES ON WICKET-KEEPING, CAPTAINING, IMPLEMENTS  120

   V.--THE IMPORTANCE OF ALL-ROUNDNESS IN CRICKET       138

  VI.--FAULTS IN PLAY AND PRACTICE                      149

 VII.--GENERAL TRAINING FOR CRICKET                     166

VIII.--SPECIAL EXERCISES AND NOTES ON PRACTICE          181

 IX.--FALLACIES OF THEORISTS AND OTHERS                 208

  X.--MERITS OF CRICKET                                 225

 XI.--SUGGESTED REFORMS                                 233

APPENDIX I.--THE EDITORS’ DEFENCE OF THIS
SYSTEM FOR BEGINNERS AND OTHERS                         249

APPENDIX II.--LAWS OF THE GAME                          268

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

I.--Waiting for the ball, with the weight balanced
almost evenly upon the two feet (which are near
together), but rather on the right foot

[_Facing page_ 22

II.--Forward play: the bat has been drawn straight
up and back (not in a curve) before the stroke

[_Facing page_ 25

III.--Playing back: the right foot has retired nearer
the wicket, so as to give longer time for seeing
the ball. (NOTE.--The bat should be held
straight. This photograph was taken before
Shrewsbury was in practice)

[_Facing page_ 26

IV.--The glide: both feet well back

[_Facing page_ 28

V.--Playing back: right foot retired, to give extra
time for seeing the ball; weight on right foot.
This was Shrewsbury’s stroke when he felt
“beaten” by the bowler

[_Facing page_ 29

VI.--Playing forward to a ball on the off: the straight
bat has passed near and beyond the left foot in a
“follow-through.” Notice the fingers, especially
the first finger and thumb of the left hand. At
the end of the stretch the left arm is fully extended,
and the right heel has come off the
ground

[_Between pages_ 30 _and_ 31

VII.--Playing forward to a ball slightly to the leg
side: see remarks on previous photograph, and
notice the head well over the bat-handle

[_Between pages_ 30 _and_ 31

VIII.--Playing forward to a straight ball: see remarks
on previous photographs

[_Between pages_ 30 _and_ 31

IX.--Position of hands and fingers at the end of the
forward stroke: the left hand has shifted round,
the right hand holds the bat with thumb and first
finger only

[_Facing page_ 35

X.--Preparing to drive with a pull: the left leg is
well out so that the bat may get nearer to the
pitch of the ball

[_Facing page_ 39

XI.--Preparing to pull a short ball: right foot across,
so as to help the stroke well round to leg

[_Between pages_ 40 _and_ 41

XII.--Preparing to pull a short ball: right foot across
and well back, so as to make the short ball still
shorter

[_Between pages_ 40 _and_ 41

XIII.--Hook-stroke to leg: both feet well back, but
weight on right foot

[_Between pages_ 40 _and_ 41

XIV.--Cut-drive. Right leg firm and straight, left
leg bent and well across

[_Facing page_ 41

XV.--The late cut: right foot well across, left leg
extended so far as to bring heel off ground

[_Between pages_ 42 _and_ 43

XVI.--The late cut:   right foot well across, left leg
extended

[_Between pages_ 42 _and_ 43

XVII.--The way of running out with fairly long
steps, weight should be chiefly on right foot
and right leg should be ready to serve as firm
pivot

[_Between pages_ 46 _and_ 47

XVIII.--Abel’s way of running out, with feet interlacing

[_Between pages_ 46 _and_ 47

XIX.--Turning quickly at the crease after the first
run

[_Facing page_ 50

XX.--Bowling, third position: bowling arm extended
fully forwards and downwards, body facing
forwards, back leg fully extended

[_Facing page_ 61

XXI.--Bowling, second position: bowling arm extended
fully upwards, body coming round with
arm

[_Facing page_ 61

XXII.--Bowling, first position: bowling arm back
and down, body facing sideways, weight on back
leg

[_Facing page_ 67

XXIII.--One of Hirst’s grips when he bowls: the
little finger does not touch the ball, and only the
knuckle of the third finger does

[_Between pages_ 70 _and_ 71

XXIV.--Same grip for right hand bowler

[_Between pages_ 70 _and_ 71

XXV.--Another of Hirst’s grips: all the fingers touch
the ball, the little one only just with its side

[_Between pages_ 70 _and_ 71

XXVI.--Same grip for right hand bowler

[_Between pages_ 70 _and_ 71

XXVII.--Bowler waiting for ball to be thrown in: he
is standing well back from the wicket

[_Facing page_ 91

XXVIII.--Fielding a low ball with one hand: the
opposite leg is fully extended

[_Facing page_ 112

XXIX.--Fielding, second position: the hand drawn
back behind the ear, somewhat further back than
most American Baseball fielders prefer

[_Facing page_ 114

XXX.--Waiting for a catch: elbows ready to draw
back slightly the moment the ball touches the
hands

[_Between pages_ 116 _and_ 117

XXXI.--A one-handed catch: body bent slightly
back from the hips

[_Between pages_ 116 _and_ 117

XXXII.--Fielding a ground ball: no interval left for
the ball to get through; body well down to the
work

[_Between pages_ 118 _and_ 119

XXXIII.--A waiting position at point, where there is
less foot-work than at most places. It is easier
to rise quickly than to stop quickly

[_Between pages_ 118 _and_ 119

XXXIV.--Preparing to throw in with the high action

[_Between pages_ 118 _and_ 119

THE CRICKET OF ABEL, HIRST AND SHREWSBURY.

CHAPTER I.

BATTING AND RUNNING.

I.--INTRODUCTORY.

It was once thought that the universe moved round our earth merely as
its accompanying condition, existing simply and solely for the sake of
our earth. And so the batsman has been, and generally still is, regarded
as the centre of cricket, for whose enjoyment the rest of the players
subsist. Batting seems best worth while, not so much because of the
qualities, such as pluck, which it demands, as because of the pleasure
it may give. The reason why most people like batting, even if they hate
wicket-keeping and fielding and watching, and do not bowl, is the
enjoyment of striking and of scoring runs. Perhaps in this there is some
relic of the desire for hitting and killing--the desire for overcoming
and controlling Nature, for using power. Moreover, batting includes
defence as well as attack; indeed the safest defence may really be to
attack boldly. Batting at its best and fullest involves a complexity of
characteristics: it involves back-play, with gliding and late cutting,
pulling, forward play, with the cut-drive and ordinary drive, the
“half-cock” stroke, the snick; a decision between these varieties,
followed by a hit, then recovery of balance, then a decision whether one
shall run or not, then perhaps a run, then a turn at the crease--and
much besides this. It may involve a great change of habit. Thus in many
other ball-games the ball is hit when it is further off from the
striker’s foot--as in Golf, Racquets, Tennis, Lawn Tennis, Fives. In
Cricket, except in such strokes as the pull and the cut, the ball should
be hit when it is near to the striker’s foot.

He who is not born a batsman, he who wishes to be made--that is, make
himself--an all-round batsman, must learn not only general rules like
this, but also details with regard to the individual strokes. In
studying these details he will meet divergent theories; here again is
scope for individual trial and judgment, and for observation. He can
notice what the best players actually _do_, for, as Murdoch says, this
is of more importance than what they think they do.

The would-be batsman, therefore, is offered perhaps a few really
universal laws, and certainly many general hints, yet he must judge of
each hint by its results in his own case after fair experiment. He must
be a free agent. He may find that the advisers have assumed that he has
little reach, little activity, whereas he may be a Ford or Abel for
reach, a Jessop or Abel for activity, without the safety of a Shrewsbury
or the strength of a Hirst. Why should such a one be tied down by a law
that in forward play he shall not let his bat pass beyond his left foot,
if he has it in his power to send his bat with force many inches beyond
that point, and so smother the ball? Who shall bind down such players?
On the other hand, who shall spoil the slow player’s pleasure and safety
by bidding him run out?

Throughout this chapter all rules or hints are submitted to the test of
utility for the individual. They must be studied; questions must be
asked of coaches and others, who should explain strokes by doing them;
the mechanisms must be found out, and also the causes and reasons for
them. These mechanisms--some will be described later on--must be
mastered, if not in early life, then now; they must be mastered
sensibly, not with huge bats and balls to begin with, but with lighter
implements. The advice must all be judged by its effects.

If the reader will bear in mind that the mechanisms suggested, together
with the other helps, are not necessarily the best (though they are
based on a study of what the best players actually do in games), he will
treat them in the right spirit, with a view to sensible trial and
judgment by fruits. Anyhow, be these helps right or wrong, it is obvious
that, by all except the genius player, _some_ A B C should be acquired
as a personal possession and habit before much regular play has
confirmed bad habits. Mr. Edward Lyttelton insists on this in the
following passage, after he has described what is needed for a correct
stroke:--

     “Now from these principles, which some might call truisms, a very
     important practical maxim proceeds. All sound rules of batting
     should be practised by a young cricketer without the ball as well
     as with it. The grammar of the science can be partly learnt in the
     bedroom; the application of the rules must be made on the green
     sward. Many a finished batsman has tried this plan. Five minutes
     devoted every night by an aspiring cricketer to a leg hit, or cut,
     or forward play at a phantom ball, will gradually discipline his
     sinews to the required posture, besides sending him to bed in a
     right frame of mind.

     “I think it was Harry Jupp who used to ascribe his astonishingly
     good defence to a habit of this kind. He used to place a
     large-sized mirror on the floor--not for purposes of personal
     vanity--but to see if the bat moved in a straight line. To make the
     test better, a line was drawn along the floor from the centre of
     the mirror, along which line the bat was to move. The least
     deviation was then manifested, not only at the end of the stroke,
     but while it was being made.”

2.--THE ALPHABET OF SAFE BATTING.

It is not part of the alphabet of _safe_ batting to meet and attack the
ball always. Both W. G. and C. B. Fry began their careers with safety,
with the stopping of balls; afterwards they proceeded to splendid
execution. The A B C of safe batting is not quite identical with the A B
C of effective batting, which will be considered in subsequent sections
of this chapter.

One of the first rules of safety is said to be to “keep the eye on the
ball.” This rule needs alteration.[2] Before the delivery the eye should
watch the bowler’s arm, wrist, and fingers; Shrewsbury owed to this
observation of something besides the ball a long innings against the
Australians many years ago. To foretell a change in direction, length,
pace, break, etc., is not easy by the sight of the ball alone. It is
after the ball has left the bowler’s hand that it must be sedulously
watched. Nor can it always be watched right on to the bat; exactly how
far it can be watched is a much disputed point. Certainly few batsmen
can carry out the golden rule of Golf. I believe that most of them--I
speak from my own Tennis and Racquet experience--take their eyes off the
cricket-ball too soon. Few err by looking at it too long. In my games,
almost without exception, the longer I look at the ball the better my
stroke is.

The second law is correct timing. There are several kinds of good sight;
I doubt if any one of them by itself brings with it that desirable
faculty, “the good eye.” Ranjitsinhji and others rightly include, under
the timing, the judgment as to the flight (direction, pace, etc.), the
decision as to what is or is not to be done, the command that the best
things shall be done, the correct combination and co-operation of the
requisite parts at just the very moment.[3] I believe that the good eye,
where it is not already a natural or acquired habit, means a splendidly
accurate and therefore healthy working of a vast number of more or less
separate nerve centres and nerves; but that what is often called “a good
eye” is nothing of the sort--it is a mastery of certain correct
mechanisms, which, if a man possesses them for his own, can produce an
even better effect than the most superb eyesight without such mechanism.
I may have a far better sight and eye for games than a fairly
well-taught golfer who knows what muscles to use, and has these as
half-automatic habits; but put me against him, and ask any spectators
which of us has the better eye, and they will very likely point to my
opponent.

If this be so, then the third rule will be _to have already secured_ the
best possible mechanisms, and to have made them easy and sub-conscious;
at first perhaps they may be conquered one by one; in the end, however,
they must be not independent units, but co-operating parts of a
unit--members combining and working together in harmony, as in some
businesses, adding power each to each, relieving one another. These
mechanisms include, for many strokes, and especially the forward
strokes, the “straight bat,” i.e., the bat held straight and not
sideways as it meets the ball; with its handle nearer to the bowler than
its blade is; with the end of its blade just to the side of the left
foot; the bat moving as straight as may be towards the approaching ball
from start to finish (the finish being a follow-through after the ball
has been struck); quickness of foot and leg to start and to move, the
right leg being the base and pivot; the power to get right to the pitch
of the ball or else to wait for it as far back as possible; straight and
fast and full extensions of various limbs in various directions; a
control of many different strokes, and especially, in these days of
fast plumb-wickets, a control of the forward stroke. The reader will
best realise the number of these mechanisms if we mention (and if he
meanwhile realises by trial) _some_ of those which are parts of the
ordinary forward stroke:--the right leg straight and unbent, the right
foot firm, the left foot and leg sent out towards the ball (a little to
the left of the line of flight), the left elbow and wrist shot well
forward at full stretch (in order to keep the ball down), the right
shoulder forward and down, the bat moved straight down and towards the
approaching ball and beyond it (not necessarily straight along the line
between the wickets), the weight brought forward with the head of the
bat, the recovery of balance and position, and the readiness to run
directly after the ball has been struck or missed. If one has run out
first, then the right foot will still have to serve as a firm pivot for
the whole stroke, which must be a single movement. This will give some
idea of what the correct mechanisms are, quite apart from individual
peculiarities in the use of them. Such correct mechanisms may be
acquired separately as I acquired my Tennis mechanisms, and as fencers
acquire their fencing--mechanisms of lunge, wrist-play, etc.; but it is
part of the A B C of correct play _to have already acquired them_ as
correct members of a correct whole before the game begins. Add to these
the mechanisms and the combination of mechanisms for other strokes, such
as back-play, cut, pull, etc., and the reader will agree that the A B C
of batting is no light work for anyone, except the born player who
apparently has not had to learn it letter by letter.

Out of the list of useful mechanisms a few will now be suggested. It is
for the reader to judge how far they actually are used in the strokes of
leading experts. Each example must be compared with the positions and
movements of the best models, as shown in photographs like these, or in
actual games or practice.

SOME SAMPLE EXERCISES.

Before attempting these exercises, the reader should find out the
principles of correct practice, some of which are suggested in Chapter
VIII. One or two of the most vital may be selected here.

(1.) Decide whether it is worth while to play Cricket at all; if so,
whether it is worth while to improve your standard of skill; if so,
whether these and your own exercises are likely to be of appreciable
help. (The exercises are not meant to take the place of net-practice and
games, which are indispensable, but to make them more pleasant and
useful.)

(2.) During the exercises, concentrate your whole attention either upon
the muscles at work, or upon their reflection in a looking-glass.

(3.) Aim at correctness, and therefore begin slowly and carefully before
you repeat any given movement. Freedom, pace, endurance, strength will
then increase almost of their own accord. Freedom and pace may best be
acquired by movements done at first without implements, afterwards with
light implements. I found these two preliminary stages invaluable in the
preparation for my games, perhaps especially for the sharp movements of
Racquets. The worst possible beginning is any “exerciser” that requires
a tense grip.

(4.) In case of a fault (discovered by yourself or pointed out by
others), seek to exaggerate the opposite fault.

Among the most useful exercises for batting, as for bowling and
fielding, are the fast and full and straight extensions of various
muscles and muscle-combinations, with economy of the unused parts, and
without loss of, or with immediate recovery of, the body’s balance, and
readiness to be directed elsewhither. It is likely that these pages
contain errors, but I think that if one were to ask a good player where
he ached most of all after his first practice or game in the season, one
would find that the aches were mainly due to these extension movements
(of the latissimus dorsi, below and behind the arm-pit, etc.).

For the feet and legs, (i.) Lunge far forward (but not so far as to
strain yourself) with the left foot and leg in a direct line (not a
curve) in various directions (perhaps along various chalk lines upon the
floor) with full weight--the head should come almost over the left
foot--but with rapid recovery of balance.

(ii.) Start to run in the forward direction afterwards.

(iii.) Practise the position and movement for backing up and a quick
start to run.

(iv.) Practise the movement for turning at the crease, as shown in the
photograph of Shrewsbury.

For the neck. Move the head round, at first slowly and carefully, from
side to side, then up and down, and so on; but do not strain.

For the trunk: the body’s force is great, as--to use an old
illustration--one can see when one bumps against a wall in the dark.
(i.) The body-swing from the hips is a most useful movement. Keeping the
legs as stiff as possible, and the head as still as possible, twist
round the shoulders, first to the right, then to the left. (ii.) Bend
the trunk forwards, and then sideways, from the hips.

For the shoulders, arm, and forearm. (i.) To the lunge of the left foot
add an equally full and direct and fast lunge of the left shoulder,
elbow, and wrist. Your head should come forward also, above your left
foot. Imagine yourself to be aiming at a ball, and see that your left
wrist is in a line between your eyes and some object, say a chair’s leg
in the bedroom. (ii.) Jerk the forearm (and wrist) as if you were
whipping a peg-top or shaking out a clogged stylographic pen.

For the wrist and fingers. Flex and twist the wrist and each finger far
and fast in various directions. After freedom and pace have been
acquired, but not before, some strength can be added by resistance--as
by holding a dumb-bell during the movements, or by using some grip
machine.

Let us apply these--a few out of many mechanisms for all-round
batting--to forward-play. The excellent words of Mr. Edward Lyttelton
must be quoted first. He says:--

     “You will see from these directions that it is a very complex
     action, far from easy to do all at once, so that by careful
     practice if not by the light of nature you must first learn to do
     it properly without the ball, then with it. Establish the motion as
     a habit before the stress of the crisis begins.... It is thought
     that just as great players of yore reached eminence without being
     subject to coaching in early youth, or indeed in some cases after
     being completely self-taught, so boys of the present day would
     stand a better chance if they were less drilled than they sometimes
     are, and were left to find the use of their limbs by a vigorous,
     if unkempt style of hitting. The Englishman’s instinct, said a
     Frenchman, is to go out of doors and hit or kick something as hard
     as he can. This being so, why not let boys learn to hit as they
     please till they are sixteen or seventeen, and then perhaps a few
     rules might be taught them? But if taught beforehand, they only
     cramp the style, and take away the enjoyment of the game. Nature
     must be the best teacher; etc., etc.... But it is not at all easy
     to secure this habit, and therefore you should remember it
     carefully in your bedroom....”

Pretend that you are going to play forward, and hold a stick in your
hands. Now, moving your fingers as you come forward (see below), lunge
with your left foot along a straight line, and send your head over your
left foot. (If you tend to deviate from the line, probably towards the
left, then exaggerate towards the right.) Keep your eye on the foot till
the foot can take care of itself. Regard it as a servant that you must
first watch carefully till the correct work shall have become
half-automatic; then only an occasional glance of supervision will be
required. Add to this lunge the extended lunge of the left wrist, elbow,
and shoulder straight along a line parallel to and slightly to the right
of the left foot.

The stick should be lifted straight back and up before the stroke
(though the blade of a bat, as in Racquets, will face outwards at the
top of the lift), and should then come forward in a direct line close to
the left foot, and afterwards follow through beyond the left foot. Do
not forget to keep both that foot along _its_ line and the left wrist
along _its_ line by aiming say at some spot on the wall. After the lunge
with the whole weight, recover balance, look up, and prepare to run
forward. Later on, do this and actually start forwards a few steps. That
is part of the physical apparatus which a good average forward-stroke
demands. There is no space to describe the requirements of the other
strokes--the cut, etc. They can easily be seen from the photographs and
from the play of experts. And some additional exercises will be offered
under the special headings below.

PRACTICE OUTSIDE THE NETS.

In addition to these and other movements, which may be tried at first
either before a large mirror or else with a teacher behind to correct
and perform correctly by way of instruction, Mr. Edward Lyttelton
mentions the practice of certain strokes with a ball in the pavilion.
Any old room will do. And the narrower the implement of batting the more
easily it will show the errors of batting; the lighter the implement,
the better it will develop pace and freedom. A stump or stick or
broomstick will do; a light indiarubber ball will do.

If you cannot get a bowler, then you can throw the ball--a Lawn Tennis
ball will do--up against a wall, and play forward or back to it with a
stick. I know a player who did this with very good results.

Games of “Snob-cricket,” and of Cricket with smaller ball and narrower
bat, should be far more frequently tried for the sake of practice.

Imaginary strokes may be made during idle moments. Fancy yourself
playing straight forward with full weight, or fancy yourself stepping
across and back with the right foot and then cutting with a jerk of
shoulder and forearm and some wrist-flick. I do a great deal of Racquet
and Tennis practice in this way; needless to say, I play infinitely
better in imagination than in reality! But I know that thus I help to
make my ideal real. After such an imagination-practice I often reproduce
improved strokes with a light racket-handle in my bedroom.

NET-PRACTICE.

If too many bowlers are bowling at one net, the variety is bad; in
actual play one has no such variety in a single over. I would rather see
three bowlers each bowl an over in turn, while the two others field. If
you cannot reform this, then make the best of it by trying to remember
the previous balls of each bowler, as if you were playing several games
of chess at the same time.

Begin on good wickets, so as to habituate confidence and pluck. Don’t
practise correct Cricket (you can, however, practise the bold
running-out game for a caking wicket) if the ground be fiery. Loss of
nerve is fatal.

Play safely and gently till you get set; defend against the difficult
balls; then, when you are set, meet and hit every ball, except for the
rare “half-cock” strokes to which you may have to resort.

The next stage is to place the ball. While on the one hand you must
count every chance you give, and every ball an inch or two from the
bails, as a wicket down, you may, on the other hand, venture on
experiments; you may determine to hit a ball pitched too short or too
far up to one of two or three places.

Notice the sort of ball which beats you most frequently, and find out
why it does so, and how you can best play it--perhaps this may be by
stepping back or forwards and turning it into some other ball.

Aim at developing your individual strong points, _but_--

(1.) Do not do this until you have mastered the fundamental elements of
various strokes; and

(2.) Do not be content with this. Gradually bring up your weak points to
the level of your strong points. Indeed, practise them far more than
your strong points.

GAMES.

While many hints must be reserved for the last section of this chapter,
we may here say a few words about games as distinct from training,
exercises, and net-practice; though it will be necessary to touch on the
importance of training, for success in the games. What better help is
there against the nervousness so fatal to success than the habit of full
and deep breathing? Can you be nervous at all so long as you breathe
fully and deeply? What better help, towards the steadiness and
confidence so important to success, than the clear eye that comes from
clean living, the feeling that the fingers “nip” the bat, the feeling
that the correct mechanisms are under control, the self-reliance gained
by net-practice on good pitches?

This steadiness is most necessary at the beginning of an innings. As we
mentioned above, two of the great players tell us that at first they
were content to defend, often merely to stop balls without attacking
them. Historians and natural historians and other scientists show us
that each individual human being in itself reproduces quickly the past
evolutions of the human race, being, for example, a seed, fish-like,
reptile-like, ape-like, then man-like. So each individual innings may
quickly reproduce the past stages of practice and progress, safety and
defence coming before severity and attack, except where--as on some
caking wickets--safety and defence consist in an apparently rash rushing
out to smite. As a rule, however, no liberties should be taken until the
bowling has been mastered and the eye is “in.” Time may be saved if one
watches the previous batsmen and finds out how they get out. Moreover,
just as Spofforth first tested the pitch and its pace and peculiarities
on any given day, before he bowled his best, so a batsman may also test
the pitch.

For different pitches demand different plays--different mechanisms,
different tactics. Few, like Shrewsbury, have a style adapted alike to
the billiard-table ground and the drying-ground. Ranjitsinhji’s book
gives most useful remarks on these differences.

While you are batting, count a chance as a blessed indication of error;
treat it as I treat a premonitory pain--do not wait for the illness
itself, but find out and correct the mistake at once. You may have to
exaggerate in the opposite direction--perhaps to play forward further
out to the right than seems natural to you on that day.

WAITING FOR THE BALL.

Guard is taken not only to give one a sense of the direction of any
ball, but also to give one the correct place for the right foot: the toe
of the right foot should be quite near to the block. Therefore one
should not have a block either to the off (in which case the right toes
might be in front of the wicket), or short and too near the wicket.

Before and after taking guard one should look round to see how the field
is placed.

As to the waiting-position, one may try several and choose that which is
the best basis and starting-pose for _most_ ordinary strokes. But first
one should develop the various muscles, especially those needed for the
quick movements; otherwise one might adopt an attitude suited for safe
play when a more Jessop-like or at least a more Stoddart-like or
Abel-like attitude might be better for one. A good attitude for many
will be Shrewsbury’s as seen in the Photograph (I.). The body should be
nearly sideways,

[Illustration: I.--Waiting for the ball, with the weight balanced almost
evenly upon the two feet (which are near together), but rather on the
right foot.

[_To face page 22._
]

with the legs (or only the left leg) very slightly bent, and ready to
move backwards or forwards. One should not be stiff, but should be
inclined to looseness, until one knows which ball is coming; till then
one should be ready to run or jump out if it should be desirable. The
feet should probably be quite near to one another, the right being near
the crease and parallel to the wicket, the left outside the crease and
pointing more towards the bowler. Probably both should be resting on
their balls, and rather--so Mr. Fry advises--on the insides of their
balls.

The weight of most batsmen should be upon the right foot, the batsman’s
basis. Abel stands on the ball of his right foot; that is good if one be
quick-footed. Ranjitsinhji explains some of the reasons why the weight
should rest on the right foot--he instances several forms of exercise,
such as boxing; for Tennis and Racquets I have spent hours in practising
quick movements in all directions with the stiff right leg as my pivot.
The left foot may be slightly up and prepared to move out along some
forward line. In case of a late cut one has time to shift the weight on
to it and make _it_ the pivot.

The bat is usually held with one hand near the top of the handle and the
other hand near the middle of the handle; if one holds the right hand
lower down one gets more control, but may lose some pace; one is more
apt to stoop, and to lift the ball. But for some strokes, as for certain
late cuts, the shifted grip is often preferable; one should be able to
slip the right hand down the handle towards the blade, near to which so
many of the stone-wallers love to keep it. As the right foot and leg
hold the ground more firmly, so does the right hand and wrist hold the
bat more firmly, though there should be no tight and tense grip till the
stroke is being made. One can--as Abel and Shrewsbury put it--“feel the
nip” of the bat without any unnecessary tension. Not a few players have
the grip of the two hands almost equal.

The left elbow should be well up, so as to keep the handle of the bat
nearer to the bowler and thus to prevent a chance of catches. And the
whole body and head should be well up as the bowler begins to bowl, so
that the best possible view may be given.

One must watch the fingers and wrist and arm of the bowler; a change in
his fingers

[Illustration: II.--Forward play: the bat has been drawn straight up and
back (not in a curve) before the stroke.

[_To face page 25._
]

will mean a change of the ball he will bowl. Thus Hirst’s balls will
differ according to the way in which his fingers are arranged (see the
photographs). Abel generally watches the wrist rather than the fingers.

While the bowler is bowling, one should usually draw the bat up and
back, without flourish, in the line opposite to the line of the
approaching ball. The photograph of Shrewsbury (II.) shows the bat
lifted for a straight ball which he is going to play (not drive)
straight forward. By lifting the bat one gets more impetus and can use
one’s height and weight better.

Attention and alertness--these are to be maintained. “This one thing I
do now,” “On this depends everything”; such are samples of the
suggestions which I often make to myself at my own games. Yet I try to
economise energy and not to waste any of it; attention without tension,
alertness without fidgetiness--these are right.

BACK-PLAY; THE GLIDE; THE HALF-COCK.

“Timing the ball is the secret,” says Giffen. It is _a_ secret, not
_the_ secret. Nor is it a simple rule; timing is (see page 7) a
concoction of many good things.

A simpler general rule is not to leave a large space between the bat and
the legs, lest one should be bowled off one’s pads. The photograph of
Abel shows no intervening space at all.

Another simple general (but not universal) rule is to end up--as in
forward play--with the handle held by the _first finger and thumb of the
right hand and of the left_; the other three fingers scarcely have any
influence here. The nails of all four fingers--as in the
photograph--should face the bowler (or yourself if you were opposite a
mirror). The bat must not be tilted upwards nor drawn back behind the
line of the right foot, which is firmly on the ground, and is certainly
not drawn away to the leg-side.

About the “fixed right foot” there is--as we shall see--a great fallacy;
theory has been allowed to controvert the practice of the leading
experts. Shrewsbury in the photograph (III.) has his right foot firm
indeed, and not shifted to the leg-side, but back almost to the wicket
itself. W. G., in a photograph in Ranjitsinhji’s book, has his right
foot back, though not nearly so far back. I scarcely ever see a player
whose regular _habit_ is not to shift back his right foot somewhat

[Illustration: III.--Playing back: the right foot has retired nearer the
wicket, so as to give longer time for seeing the ball.

NOTE.--The bat should be held straight. This photograph was taken before
Shrewsbury was in practice.

[_To face page 26._
]

in back play. Shrewsbury will tell one to get back far enough, moving
back with the ball. This obviously gives one more time to see the ball
and its break, turning a ball that is just a trifle short into a ball
that is nearly a long hop; if the legs be--as they often are--in front
of the wicket, so as to give a still better sight of the ball and also
to save a play-on, then the retreat of the right foot is obviously
useful. Others, however, do not move it in front of the wicket. But
nearly all back-play is actually practised with the retirement of the
right foot. Murdoch’s words are worth quoting at some length:--

     “In the majority of cases, my experience has been that, by moving
     the right foot as much or as little as judgment dictates, the
     stroke is made with far more ease than by having your right foot a
     fixture. If you will take the trouble to notice all players, you
     will see for yourself that in almost every case when they are
     playing back the right foot is always moved. And, again, you will
     find you have far more command and power over the ball, and
     especially so over a rising one, and you can finish your stroke in
     a far safer way.... My advice to you is to move the right foot
     when, in your judgment, it requires it; if you find you can play
     the ball with ease by not moving it, well and good; but should you
     at any time think you could play the ball better by getting back a
     little, why do so, and you will find it will give you a particle
     more time and enable you to make things very much easier.

     “I think the art of boxing very applicable to forward and back play
     of cricket, for whilst boxing is nearly all forward strokes, there
     are many times when a boxer has to get back, and he generally finds
     what a great difference there is in receiving a hit whilst standing
     principally on his right foot, and when he has moved it a few
     inches in getting back. So it is with your back-play at cricket,
     the velocity of the ball is not so great two feet back from your
     crease as it is right on it. The advantage of time is no doubt
     momentary, but still it is an advantage, and one that I have proved
     and seen to be very beneficial.”

One kind of glide-stroke forms a special branch of back-play: it is to
be seen in the photograph of Abel (IV.). Ranjitsinhji is the master of
this most useful stroke; he plays it for balls on the wicket as well as
for balls to leg. Others use it chiefly or solely for balls off the
wicket. For this stroke I believe every player has the right foot back.
The bat’s face is held not flat towards the bowler, but slanting in one
of many directions on the leg-side, according to the spot to which one
wishes to place the ball.

The “half-cock” stroke is Grace’s favourite help in time of trouble.
When he hesitates between forward and back-play, and especially after he
has decided on forward-play and

[Illustration: IV.--The glide: both feet well back.

[_To face page 28._
]

     V.--Playing back: right foot retired, to give extra time for seeing
     the ball; weight on right foot. This is Shrewsbury’s stroke when he
     feels “beaten” by the bowler.

[_To face page 29._
]

then doubts whether he can reach out near enough to the pitch of the
ball to smother the ball, he is content to strike the ball scarcely at
all, if at all, and to hold his bat half way between its forward and
back positions, and wait in hope.

Shrewsbury, however, if the ball be straight, prefers to bring his bat
straight down on to the block. He is to be seen doing this in the
photograph (V.).

It appears to me that, as most Lawn Tennis players learn back-play
securely before they learn forward-play (play, i.e., at the net), so
most cricketers should learn back-play securely; they should learn to
play forward, of course; but, as Mr. C. B. Fry says, they should not
learn that only. Inasmuch as back-play is the easier and more
natural--except for the art of not drawing away the right foot towards
the leg side--it should probably precede the mastery of forward-play,
towards which mastery the “half-cock” stroke might form a transition
step.

FORWARD-PLAY AND SAFE DRIVING.

There may be days when scarcely any forward-play is needed; there may be
experts who prefer back-play even on fast and true pitches, just as Mr.
A. W. Gore, the amateur Lawn Tennis champion of 1901, prefers habitual
back-play at his game. But every player should be able to play forward,
particularly to swift good-length balls on quick plumb-wickets which are
either too dry or else too slippery to bite the ball and allow it to
break; on the fast slippery wickets, however, forward-play must be
accurate, because of the occasional shooter. Besides the safety of such
forward-play, since it can smother the ball, there is the extra delight
of meeting if not of attacking, and also of performing a movement which
is not by any means natural--the extra delight of overcoming a
mechanical difficulty.

We may begin to study this forward-play (for which we have already
offered certain exercises--see above) by a couple of quotations from
well-known writers.

     “The golden rules to guide the beginner in playing forward may be
     very briefly stated. (1.) Play forward when the ball is fairly well
     pitched up, but remember that the faster the bowling and the faster
     the wicket the more frequently will forward-play be the safer style
     of play. (2.) Keep the bat quite

     VI.--Playing forward to a ball on the off: the straight bat has
     passed near and beyond the left foot in a “follow-through.” Notice
     the fingers, especially the first finger and thumb of the left
     hand. At the end of the stretch the left arm is fully extended, and
     the right heel has come off the ground.

[_Between pages 30 and 31._
]

     VII.--Playing forward to a ball slightly to the leg side: see
     remark on previous photograph, and notice the head well over the
     bat-handle.

[_Between pages 30 and 31._
]

[Illustration: VIII.--Playing forward to a straight ball: see remarks on
previous photographs.

[_Between pages 30 and 31._
]

     straight and the left shoulder and elbow well forward. (3.) Get as
     near to the pitch of the ball as possible. (4.) Do not put the bat
     further forward than the level of the left foot, which ought to be
     thrown right forward.”

     “No forward-stroke is absolutely safe unless the ball is smothered.
     There are many very beautiful strokes effected by forward-play at
     the rising ball. Such strokes, however, are purely plumb-wicket
     strokes.”

In the face of this latter quotation, and of (3) of the first quotation,
and in the face of the habitual practice of many leading experts (see
Photographs VI., VII., VIII., of Abel and Shrewsbury) in following
through with the bat beyond the left foot, the statement in (4) is
absurd. And yet, as we shall see in the Chapter on Fallacies, it appears
in almost every work on Cricket.

Personally I should far sooner see the general rule stated as follows:--

     “At the root of good ordinary forward-play lies _extension_ both
     direct (not curved) and well-timed and well-co-ordinated (not too
     early or too late, and not piece by piece--for example, first the
     foot, then the left elbow), and fast and powerful (not slow and
     tame), and full (not arrested); at the root of it lies such
     extension of right leg, left foot, left shoulder, left elbow, left
     wrist; _but within the limits of power, and of balance or rapid
     recovery of balance_.” When Abel or Shrewsbury can thus safely and
     strongly reach out an extra fifteen inches beyond the left foot,
     and thus smother a ball and its break, why forbid it? If only in
     case a ball hangs a bit, and also for the sake of the
     follow-through--I believe that nearly every ball-game stroke
     demands a follow-through--such a passing of the blade’s end beyond
     the left foot may be advisable.

Be this as it may--and it must be settled by practice, not by theory--at
any rate the law holds good that for ordinary ground-play (as distinct
from the drive out of the ground) the left wrist must come before the
right, the right shoulder being kept down.

The base, the safe ἀφορμή of forward-play, is the firm right foot
(nearly parallel to the three wickets) and the straight right leg. From
this base the left leg has, as it were, to radiate forward in one or
another straight line towards the approaching balls; not straight at
those balls, but a few inches to one’s left; certainly not necessarily
straight forward down the line from wicket to wicket, as the forward
play of Abel to a ball on the off will show (see Photograph VI.); in
fact, to a left hand bowler round the wicket one should as a rule _not_
play along this line, but along a line further outwards to one’s right.
The left toe points, and the left foot moves, not _at_ but towards the
line of the approaching ball, allowance being made for a curl or a break
that will alter this line. It is the line that the ball will be making
just when it strikes the bat (or, rather, just when it is struck by the
bat) that has to be met by the bat, which must move in a line a few
inches to the right of the left foot. The line both of left foot and of
bat must be direct, not curved.

Over one’s bat comes one’s head: as Abel says, one must get above the
ball and smell it. The bat itself, for ground-play, must not be tilted
with its blade nearer to the bowler than its handle is, lest a catch be
sent up. Its direction from the line when one lifts it before the stroke
(see Photograph II.), right up to the end of the follow-through (see
Photograph VIII.), must be as straight as possible; like a boxer’s blow
straight from the shoulder, and not like the swirling arm of the
unskilled navvy, even if both these movements might reach the same goal
eventually. The curved line means a loss of time and of power, as well
as a risk--for it allows a smaller margin of error.

The stroke should be all in one piece, the power beginning when the bat
is near to the left leg, and of course reaching its fulness from each
part of the mechanism just when the blade hits the ball.

To what part of the mechanism would one do best to attend? The firm
right foot is the base, the _point d’appui_, the _terminus a quo_. I
should say that the _terminus ad quem_, the point of limit, should be
the outside joint of the left wrist. Let that go right out to its
stretch. Most of us, by taking thought, _can_ add an inch or so to our
reach. I added two inches to my (easy) forward reach within two months.

The hand’s grip should change as the left wrist shoots outward. In the
waiting position the bowler (or you yourself in a mirror) can see the
back of your left hand; then

     IX.--Position of hands and fingers at the end of the forward
     stroke: the left hand has shifted round, the right hand holds the
     bat with thumb and first finger only.

[_To face page 35._
]

back and up goes the bat--not too far, but enough to get power (my own
ordinary Tennis and Racquet strokes and many a golfer’s ordinary strokes
go up and back quite a short way as compared with the old-fashioned
“complete” swing); then, as the bat comes down and forward, you yourself
(if you had not your eye on the ball) should be able to see the back of
your bat and above it the back of your left hand (as in Photograph IX.
of Shrewsbury’s hands). So far as the left side is concerned, the stroke
is an exaggeration of a left-handed backhand stroke, except that the
thumb in cricket does not support the handle as it often does in
Racquets.

If any one cannot yet play forward, but wishes to learn the art, let him
practise (as I have recently done) this turn of the fingers, this
outward stretch of left wrist, left elbow, left shoulder, straight along
a line, full, swift, weighty. It is amazing how soon the straight line
can become easy if one works faithfully along a line upon the floor and
opposite a mirror, correcting all errors by the opposite exaggerations,
but first of all securing the foundation--the long straight lunge of the
left foot. Sandow and all high authorities say, Throw the whole will,
focus the whole attention, concentrate the whole mind, fix the whole
vital force, upon the muscles which you are using; first do this upon
the left foot, then upon the left wrist (if not upon the handle of the
bat, strange as it may sound).

Having acquired this free forward line, then practise a speedy recovery
of balance afterwards, and a readiness to start running. Later on, add
to these two a few actual steps. Eventually, though you may have had to
conquer each mechanism by itself, as I conquered every part of my Tennis
and Racquet strokes separately, yet you will be able to combine them
together so harmoniously that no one will guess or believe how you
gained your stroke. It appears so exactly like a unity, so exactly like
one single action--that lunge with full weight, and recovery of
equilibrium--that people tell me I never could have learnt it
part-by-part. But I _did_. I can tell every part, though now the whole
move is a unit. There is absolutely no necessity to begin by doing the
whole stroke at once, so long as eventually you can combine the various
members of it into a harmonious whole. Otherwise any one individual bad
part may spoil the whole effect.

This correct stroke frustrates the bowler’s attempt to make you tilt up
your bat’s blade and send a catch: having your left wrist well forward
beyond your right, you keep your strokes down. Another common fault
besides the tilted bat is the crooked bat, the bat of which the blade is
too far to the off; this fault is obviated chiefly by the straight right
leg: bend the right leg, and the tendency is for both these faults to
appear.

Forward play may be either defensive or offensive. The latter kind
merges into the ground-drive. In either case the average-eyed person
must get to the pitch of the ball and smother it, or must not play
forward, but either do the half-cock stroke or else step back and give
himself the largest possible time in which to see the ball’s flight. The
defensive should as a rule precede the offensive, both while one is
learning to play forward and also while one is beginning any innings at
a net or in a game. A few forward stretches before play will perhaps
save a premature dismissal through stiffness.

In forward ground-driving the rule of not letting the bat’s blade go
beyond the left foot is far more reasonable. One must get well over the
ball, the power coming chiefly from just that jerk of shoulder,
fore-arm, and wrist which Latham and Pettitt and a few others use at
Racquets--the jerk of some whippers of peg-tops. But for this drive the
bat need not move _quite_ so near to the left foot. Moreover the bat may
finish up with a smaller follow-through. Let the forward left elbow
arrest the swing of the right arm, lest the bat be tilted and the ball
rise: that wrench of the left elbow-joint is a satisfactory sign.

The forward off-drive (for a ball not coming at the wicket) allows of a
far freer swing, and, if you see it well, of a far less straight bat. It
needs more right wrist and less left elbow restraint. Indeed, it may end
up with the bat over the left shoulder. Photograph XIII. shows Abel’s
position for such a drive, though the position is better suited for a
cut-drive.

For the forward on-drive the left foot is pointed out towards mid-on.

THE PULL AND HIGH DRIVE.

There used to be a fallacy that the pull was bad form because it was
ungraceful; but now-a-days grace is of little account

[Illustration: X.--Preparing to drive with a pull: the left leg is well
out so that the bat may get nearer to the pitch of the ball.]

unless it is useful. Hirst’s pull will count as four, while graceful
“good form” will courteously return the same ball to the bowler and
score nothing. It was W. G. and his brother who subordinated so-called
art to utilitarianism. The only valid objection to the pull is that it
is most dangerous as a habitual stroke; whereas for a full pitch or a
long hop it may be, as Shrewsbury says, least dangerous as well as most
paying, since it may need less power and may go to a part of the ground
least thickly studded with fielders.

The mistake is not in the pulling _per se_, but, as Ranjitsinhji
insists, in the choice of the wrong ball for pulling, or else--we may
add--in the wrong way of pulling the right ball.

As there is elsewhere a forward-play as well as a back-play, so there is
with pulls. Abel is shown giving a forward pull, in Photograph X.;
notice that the left foot is right out so that the bat gets well to the
pitch of the ball. If one could always ensure that, pulling would be the
best stroke in the game. This step out adds to the safety of the pull
when the ball will pitch say two yards from the batsman.

The back-play pull is for a shorter ball. Hirst is making such a pull in
Photograph XI. (and Photograph XII. which represents a different kind of
pull by Shrewsbury). Hirst has moved back and turned a somewhat short
ball into a long hop. Into this stroke he will put the full body-swing
from the hips. He might do this stroke equally well with a good full
pitch to the off. To run out (either to slow bowling or to ordinary
bowling on a difficult wicket) and then to “volley” round to leg used to
be the one stroke that I could do reasonably well. Even then I often
erred in running out timidly and in using my wrists rather than my trunk
and shoulders.

Whereas the long hop and the ordinary full pitch may be placed thus, the
half-volley can seldom be safely pulled. It is hard to direct. But with
all these strokes, whether pulls or drives, the law of “the left elbow
and wrist well forward to prevent catches” may be ignored if one can get
to the pitch of the ball by coming forward, or else get it as a long hop
by stepping back, and then can place it safely away from any fielder. If
one can, then one need never mind about sending

[Illustration: XI.--Preparing to pull a short ball: right foot across,
so as to help the stroke well round to leg.

[_Between pages 40 and 41._
]

[Illustration: XII.--Preparing to pull a short ball: right foot across
and well back so as to make the short ball still shorter.

[_Between pages 40 and 41._
]

[Illustration: XIII.--Hook-stroke to leg: both feet well back, but
weight on right foot.

[_Between pages 40 and 41._
]

[Illustration: XIV.--Cut-drive. Right leg firm and straight, left leg
bent and well across.

[_To face page 41._
]

high balls or playing with a crooked bat.

The useful hook-stroke to leg is seen in Photograph XIII.

CUTTING.

Ranjitsinhji rightly distinguishes several kinds of cuts, and advanced
players must be referred to his book for details. Here one must be
content to notice the cut-drive (forward-play to some spot between point
and extra-cover, as in Photograph XIV. of Abel), and the late-cut
(back-play to some spot between point and short slip, as in the
photographs of Abel and Shrewsbury). Here once more we have forward and
back play, the latter allowing more time.

The cut-drive is good for a short ball on the off. The left foot is sent
out to the off, the bat swings back and generally somewhat up, very much
as it does to the pull-drive. Abel is seen preparing for a cut-drive in
Photograph XIV. He will get right on to the top of the ball.

The downward movement, for the sake of safety, applies also to the
late-cut, with regard to which we have already exposed the fallacy that
it is a stroke done entirely with the wrists.[4] The wrists may do some
of the directing at the last moment, but the large movement and the
force is _usually_ given chiefly by the fore-arm-jerk, the
shoulder-jerk, a little trunk-movement, and (with some players) the step
with the right foot across the wicket. Let a hundred experts make
imaginary or real late-cuts for half-an-hour, and I guarantee that the
wrists will not be the only parts that ache. Indeed I have seen many
players cut safely and effectively with absolutely rigid wrists. As I
have already said, the motion is nearer to that of shaking out a
stylographic pen or whipping a peg-top; it is akin to the Racquet stroke
of Latham or the Tennis stroke of Pettitt. Watch the forearm and the
shoulder of a stripped player, and this will be clear.

The late-cut is most safely used against fast and not too short bowling
on a quick pitch; it does not oppose the ball’s flight, but rather
increases or at least directs that flight. It is not to be rashly tried

[Illustration: XV.--The late cut: right foot well across, left leg
extended so far as to bring heel off ground.

[_Between pages 42 and 43._
]

[Illustration: XVI.--The late cut: right foot well across, left leg
extended.

[_Between pages 42 and 43._
]

against slow bowling, especially if this breaks much, on a slow or
caking wicket; for it needs very accurate timing.

In this late-cut the right leg is moved back and across the wicket (see
Photograph XIV. of Shrewsbury’s legs), so that the left leg and foot now
does what the right leg and foot do for the other strokes--namely, serve
as a pivot. Some move the right foot and then make the stroke; I believe
Ranjitsinhji generally prefers this plan. Others, like Abel, often make
the stroke as a single movement. Others use now one plan and now the
other. Anyhow the weight passes from the left on to the right leg, which
is bent. Shrewsbury, in the photograph (XV.), is allowing his left foot
to rise slightly on its ball. Contrast Abel, in XVI.

He does not alter his ordinary grip, and he uses his wrists a good deal;
others let their right hand slide down the handle towards the blade, and
sometimes let their left hand slide after it. The bat strikes downwards,
passing about twelve inches over the wicket.

The direction of the cut is most important: this depends partly on the
presence or absence of a wrist movement, partly, as Ranjitsinhji says,
on the moment at which one strikes the ball--the earlier hit goes
squarer (nearer to point), the later hit goes finer (nearer to short
slip).

The late-cut involves not a little risk. It may be well at the beginning
of an innings to study the art of

LEAVING BALLS ALONE.

A good length or “blind” ball on the off-side, and a certain kind of
bumping long hop (almost out of one’s reach) are intended for a catch
behind the wicket. Some may be cut or driven, but it would be safer to
let a few pass by (unless they are going to break in) till one sees what
they are doing. The continued practice of this plan is not for the good
of Cricket as a form of sport.

The use of the legs to defend the wicket has been another much-discussed
topic. Ranjitsinhji rightly points out that it requires skill and is not
unknown in the play of the best experts. Here as elsewhere the fault
lies less in the use than in the excessive use.

MOVING OUT.

If Shrewsbury and others have been censured as too cautious in letting
certain balls alone, and in playing certain other balls with their pads
instead of their bats, the runner-out is censured for the opposite
reason--for a ridiculous rashness. This is a fallacy. To run out is
often the safest policy: it may mean to smother an otherwise difficult
ball. Abel and Jessop, like Latham at Racquets and Tennis, play with
their feet as much as with their heads. The best illustration that
occurs to me of “the wisdom of anticipation” (stigmatized as “the folly
of rashness”) is the running up to volley or half-volley the service at
Racquets. Often one can take a ball best by letting it nearly fall to
the ground at its second bounce--that is, by turning into a “long hop”;
but if it be a good length service, or one with a heavy cut, it may be
more prudent to run up and thus change it into a comparatively harmless
plaything, as a child may deal with a snake by fearless handling.
Murdoch is most emphatic on this point, when he says:--“No, I think the
feet play very important parts in batting, and both of them should have
the greatest scope possible. I advise all players to learn to use their
feet quickly and well, and it will be the means of getting you out of
many a difficulty. By being able to get to a ball quickly you make it an
easy one where if you had remained in your crease you would have found
it a most difficult one to stop. Once you get into the way of doing this
you will never move the right foot unless you require to do so to make
your stroke. In all forward play it is absolutely necessary for you to
keep the right foot well on the ground.”

There are three ways of moving out to a ball; in all three ways one must
not draw the right foot away, but one must keep the right foot as the
pivot; and one must come out wholeheartedly, not hesitatingly.

Shrewsbury will often jump out, coming down on to his right foot first
with his body-weight upon its ball. He who tries this should be prepared
to keep his balance and if necessary to jump back again into his ground.

Most others run out sideways with small or large steps. See Photograph
XVII.

Abel runs out more quickly than these. His legs, as it were, intertwine
neatly in the way shown in Photograph XVIII. His first step, with the
left foot, is well across the

[Illustration: XVII.--The way of running out with fairly long steps,
weight should be chiefly on right foot, and right leg should be ready to
serve as firm pivot.

[_Between pages 46 and 47._
]

[Illustration: XVIII.--Abel’s way of running out, with feet interlacing.

[_Between pages 46 and 47._
]

wicket and towards the off-side; his second step, with the right foot;
the action may be repeated.

This sideways running is not easy: it needs considerable practice
backwards and forwards before one can not only do it but also maintain
one’s poise and be ready to hit the ball afterwards. A jump or a run
out, even with a loss of poise, may be far better policy than to wait
for a “teaser.” Two quotations from high authority are worth citing
here.

     “I do not think that batsmen run out enough at slow bowling or at
     lobs. For some undiscovered reason, there is a floating idea that
     running out and rashness are synonymous. As a matter of fact, to
     run out is often the safest thing one can do. It makes a difficult
     ball into an easy one, and often enables the batsman to make a
     forcing-stroke along the ground instead of a risky high-drive. The
     man who plays cautiously is invariably regarded with reverence and
     favour by those who know. He is supposed to play the correct game.
     He often ties himself into extraordinary knots by playing what he
     considers a safe dashing game. There are some players who, not
     being quick on their feet, ought never to run out.”

     “A running-out stroke should be played with the same amount of care
     and concentration as a back-stroke. There is an air of abandon
     about quick-footed players which is very deceptive; they often run
     out to meet the ball, because they feel safer in doing so than in
     staying at home.”

Short balls or balls well off the wicket are seldom to be met in this
way unless one is a Jessop. But whatever ball be anticipated in this way
let it be sought with full pace and intent to “volley”. If one must be
stumped, then, as Grace and others say, one may just as well be many
yards out of one’s ground as be only one yard of it.

RUNNING.

An obvious advantage in moving out is that, if your partner is backing
up, you have every chance of making a safe run.

Quick starting and quick moving between the wickets are little
cultivated. Yet a game of tip-and-run will show how many runs can be
stolen. Too little account is taken of the pace at which the ball has
been hit, the place to which it has been hit, the individual to whom it
has been hit, the side of that individual, left or right, to which it
has been hit, and so on.

The general rule is that the player in whose sight the struck ball
appears most clearly (namely, the batsman for balls in front of him, his
partner for balls behind him) shall call at once and call loudly. The
non-caller shall either trust and obey, or else immediately call a loud
“No.”

Both players should start at once from their right toes, and should run
the first run as briskly as if a second were sure to follow. Giffen
laments the small care paid to this art. He says:--

     “One most important point connected with batting is running between
     the wickets. Really it is almost heartrending to see the immense
     number of runs, to say nothing of the wickets, which are lost
     through bad judgment. A batsman wants to study the pace at which a
     ball is travelling.”

The non-batsman should back up well; a few yards may be gained in this
way, and also by the habit of running the bat along the ground just
inside the crease.

A useful position for turning at the crease is to be seen in Photograph
XIX., of Shrewsbury. By the rapid change while the bat is held at full
stretch one may gain an appreciable amount of time and space.

GENERAL HINTS.

The first pieces of advice to all players of games will be, “Get at the
reason why, and the means by which.” Why should one not flourish the bat
before a stroke? Partly because this sends the bat out of the straight
line and loses time. Why should one move the bat near to the left foot
in forward-play? Partly because this will give power by keeping the
weight of the body near to the bat, and because it will give safety, by
allowing no space for the ball to pass between bat and leg. Merely to
say to a beginner “Don’t be afraid of the ball” may not be enough; he
should know that, if he draws his right foot towards the leg-side, he
will lose his pivot and will tend not to play the ball down and not to
meet it along its line of approach. If he bends his right leg, the same
result

[Illustration: XIX.--Turning quickly at the crease after the first run.

[_To face page 50._
]

may follow. How can he keep the ball down and meet it along its line of
approach? By attending to his left foot in practice, or by getting some
one to watch his practice or play from behind.

Having found out and mastered the muscular mechanisms as well as the
_raisons d’être_ for each of them, let the learner be prepared to try
new things and to judge them by their results. In January, 1902, in my
thirty-fourth year, I changed my Racquet and Tennis stroke from a full
swing to a more “partial” jerk. In case it did not suit me, I was
prepared to go back to the old. As a matter of fact, the new did suit
me.

In this case I imitated Latham and (to some extent) Pettitt. They were
of about my own height. I did not imitate slavishly or in trust, but in
hope and because I saw good sense in what they did. In Cricket many
might hold that even slavish imitation is better than rank failure.

To take an example. Few batsmen play well on difficult wickets.
Shrewsbury does. I would sooner imitate his style and methods on
difficult wickets than go on failing to score. There is no particular
reason why his style and methods should _not_ turn out to be mine as
well. I cannot tell till I have experimented.

The batsman, as Mr. C. B. Fry says, should be able to play all games and
strokes--forward, back, cut, and, let us add, tip and run. He must be
able to keep his wicket up, to stop good balls (as Shrewsbury advises)
and then punish bad balls; but he must also be able to force the game,
especially if the bowling be too hard to enable him to stay in long.

Especially should he be “nippy on his feet”--Abel’s rule. He need not
use them always, but he must be ready to use them. So with the pull: he
must not be tied down by a law “Thou shalt not pull.” A short ball can
often be pulled quite safely: it need not always be hit to mid-off.
Scarcely any rule is absolute. We hear that the right leg should not be
bent. Good. But when we see Grace hitting effectively to the on with a
decidedly bent right leg, we suspect that there may be times when this
is useful. It is only as _general_ rules for most people that maxims are
to be laid down. “Stand upright” says the theorist; he even quotes
successful examples. But the individual may be nearer to Stoddart or
Jessop than to Palairet. Let the individual try both ways, if not in
games, then at the nets.

Reserve some force, says Mr. R. Lyttelton in the Badminton Volume;
Ranjitsinhji agrees--since the use of the full force may “give one away”
and lose the balance. But Shrewsbury says, “Use the full force; a
mis-hit then has more chance of going over the head of cover or some
other fielder.” Keep the ball down--that is a good enough rule; but if
you can hit the ball safely away from or over the head of a fielder, why
not? Again, we hear that the batsman should not stand with any part of
his body in front of his wicket; yet many find it useful to do so,
especially in case they snick the ball and might otherwise play on.
Another hint that may not always be helpful is “not to make up your mind
what you will do until the bowler’s intention has shown itself; for, if
you decide, he will alter his intention.” This presupposes that the
bowler is observant and intelligent, whereas ordinary bowlers are not.
In Racquets, on the same principle, I have been told not to pledge
myself to any set action before the server has served; that is sound
sense so long as the server is likely to vary his service; whereas, if
I _know_ that he is going to pound away with the same sort of thing all
the time, I should waste energy by perpetual alertness. I take for
granted that the fool will serve foolishly, and I virtually settle my
policy beforehand. It is not every bowler who demands alertness.

Of wider and more nearly universal application are such hints as “Face
the left-hand bowler round the wicket differently from the bowler over
the wicket; move your left foot out on different lines”; “Don’t try
risky attack till you are sure of safe defence, unless the wicket be
extremely difficult”; “Don’t attempt to place a half-volley very
accurately”; “Watch and observe the ordinary curves and breaks of the
ball according to this or that action”; “Notice how others as well as
yourself are most apt to get out off certain balls--say off the breaking
ball well-pitched up on the off”; “Practise wicket-keeping
occasionally”; “Study each bowler’s action before you go in”; “When you
go in, be careful at first of touching balls on the off”; “Get the blind
spots of the pitch in your mind’s eye, so as to tell whether to play
back or forward: the blind spot varies according to the pace of the
ball, the state of the ground, etc.”; “Get in your mind’s eye a picture
of the fielders; and, when you are set, place the easier balls between
those fielders; but keep your real eye on the ball from the instant that
it has left the bowler’s hand”; “Find out your faults and practise the
opposite faults.” As Mr. Edward Lyttelton says, “If it appears that your
strokes habitually fail to tell as they should, it will probably be
owing to your body not being properly utilized, and a spell of bedroom
practice should at once be inaugurated.” You can even cultivate the
opposite fault during the game itself. This is my habit during Tennis
and Racquets matches: if I find myself playing too soon at the ball, I
purposely try to play too late.

CHAPTER II.

BOWLING.

     “Every cricketer should be able to bowl when called upon to do so
     by his captain. Every man who has played cricket has bowled at a
     net, and he certainly has an action which is different from
     everybody else’s.”--_From the Badminton Volume._

     “Anything that improves bowling even a little is to be looked upon
     as an unmixed boon to the game. The number of bowlers who have
     hitherto made an honest attempt to acquire the knack is extremely
     small, so that we need not forecast from the past what the future
     might be.”--_Edward Lyttelton._

INTRODUCTORY.

More bowlers and better bowlers are sadly needed if amateurs are to hold
their own against professionals in other games besides Lawn Tennis and
Ping-pong. Bowlers are more and more needed in these days of good
pitches, when the caking ground, the bowler’s conjuror, cannot be had to
order.

The cause of the behindhandness of bowling is partly the excellence of
the plumb-wicket, partly the rise of the Pro bowler (without a
corresponding rise of the Pro or Amateur fielder), and partly the
consequent head-play demanded of the bowler, who to-day must think hard
and must also _be_ hard--must endure. But the cause lies less in the
degeneracy of the bowler than in the progress of the batsman and his
chances of scoring, the use of the heavy roller (to which Mr. R. H.
Lyttelton so often calls attention), and last but not least the fatal
theory that the bowler is born not made.

Of course the bowler is born--who isn’t? But whether or no he may be
made if the right means be adopted, remains to be ascertained by
experiment, the only teacher. We must suspend judgment, must insist on
ἐποχή, until some sort of method of making a bowler has been
fairly tried. We freely grant a certain “luck” in the finding of a
natural action with free swing and fine break. Yet we may still believe
that _proper_ practice, as distinct from casual and persistent
plugging, may work wonders.

Anyhow, all should learn to bowl a bit, not only for their own pleasure
and in order to get a place in a team, but also because the future of
Cricket largely depends on the excellence and the variety of the
bowling.

More and superior bowlers are urgently wanted, whether wicket-keeping
and fielding be improved or not (of course the worse the fielding is,
the better the bowling must be); whether batting be cramped or not (see
the Chapter on Reforms); and whether the conditions of bowling be
improved or not, as by the smaller bat, the larger wicket, the shorter
innings, the artificial pitch to take the full break, and so on.

There is a great opening for every one who can learn to bowl. Is there
no _practical_ advice to be offered besides such hints as: “Bowl
naturally,” “Have an easy swing,” “Get the length,” “Put on a break,”
“Use a high action,” “Vary and conceal the pace, etc.”? At present no
writer says, “Develop the right muscles rightly first.” No writer seems
to have sought what muscles are used by most good bowlers, and how they
may best be developed. As to the exercisers and developers, they are in
my opinion excellent for mere increase in the size of certain muscles,
for weight-lifting, for rowing, for gymnastics, for pushing in the
football scrum, but infamously worse than useless for bowling purposes
until speed has already been acquired. Later on, we shall expose a few
fallacies about bowling, especially the fallacy that premature failure
means perpetual disability, whereas the real fault may lie with the
undeveloped mechanism of bowling; thus I myself after a few weeks of
bedroom-practice had added an inch to the upward extension of my arm,
and can move my wrist and fingers freely in more directions than before.

The first thing is to find out what muscles are used and how. This we
may do by watching good bowlers like Hirst, and by asking them, at the
beginning of the season, where they _ache_. These muscles we may
practise by fast full movements and fast arrested movements, not by
strain-exercises. Thus, when we find the first finger of the expert
nearly worn out, we may conclude that this finger is a potent factor in
success. Till we can use it, let us not despair. This is only one
example. Personally I do not see how any one could expect to bowl
decently with trunk, shoulder, wrist, and fingers as stiff as mine were.

Having found out the mechanisms, we must secure them; we must be content
with nothing short of mastery, especially in these days of
plumb-wickets. The beginning need not be too fast; medium bowlers have
succeeded as well as fast, and have lasted longer.

And now as to the

ORDER OF LEARNING.

Bowling is in Cricket very much what serving is (or should be) in
Racquets and Tennis; very much the same order can be observed as in
these games, apart from the bowling at nets, at a stump, and against a
wall--all of which are useful afterwards.

1. First comes _the mechanism_, the control of the requisite muscles and
combinations of muscles. For this control certain exercises may be
outlined; they are suggestive rather than complete. Let each reader and
teacher add his own. But the mechanism must become easy before the
would-be bowler decides which style he will adopt. Otherwise

[Illustration: XX.--Bowling, third position: bowling arm extended fully
forwards and downwards, body facing forwards, back leg fully extended.

[_To face page 61._
]

[Illustration: XXI.--Bowling, second position: bowling arm extended
fully upwards, body coming round with arm.

[_To face page 61._
]

what is naturally easy may be practically uneconomical or risky, as
almost every one of my “natural” movements at any game seems to have
been. Let the beginner begin without a ball.

_a._ Notice the extension of the back leg in Hirst’s photograph (XX.);
that is a simple yet important item. The hand and shoulder are extended
fully backwards and downwards.

_b._ The arm reaches upwards and, in some cases, outwards. Try that,
without straining. Having formed the full extension (do not neglect the
extra inch that the _shoulder_ can give), then point upwards with your
first and middle fingers, and, keeping them as far as possible in the
same direction, turn the arm round quickly in both ways. It is as if you
wished to visit a distant possession of your kingdom and were not
content merely to reach it but wished to take an excursion when you had
reached it--to become more familiar with it. The top of the stretch will
be seen in Ranjitsinhji’s book, in the photographs on pp. 76, 79, 90,
99, 101, 104 (First Edition), as well as in the one of Hirst in this
volume (XXI.). Abel says:--

     “Before you settle on any particular style of bowling, try various
     plans, and that which is easiest and most effective you should
     practise continually, but I should strongly recommend the high
     delivery.”

An exception is when you have some good leg-fielders, and dare to
imitate W. G.’s effective low action round the wicket.

_c._ The sideways position of the body during the moment of delivery
(see Hirst) seems more usual than the position facing the batsman. This
means some of that body-swing which the golfer uses, in common with the
tennis-player, the mower, the pitch-forker, and others. It is described
in the Volume on Training.

_d._ After the bowling and (see Hirst), in the case of some experts,
before it also, the hand comes right down in front, near the left knee.
Let the arm come down from the full upward extension to this position,
preserving the outward stretch as long as possible. The shoulder comes
with it.

_e._ The wrist is important. Hold your elbow close to your side, and
your palm, fingers upwards, in front of your face, as if you were going
to read your own fortune. Then twist it round smartly as far as it will
go, the thumb moving across to your left, the little finger away to your
right. Recover the first position smartly, and repeat many times.
Another wrist-exercise is the one straight up and down. Starting from
the first position, bend the hand briskly towards you, as if to fan
yourself; then briskly back again.

_f._ The fingers and thumb, but especially the first finger, must
acquire full extensions, full contractions, and the power of rapid yet
strong movements in various directions. For example, imagine yourself to
be spinning a peg-top with your first finger, now in one direction, now
in the other. A second exercise is to move the tips of all the fingers,
separately, sharply down towards the palm, and sharply back again.

We need a teacher to tell beginners and others which part of their
mechanism is weak or slow, which part is not doing its share of work,
which part is working wrongly, and so on.

As a change, the exercises may be applied, _mutatis mutandis_, to
left-hand practice.

THE ACTION OF BOWLING

has already been hinted at in these exercises. But, before the ordinary
action, may come a few words about the lob, the use of which Mr. Edward
Lyttelton advocates so well. The following ideas are mostly his.

We seldom see lob-bowlers to-day. Perhaps many promising boys have been
discouraged by too much hitting of their lobs, or too bad fielding (or
badly-placed fielding), or too little practice (at a stump and onto a
small piece of paper). Yet lobs may be very useful when runs are coming
fast; they are like slow twist-services at Tennis or Lawn Tennis--one is
ashamed not to kill them. As a change at any time they may pay, since
unlike most bowling they break either way and hang.

They must _not_ be long hops; they must _not_ be too slow. The slowest
ball should be the one outside the off-stump, and twisting away. The
spin is like that which one gives to a billiard ball with one’s fingers;
or we might imagine the fingers to be doing to the ball what Pettitt’s
racket sometimes does in one of his services at Tennis, and Mr. A. W.
Gore’s in his forehand drive at Lawn Tennis. The high full pitch does
not need any spin, except perhaps some drag in the air if one can manage
that. The bowling should generally be round the wicket, and have a long
run: its exact length should be measured and a mark made where one is to
start. A stop must not be made at the crease except in order to vary the
pace.

By practising lobs, at games of snob-cricket if not elsewhere, one can
learn a great deal about the twist, the pace, the length, the height of
the ball for various purposes. It forms an easy apprenticeship. If the
bowling be with an indiarubber ball, and the batting be with a stick,
then we have excellent practice for batting also, since the indiarubber
ball gives confidence to the shrinking right foot and yet receives all
the break that is given to it and so encourages the bowler.

The next kind of bowling to learn is the low-action round-arm type, such
as W. G. and many of the old cricketers home from India indulge in. It
breaks from the leg to the off, coming with the arm as well as with the
wrist and perhaps the fingers also. It tempts to leg-hits, and needs
good on-side fielding of the kind that E. M. Grace used to show at leg.

Then comes orthodox bowling with the high action, when the needed
muscles are well under control. Do not settle on your action--unless you
are a genius-bowler--until you have mastered the mechanism. If you do,
you may throughout your career fail because some one or more of the
important elements have not been brought into the work--perhaps those
shoulder-muscles. Stretch your arm up and out and see if it is limber:
mine used to be shockingly rigid and cramped. But having exercised the
required parts fully and briskly, then find _your_ action after
experimenting with several. It is not likely that you will be able to
bowl well with several actions, though in Tennis I find that at least
three utterly different types of service (like those of Saunders or
Fairs, Latham or Lambert, and Pettitt) can and almost must be used in
the same set. And serving at Tennis is no less elaborate than bowling at
Cricket. Indeed the two are closely parallel. At Racquets also I
distinguish three or four different actions without appreciable
disadvantage. Theoretically I do not see why a moderately good bowler
(as distinct from the very best) should not vary his action.

[Illustration: XXII.--Bowling, first position; bowling arm back and
down, body facing sideways, weight on back leg.

[_To face page 67._
]

We may consider first the medium-paced bowler with a run of let us say
five or six yards. This should probably be from a fixed spot, and should
not be checked at the wicket except occasionally for the sake of variety
of pace. Perhaps the action should begin as it will end, for example
with the hand down near the left knee (see Hirst): at Racquets and
Tennis I find I serve better--and service here is analogous to bowling
at Cricket--if I begin with the position of the racket with which I want
to finish up. The principle is _Respice finem_. Others begin with the
hand outstretched to the full as it will be at the moment of delivery.
These are two plans that are worth trying. Probably the body should be
sideways as the bowling starts, not only in order to conceal the ball,
but also in order to add the extra body-swing from the hips. And before
the arm is lifted it is brought far back and down by many bowlers, as is
shown in Photograph XXII., of Hirst. This may be compared with the
backward swing of the driver at Golf. Perhaps here, as in Golf, there
should be no interval or stop between the swinging back of the hand and
the swinging of it forward again for the delivery.

It is generally agreed that the action itself shall be high, somewhat as
a server at Lawn Tennis has more chance of serving into the court and
well if he takes the ball high in the air: the ball from above--and, as
we have said, a man can by daily stretching of shoulder and of arm, of
leg and foot, add an inch or two to his bowling stature--comes with more
bump, more devilry, more break; is harder to smother, often harder to
drive; whereas the low delivery can usually be played forward with
safety and confidence (except the W. G. round-arm round the wicket), and
is easier to see.

With the delivery let the right hand and shoulder and the head come well
forward and downward, the head having previously been back and up, to
give full sight of the pitch and batsman.

The back leg, from the hip to the ball of the foot, is stretched at full
tension without loss of balance. For there must be immediate recovery in
case of a sharp return or a quick run, in which latter case one moves
behind the wicket and away from the direction of the stroke. We shall
come back to this directly.

We have already suggested how much can be learnt about length and
break, etc., from lobs, and about break and drag, etc., from the W. G.
action round the wicket. Here we may add that every bowler should be
able to bowl round the wicket as well as over it. At first the action is
likely to be uncomfortable, and the arrangement of fielders on the
leg-side needs care. But bowling round the wicket is almost as good as a
complete change; it nearly turns one bowler into two. The batsman has to
face differently, and probably he tends to send out his left leg in the
wrong direction. I have noticed that, against left-hand round-the-wicket
bowlers like Hirst, the batsman generally sends out his left leg far too
much towards the left and “away from the batting business” (as Abel
calls this fault). Moral: learn to bowl left-hand round the wicket.

As to the _ways of holding the ball_, these actions may at first be
tried without a ball at all; to grip a ball would probably cramp the
free swing. Let the free swing first be formed. In the same way I found
that in Tennis services I got the best training without a racket at all;
the actions then went with a pleasant and easy rapidity, until they
became habitual at that pace. Then I added the cramping racket-handle,
having already acquired freedom as my own. Get correctness and pace and
ease before adding anything that might cramp and fetter not only the
small extremity, the hand, but also the large basic and motor muscles.

Certainly do not grip the ball before the action; that would tire you
and might stiffen your whole apparatus. As a rule, let the tightest grip
come just before the very moment of delivery.

There are various grips, of which Photographs XXIII.-XXVI., of Hirst’s
hand, will show two. A study of these will be more useful than any
verbal description. Notice, however, that (1) the little finger is
scarcely used at all; (2) the third finger is not always used; (3) the
first finger and the thumb do most of the holding and moving; (4) the
ball is not held in the palm (except for the sake of a change)[5]; (5)
the seam is the part by which the fingers secure their grip and movement
(again except for the sake of a change).

The grips can easily become familiar

[Illustration: XXIII.--One of Hirst’s grips when he bowls: the little
finger does not touch the ball, and only the knuckle of the third finger
does.

[_Between pages 70 and 71._
]

[Illustration: XXIV.--Same grip for right hand bowler.

[_Between pages 70 and 71._
]

[Illustration: XXV.--Another of Hirst’s grips: all the fingers touch the
ball, the little one only just with its side.

[_Between pages 70 and 71._
]

[Illustration: XXVI.--Same grip for right hand bowler.

[_Between pages 70 and 71._
]

friends if a ball be held in the hand at odd moments. I recommend a Lawn
Tennis ball to begin with, until the fingers become accustomed to the
stretching.

Both hands should be trained, just as both right-hand and left-hand
actions should be assimilated. The chance of becoming a left-hand bowler
(for occasional variety if not regularly) is not one to be missed,
especially in these days of billiard-table wickets.

DIRECTION.

The direction should at first be regulated chiefly by the position of
the body, especially the feet, and by the larger muscles; without loss
of the free swing, however. Aim at a chalk wicket on a wall--an old Lawn
Tennis or Squash ball will do to begin with--or try to get someone to
stand at the further side of a wicket on a level bit of ground: then you
two bowl at that wicket alternately. Correct your mistakes by
_exaggerating in the opposite direction_ (a principle invaluable for
self-correction throughout games and athletics and life). If you are
bowling too much to the off-side, then either keep your body turned
further to the (batsman’s) on-side, or else make your shoulder and arm
and hand swing less freely and extendedly and fully to the off, and more
fully out to the on. Stretch out and away at the end of the swing, and
“follow through.” But probably you will be bowling too much to the on;
in that case either alter your feet or else make your shoulder and arm
and hand swing more fully over and across to the off. For practice, keep
it extended out there. Hold it at its extreme limit, and then add
another inch to the reach. Exaggerate, but always follow well through. I
have never seen this last and most important point mentioned in any book
or writing.

Of course in actual practice and play one must be able to bowl
persistently to the off. To keep the ball to the off, one must bowl at
an imaginary wicket there. One needs the power of forming a picture in
the mind’s eye. (In Tennis I picture an imaginary net two inches above
the real one; that is _my_ net, and I ignore the real one.) The reasons
why orthodox bowlers bowl to the off are that balls off the wicket are
harder to meet in their own line with a straight bat, so long as the
right foot is kept rigid. The orthodox bowler has most of his fielders
to the off, for catches owing to the crooked bat. If the batsman tries
to pull into the desert on the on-side, so as to escape the forest of
fielders on the off-side, he generally runs a risk. That is what the
bowler wants.

Besides, “it is worth remembering, when bowling to a quick-footed
player, that he can run out with more safety to a dead straight ball
than to one upon the off. It is very difficult to keep a ball down when
it pitches some distance to the side of you.” (The writer adds “after a
big drive, or after a couple of big drives, it is bad tactics to drop
the next ball very short.”)

Having acquired a free bowling swing with full extension of hand and arm
and shoulder and back muscles and left leg, and in an accurate line
towards the imaginary stump on the off-side, one can then learn to vary
the line slightly, using for this purpose not only the general direction
of the feet and body and arms, but also the smaller movements of the
wrist and even of the fingers.

But first get the line safe and sure. Don’t yet bother about length or
pace or break. Get direction. Concentrate on that.

LENGTH AND HEIGHT.

Though there is no absolutely good length in bowling, yet the following
is useful as a general rule:--“For a fast bowler a ball that pitches on
a spot within from five to seven yards from the batsman’s wicket is
‘good-length’; for medium pace, the spot lies between four and five
yards; for slow, between three and four yards. Notice that the faster
the bowling the wider is the margin of ‘good-length.’”

This general rule must be altered according to the state of the ground
(wet, dry, etc.), the reach of the batsman, which depends not only on
his size but also on his use or non-use of his feet, his “class”
(witness the rule, keep a good player playing forward, a bad player
playing back), the previous balls which have led up to a certain ball,
and so on.

A more comprehensive definition of a good-length ball is that it is just
beyond the spot at which a player can play forward with safety, and yet
is not a long hop. It is the ball which puts the player in two minds;
the ball of which he loses sight; the ball to which he may pay the high
compliment of the “half-cock” stroke.

The obvious exceptions are yorkers and full-pitches, which may be
excellent balls in due season, and balls to elicit catches.

The yorker is admitted by most authorities to be a useful length to
begin with--except with a few batsmen like W. G. It “masquerades” as a
full-pitch or half-volley, and succeeds because it is despised as such.

As to the full-pitch, it has several useful varieties. There is the ball
which will fall on the top of the wicket--few batsmen like that. Such a
ball need not be led up to. Let it be fast, and it is an important unit.
It should be frequently practised, after the direction has been
mastered. For it is hateful alike to most sloggers, pokers, and well-set
batsmen. Then there is the slower full-pitch about the height of the
knees. But the fielders must have been carefully placed.

How can one learn to get good lengths--for there are many? How can one
learn to use any length at will? For, obviously if the wicket be
“plumb,” then it may be the bowler’s only hope either to keep a fair
length and trust in the impatience of human nature, or else to try
different lengths.

Bowl a ball lazily, not too high; it will fall short. Bowl another with
a full upward stretch of arm and shoulder; you then have a larger
circle. If you let the ball go at the right moment, it will not fall
short. You can regulate the length, then, by the amount of extension
that you employ to give a greater or smaller curve to your hand and the
ball, and by the place (within the curve) at which you let the ball go
from your hand. While the hand is rising, the sooner you let the ball go
the higher that ball will fly; during the downward curve, while the hand
is falling, the same is true. Grip the ball till the end of a falling
swing, and it may drop quite near to your feet (though there is a swing
which scarcely falls at all). The ball which is shorter should generally
be bowled a little higher: it was thus that Shaw used often to vary his
length and height. He was able to hit any spot on the ground. It is
good practice for length and height to put a handkerchief or (later) a
small piece of paper or a silver coin now on this spot and now on that,
and to make sure of pitching the ball on it with reasonable frequency.
The length may be regulated not only by the extension of the arm and
hand, and the moment at which one releases the ball, but also by the
rest or action of the fingers at this last moment. After one is able to
hit a small spot at will, one can bowl for an imaginary spot, just as
one can bowl for an imaginary off-wicket.

PACE.

With regard to regulating the pace of the ball, perhaps the medium pace
is the best to acquire first. Anyhow, the increase in speed should be
gradual. Control of direction and of length should precede control of
pace, though it would be impossible to separate the three arts
altogether.

In answer to the question of how the pace can be regulated, Mr. Edward
Lyttelton writes as follows, with special reference to lobs:--

     “There are various ways of doing this. One is to increase the
     length or speed of your run. It is a plain truth that the pace of
     the ball depends on the run, as well as on the swing of the arm; as
     can be verified by observing the impetus given to projectiles
     thrown from a railway-carriage window. Now the pace of the run up
     to the crease before the ball leaves the hand is of small
     importance; the difference depends on the ball being propelled by a
     body in fast motion or by one hardly moving at all. So you can run
     fast up to the crease, and, just at the moment of bowling, stop
     dead. This will give the ball a slow flight, even though your arm
     moves through the air at its ordinary rate. Or you may take your
     usual number of strides, but each a little longer than usual. This
     gives extra speed to the run, and consequently to the ball, but the
     batsman can hardly perceive the reason why. His eyes are fixed on
     the bowler’s arm. Lastly, there is the trick of giving the ball a
     forward spin with the tips of the fingers as it leaves the hand,
     which causes a fast bound from the pitch. Combined with a fast run,
     this spin makes a ball come along at a surprising pace, without the
     arm doing anything out of the common. Certain it is that very few
     lob-bowlers study the run up to the wicket sufficiently. It ought
     not to be mechanically uniform.”

Slow bowling, as Mr. A. G. Steel points out, may have numerous
advantages. It may curve in the air. The batsman has to hit with more
force, with more risk of hitting up, more chance of being stumped if he
runs out, more chance of being caught at the wicket; the slow bowler has
greater control over the pitch of the ball and its spin; he can recover
his balance so quickly and so thoroughly that himself he becomes an
extra man in the field, having plenty of time to stop a drive and to get
behind and put down the wicket when the ball is thrown on; he can last
longer.

But he must pitch the ball further up, nearer to the batsman’s reach; he
may be hit hard and placed anywhere unless he can make his ball hang in
the air or otherwise deceive the batsman, as when the bowler sends it
from the palm of the hand, not from the fingers.

Slow medium bowling is safer; and as a general rule medium bowling
should be practised before very slow or very fast be attempted. Perhaps
for most ordinary bowlers it should form the staple pace, so easily can
it be made a little faster or a little slower. It has this advantage
over very slow bowling: that it need not be pitched so far up. It has
this advantage over very fast bowling, that it can use the break both
ways, and can be kept up without much fatigue. He who bowls well within
his pace runs little risk of straining himself, although every now and
then (like the slow bowler) he can put in an occasional fast ball for a
change. No one should ever bowl so fast as to endanger the swing and the
knack, as so many boys do; or so fast that he dare not return to the
slower for the silly fear of being hit.

Nevertheless--as I once heard a coach remark--if you’re a fool perhaps
you’d better bowl fast.

Pace may be varied, somewhat as length may be varied (see above); for
example, by a longer or shorter, quicker or slower run; by a run
arrested; by a quicker or slower or arrested movement of some part of
the mechanism--shoulder, wrist, etc. Spofforth used to hold the ball
loosely for slow bowling, tightly for fast, as if he were a train which
gives an impetus to the jumping-off passenger by holding on to him till
the last moment. Spofforth’s pace as a rule was medium rather than very
fast.

BREAK, SPIN, CURL, ETC.

Anyone who has practised bowling in this order--mastering direction,
then length, then pace, will now wish to add some sort of break, as the
baseball pitcher wishes to add some sort of curl. But here again, as
with pace, it is a great error to acquire in excess, so as to “endanger
the knack.” I remember a boy who got into his school XI. at the end of
the term simply because he could put on a huge break. He had no other
merits; in his only match he failed miserably. As a high authority
says:--

     “The best ball is not the one that breaks most but the one that
     just breaks enough--enough to beat the bat but not the wicket, or
     else enough to beat the centre of the bat and just touch its edge.”

The general mechanism of the break has been best described by Mr. A. G.
Steel in his now classical chapter of the “Badminton Volume”:--

     “The spin or rotary motion from right to left is gained by grasping
     the ball chiefly with the thumb and the first and second fingers,
     the third and fourth fingers being placed altogether round the
     other side of the ball. The moment the ball leaves the hand, the
     latter is turned quickly over from right to left, and at the same
     time the first and second fingers and the thumb, coming over with
     the hand, impart a powerful twist to the ball, which leaves the
     hand when the latter is turned palm downwards. There is also, at
     the time of delivery, an outward and upward movement of the elbow,
     which gives the arm the shape of a curve, or almost a semicircle.
     The ball goes on its way spinning rapidly from right to left, and
     the moment it touches the ground twists very sharply toward the off
     side of the batsman. This ball (termed in cricket parlance the ‘leg
     break’), when well bowled, is perhaps one of the most deadly of all
     balls, but it is also the most difficult for a bowler to master. It
     is always a slow ball, as to bowl it fast with any accuracy of
     pitch is an impossibility; at any rate, it may be assumed to be so,
     as no bowler has ever yet appeared who could bowl it otherwise than
     slow.... There are some slow bowlers who have become fairly
     proficient at it, and who have enjoyed at various times--especially
     against batsmen they had never met before--a certain amount of
     success; but it is a style of bowling which should be encouraged
     only to the extent of enabling every bowler to use it
     occasionally.”

There are at least three different kinds of break; they may be combined
in various ways. The American baseball pitching is developed to a higher
point of skill than our bowling, and can probably teach us not a few
lessons.

(1.) The first break is called the natural break; it is usually from the
off to the leg (from the leg to the off in the case of the left-hand
bowler). It comes almost or quite of its own accord with the action
itself; indeed one can scarcely ever bowl a ball without _some_
action-break, any more than one can easily hit a billiard ball without
any break. This kind is often called the break “with the arm.”

(2.) The wrist-break cannot be altogether separated from this; some such
break also is almost natural if not inevitable.

(3.) The third kind is the finger-break (including the thumb-break). It
is a spin given at the last moment. The fingers move round in one
direction or in the other, _the first finger_ being as a rule the most
important factor. This finger needs to be exercised by itself. When one
looks at a professional bowler’s hands one finds this finger especially
hardened or worn or blistered.

The finger-break (with some wrist-break) can be partly given by the grip
itself. Hirst’s two grips in the photographs should be carefully studied
and imitated. C. T. B. Turner, the great Australian, used to bowl quite
a different ball according to the special grip. Shrewsbury tells of a
match in which the Notts wickets fell before Turner, because the men did
not notice the change of grip. Shrewsbury noticed it, and did not fall a
victim. The middle and third fingers were sometimes bent not round the
ball, but in upon the palm of the hand. Again, the spin will be absent
or lessened if the ball be held, not by the seam, as it usually is, but
by its ordinary skin. For the American baseball grip with a view to curl
in the air (and also affecting twist off the ground) see below.

The least important finger is the little finger; then comes the third
finger.

The break can be partly given by this or that special movement of
fingers and thumb, or chiefly fingers, during the moment when the ball
leaves the hand. The effect of the varied grip, upon pace, has already
been described. There are the over-spins for extra pace; the drag-spins;
and the side-spins. Every billiard player will realise what these terms
mean.

The balls with arm-and wrist-and finger-breaks do not come off the
ground in the same way; the right-hand bowler’s artificial (wrist and
finger) break from the leg to the off will have a different effect from
the left-hand bowler’s “natural” break from the leg to the off. And
results vary also according to the wicket, the wet and slippery (as
distinct from the drying and caking wicket) scarcely imparting any break
at all; there is no “bite.”

The commonest break (of the right-hand bowler) is from the off to the
leg. Most bowlers and throwers have it. It is often said that the
reverse-break, from the leg to the off, is impossible as a safe and
reliable ball for a fast bowler, except in so far as it comes with the
action of bowling. Be this as it may--and I see no anatomical reason
for the impossibility--the leg-break is easy for a medium or slow
bowler, and is especially effective round the wicket, as many old
bowlers have frequently proved. Mr. A. G. Steel’s excellent description
of the action must be quoted from the “Badminton Volume”:

     “The ball was delivered round the wicket, at the very extent of the
     crease, in order to make the angle from the hand to an imaginary
     straight line between the two middle stumps as great as possible.
     The hand was very little higher than the hip when the ball was
     delivered, and instead of the hand and wrist being completely
     turned over at the moment of delivery, as in the slow leg-break,
     the fingers imparted a right to left spin to the ball. The ball,
     coming from a great distance round the wicket and with a
     considerable amount of leg-spin, would be gradually working away to
     the batsman’s off-side every inch of its journey, both before and
     after pitching.”

Such a break would be liable to lead to a catch at the wicket or in the
slips. It is especially useful in school cricket. School bowlers--and
others--should acquire this action. It is not difficult or exhausting,
but it needs a careful study of field-placing on the on-side.

(4.) To the break given by arm, wrist, and fingers, we may now add the
curl, which some bowlers have or occasionally have, but which few if any
bowlers know how to teach. The following remarks about the American
baseball-pitcher’s curl in the air, produced _by a throw_, are worth
studying. They are from Mr. Walter Camp’s “Book of College Sports.” I
think I am right in saying that the American curve usually does not come
till towards the end of the ball’s flight.

“The easiest curve, and the one to be acquired first, is the out-curve.
The simplest method is to take the ball in the hand between the extended
thumb and the first and second fingers, the third and little fingers
being closed. The ball rests against the (side of the) middle part of
the third finger, but is firmly clasped by the first two and the thumb.
If the arm be then extended horizontally from the shoulder, with the
palm of the hand up, it will be seen that if the ball were spun like a
top by the two fingers and thumb it would turn in the way indicated by
the arrow in the diagram. This is the way it must twist to accomplish
the out-curve. The simpler way to impart this twist is not the spinning
motion, but rather a snap as the ball is leaving the fingers, performed
almost entirely without the aid of the thumb. The sensation is that of
throwing the ball hard, but dragging it back with the ends and sides of
the fingers just as it leaves the hand.” For further instructions the
reader should consult this excellent work, published by the Century
Company of New York.

The writer goes on to remark:--

     “The most logical explanation of the curvature of a ball depends
     upon the supposition of the compression of the air just in front of
     the ball and a corresponding rarefaction immediately behind it, so
     that the ball by its friction is deflected from its true course.”

It is interesting to notice that, in contrast with our “batting versus
bowling” problem, “in spite of all restrictions, such is the growing
skill of pitchers that the problem is constantly under discussion how to
legislate in favour of the batsmen.”

(5.) Additional curl or break may be added by the wind, slope of the
ground, and so on.

In all cases, the break must be given especially at the last moment, and
must not be expended in the previous action, unless the object be to
deceive the batsman. Obviously one should not always put on the same
amount of break; one should appear to do so. A straight ball following
many breaks from the off is apt to be very effective.

Now as to the learning of the break, two or three notions seem to me
sheer common sense.

(1.) The muscles of the various mechanisms, and especially of the wrist
and fingers, must be exercised in various ways: by full extensions in
different directions, by full contractions, by partial movements in
different directions, and so on. A certain amount of strength is needed,
but let litheness not be sacrificed.

(2.) Underhand bowling of breaks in either direction not only exercises
these mechanisms, and makes them habitual and easy, but it also shows
effects very clearly. Stump-cricket with an indiarubber ball and
underhand bowling is good training for the bowler’s break as well as for
the batsman’s straight bat.

(3.) Slow bowling is fine for the same reasons. During it the ball is
held longer in the fingers; after it the ball is “held” longer by the
ground. Hence it also shows its effects clearly and encourages the
beginner. Moreover, the slow breaking ball is useful as a change for the
medium-paced bowler. Some of the break thus acquired as an easy habit
may be transferred to medium or fast bowling.

_Concealment_ is of the utmost importance. The extra Commandment, “Thou
shalt not be found out,” is of great moment when once the bowler has
control of the ball’s flight and spin.

To hide direction is hard, unless the curl be used. To hide length and
pace, as Shaw, Spofforth, Lohmann and others used to, is easier: one or
two helps have been offered above. We may notice that Shaw used to alter
the height of his hand: this had several important results; for example,
the low delivery made the ball bump less and “skim” more. Shaw again
would bowl a very effectively concealed variety, a ball _rather_
shorter, _rather_ slower, _rather_ higher. A great change is not usually
so effective as a small one, except when a very slow or medium bowler
occasionally bowls a very fast ball. In masking these changes, as well
as the break, the bowler needs what

[Illustration: XXVII.--Bowler waiting for ball to be thrown in: he is
standing well back from the wicket.

[_To face page 91._
]

Mr. A. G. Steel alludes to as the wiliness of the serpent with the
apparent harmlessness of the dove. He needs complete mastery of this or
that part of the mechanism by itself, so that he may or may not turn his
wrist or fingers at the last moment either completely or partially, but
anyhow “with intent to deceive.” Need a skilful bowler be a skilful
liar?

The art of _taking balls at the wicket_, like the art of fielding balls,
demands a rapid recovery of balance. After his effort the bowler must
either field the ball or else get ready with his wicket between himself
and the fielder. As the photograph (XXVII.) of Hirst shows, he should
not stand too near the wicket, for it is easier to move forward than to
move back. He must also be prepared for a bad throw, either too high or
else too low--perhaps a half-volley or what would be to a batsman a
“good length” ball.

The “Badminton Volume” gives this useful advice:--“A golden rule for
every bowler to observe is--after the batsman has played the ball, get
back to the wicket as quickly as possible. Neglect of this rule loses
many a ‘run-out.’ If a bowler does not get back to his wicket, there is
no one to take the ball and knock the bails off should the batsman run
and the ball be returned to the bowler’s end. When the ball is thrown
up, the bowler should not take it till it has just passed the wicket; he
should then seize and sweep the ball into the stumps in one and the same
action.”

For the purpose of taking the ball and putting down the wicket
rapidly--in fact almost by a single movement--he cannot do better than
practise wicket-keeping now and then. This should give him hints for
bowling also. It should help him to keep his real eye on the ball and
his imaginary eye, his mind’s eye, on imaginary wickets. He must sense
by imagination, and by “feel,” precisely where the wickets are, just as
at Tennis. I have to sense where the “Grille” or “Dedans” is, even while
my real outward eye is on the ball.

The bowler, like the wicket-keeper, should be an adviser (but with
judgment and tact) to the captain, especially with regard to the
throwing in and backing up by this or that fielder, and the correct
placing of all the fielders, which must depend on circumstances and
individual batsmen. This has brought us to more general remarks on
bowling.

GENERAL HINTS.

The first and foremost piece of advice to the would-be bowler, that is
to say to every cricketer, is to read what the great authorities,
Messrs. A. G. Steel, Ranjitsinhji, Grace, the Lytteltons, and others say
about the importance of bowling, and of learning to bowl well or better,
not only for the sake of the game’s future and of the team’s success,
but also for the sake of personal enjoyment. Let the reader digest what
Mr. Edward Lyttelton says about practice in the bedroom, and what Mr. C.
B. Fry (in the “Strand” for July, 1902) says about the helps which he
used to his grand athletic success--for instance, kicking a small ball
in a courtyard, and jumping over an arm-chair. Let every cricketer read
how the Americans train for baseball. Then let him not despise the
mastering of the mechanism in his bedroom or elsewhere, if possible
before a large looking-glass. There should be one or two in every
pavilion.

The following advice is not new, but it will all bear repetition. No
amount of honest care spent in suggestions about bowling can be
considered as wasted. The future of enjoyable cricket lies largely with
improvement in bowling.

Be able to bowl round as well as over the wicket, for such a change of
starting-point is almost as good as a change of action. In view of what
certain Americans have achieved in Philadelphia and elsewhere by being
taught the use of the left side (for drawing, modelling, etc.) in early
childhood, I do not hesitate to say, learn to bowl fairly well with the
left hand as well as with the right. The control of the left side would
add power to batting and fielding even if it led to little success in
actual bowling.

When you have got the direction and _can_ bowl persistently to the off,
practise the straight and fast yorker as well as the good length ball to
the off. In fact, practise intentional variety; do not rely on the
variety which is incidental to careless and “undisciplined” bowling.

You must have firm feet--the left foot must have nails that bite the
ground well, especially near the boot’s toe; you must have strong
hands--they may be hardened by salt, etc., or, in case of sore places,
may be protected by adhesive plaister round the finger or hand (this
prevents painful friction). Sprains may be treated by water or massage
or radiant light and heat.

Having attended to such things, study pitches--their soft or hard spots,
the trees, etc., behind the bowler’s arm, the direction of the sun, of