Cricket 1890

460 CRIOKET A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. NOV, 2?, 1890. FORTY YEARS OF CRIOKET B y W . Gr. G race . [Perm ission has been kindly given to us to reproduce the Chapters on •*Bowling ” and “ B attin g” from tn e above work.] B ow ling (Continued.) Spofforth was a real expert at that. Tim e after time I have seen him vary his break from six to eighteen inches the same over, and every time the ball got past the batsman it hit the wicket. No greater com plim ent can Le paid to any bowler, for it means that he has perfect command of the ball. If the bowler be right- handed, he breaks, as a rule, m ost from the o ff; if left-handed, m ost from leg. Here and there you may find a phenomenon who can do it both w ays; but then he is a phe­ nomenon, and one does not write for that class of bowler. The state of the wicket has m uch to do with the amount of break to be obtained. W hen it is dry and hard you must be content with very little in d eed ; but after heavy rains, with a strong sun drying it, you may be able to per­ form wonders, as long as you do not bowl fast. Mr. A . G. Steel amongst the amateurs, Peate and Alfred Shaw amongst the professionals, used to perform wonders then ; the amount of curl they got on being simply astonishing. Mr. D. Buchanan, Jimm y Southerton, and Barratt belonged to that school; and Mr. Nepean, Peel, and Briggs, of our own tim e, are very effective also. The next point to be considered i s : learn something about the nature and condition of the wicket on which you are bowling. N o­ thing shows the experienced captain so much as the thought he exercises before a match. Before he has tossed for choice of innings, he has exam ined the wicket carefully, taken into consideration the changes which are likely to occur during the next hour or two, and de­ liberated whether they w ill be in favour of the batsman or the bowler. Surely it is not too much to expect from the bowler, upon whom so m uch depends, to give the same thought. Remember it is a very old saying that *‘ a match well made is half w o n .” There are very few grounds on which a thoughtful bowler may not find one end m ore helpful than the other. Perhaps there is a slight slope which will enable you to get a good deal of twist on the ball, or a spot that will cause it to kick and rise quickly off the pitch. Not to find out that before the match begins means that the bowler has failed to do his duty to his side, and lacks one of the characteristics of a first- class player. Old Nyren says, in his treatise of the game, “ Contrive, if fortune so favour you, that your bowler shall bowl his first ball when a cloud is passing over.1' I have never been able to have the cloud passing when I bowled my first ball—indeed, I have rarely noticed the cloud passing at all—but on more than one occasion I have observed a distracting glare or leafy tree opposite one of the wickets, and I always took particular care to put m y m ost deadly bowler on at that end. Now, if a captain can notice these amongst the m ulti­ tude of things he has to consider, surely a bowler ought to. Then there are some grounds on which the ball bounds higher than others, and a short-pitched one cannot be ulled very easily. T hat is something to now when you put in a faster one occasion­ ally and cannot be so sure of your length. Lord’ s ground was of that nature not so many years ago, and W ootton and Grundy, who knew every foot of it, never hesitated to bow l a little bit short for a change. There are m any other E oints of detail which a bowler ought to know, ut I need not enumerate them. I have said sufficient to make the bowler think for him ­ self, if he possess the thinking faculties; if he does not, he m ay as well bury his head in the sand like his prototype the ostrich. And that brings me to m y last point—seek for the weak spot in the batsman’s defence. There are very few batsmen without one, and the sooner you find it out the better for your side and yourself. No one plays the first over or two with the confidence he plays after he has been batting for a quarter of an hour, and if you can only spot his weakness and lay seige to it, then you have an excellent chance of getting him out. It used to be considered very good advice to bowl a yorker to a bats­ man imm ediately he comes in, on the assump­ tion, I believe, that he would not be ready for it. A straight half-volley was also thought likely to find him half-hearted in hitting, and a catch sure to follow. Now m ost batsmen have made up their m inds to get either of those balls early in their innings, and you must not be disappointed if you fail to succeed with it. One thing I can tell y o u : it is a huge mistake to give him a short one. It is the one ball which he can see best of all, and he rarely fails to present his bat full face to it. Repeat it, and you have given him a favourable start, and will have some difficulty in getting at the weak spot. It is better a thousand times to bowl rather over than short at any tim e of his innings. Y ou cannot do better than begin in your usual way, aim ing at a good-length straight ball, and not attempting too much. If you find that he is playing confidently, then you may change your tactics and tempt him to hit. Y ou need not be disheartened because your good balls have been played bo easily, for there are more ways of getting a batsman out than bowling him . The mistake is too often made of pegging straight at the wicket to keep down the runs, trusting that the batsman will sooner or later allow one to pass him. Maiden overs are useful in their way, and serve a good purpose when they are bowled by a change bowler to give the principal bowler of the side a rest, but a really first-class bowler has something else to think about. H e is played to get the m en out, and by hook or crook he means to do it. Messrs. Spofforth and Boyle, of the Austra­ lians, and Mr. A. G . Steel, Freeman, A . Shaw, Southerton, and Tom Emm ett were a treat to witness in that respect. They gave the batsman no rest, and tried him with every conceivable kind of ball until they got him to make a mistake. If he had a particular hit they humoured him , but took care to have a safe pair of hands waiting for i t : if they failed to beat him with a break-back, they tried a simple straight one, or tossed a full-pitch at him ; in short, did everything to prevent him from feeling at home. I remember once at Cheltenham, when playing for Gloucestershire v. Notts, placing an extra man at long-leg and bowling entirely for catches, and it was amus­ ing to find how one after another fell into the trap and hit out. I had been bowling straight at the wioket for some tim e before and failed to get any one out, and as a last resource bowled for catches. Of course I could depend on m y fieldsmen, and that is a point slow and m edium pace bowlers must always consider. Fast bowlers depend on their pace and length to beat the batsmen, slow bowlers depend principally on their fieldsmen. I am sorry to say there are exceptions here and there. M ore than once I have seen a medium-pace bowler bowl a good number of balls, all of them a good length, and who thought he had done particularly well because no runs had been scored. H e felt slightly grieved when it was pointed out to him that there were ten men in the field who would not m ind attempt­ in g a catch, and who would be glad to have a little m ore exercise than the mere promen­ ade at the end of each over. Most big hitters lift the ball occasionally when they are given a straight half-volley, or one slightly to leg. And remember that though the old trap of bowling on the off-stum p and causing the ball to break away from the batsman is well known, very few can resist having a smack at it some tim e in their innings. An article on bowling would not be complete without some reference to slow underhand, or, to use the familar word, “ lobs.” Fast underhand and daisy-cutters are seldom seen nowadays, and would have little chance on our perfect w ickets; but lobs are still as effective as ever, and there are two or three first-class batsmen who, after playing all kinds of round-arm bowling with confidence, lose their heads entirely at the sight of lobs. The lob bowler, like the slow round-arm bowler, must depend on his field, especially on his wicket-keeper, and not mind being hit. Good men have been and will continue to be clean bowled by a ball of that kind, but for one clean bowled the lob bowler may expect half-a-dozen caught out or stumped. The bowler should guard against being too slow, or a quick-footed batsman will hit him on the volley; but whatever mistake he makes, he must not bowl too short. And the elevation should not be too high, or he will hit all over the ground ; although there are some batsmen who funk a ball which is bowled straight at them before touching the ground and spoon it. Of course the more break a lob bowler can get on the better, and he must be very accurate in his length. That was the great character­ istic of old Clarke’ s lobs, the finest lob bowler we have ever had; and I have it on good authority that at his best he could pitch a ball half-a-dozen times in succession on a spot not more than three inches in diameter. H ow­ ever, anything within a foot may be considered excellent. From what I have said the younger player will gather that there is a large amount of thought required to make a first class bowler, and that he must not expect to do brilliant things at first, even if he possess the perfection of style. Style is the foundation of a good bow ler; but hard thought and constant practice are necessary to make himfirst-olass. No. 26.— B a t t in g . I should like to say of batting, as I have said of bowling, that good batsmen are bom , not m ade; but my experience of thirty years comes up before me, and tells me that it is not so. There are gifts of eye and wrist which nearly all good batsmen possess in a greater or lesser degree, and which enable them to play certain strokes with great effect; but to acquire all­ round proficiency, I am strongly convinced that constant practice and sound coaching have all to do with it. No ; I can say of batting as I can of no other branch of the game, that there is no royal road of learning it. I try to remember the time when I first handled a bat, and I can recall nothing but the advice that was drilled into m e—Practise constantly, and put your whole heart into it. Opinions vary as to the qualifications a player must possess to be classed as a first- class batsman, and I fear always will vary. Some of the players I have met possessed a beautifully free style, and gave the impression of being able to score largely; but somehow the runs never came. Some were afflicted with what seemed a cramped and ungainly style, and which provoked severs comm ents; but nevertheless the runs did come. Then there were others who kept up their wickets for hours for very small scores; while opposite them were free hitters who made more runs in a tenth part of the time. Now it will not do to say that either m ay not be described as a first-class batsman. T o score 50 runs off one’s own bat in an hour is a very fast rate of scoring, and if it be done in a free, hard-hitting style, it always commands our admiration. To score the same number in two or three hours by patient defence and quiet placing, may not receive the same amount of praise, but under certain conditions it m ay be a more valuable innings to one’s side. I do not sympathise with the player who plays only to keep up his wicket, ana does not try to h it ; but I do sympathise with those who, not possessing great hitting powers, keep adding quietly, though slowly, to the score as they best can; It m ay be safely laid down that the first duty of a batsman is to make runs, and that he who can make them quickly or slowly as occasion requires belongs to the very highest class. I am now speaking to the young player, and will touch upon details that are too often neglected when he begins to play. NEXT ISSUE, DECEMBEK 27.