Cricket 1914

35 o THE WORLD OF CRICKET. J u l y 18, 1914. if' A f k The Game and How to Play it. B y A. C. M a c L a r e n . Batting. N e v e r draw aw ay from your w icket to a straight ball, as it is fatal to all good play. Grasp the bat more tightly w ith the right than the left hand ; the right hand should do the chief part of the work, and the grasp should tighten on the bat at the moment of playing or hitting the ball. Meet every ball, whether playing back or forward ; do not let the ball hit the bat, but make the bat play the ball. Throw your weight well on to left leg in playing forward, and put your left leg well out in line w ith leg stump, and not across the wicket. In playing forward or hitting to the off, let the left leg and bat go forward together. Do not run out of your ground, except to slow under-hand or slow round-arm bowling, and then only if the ball is tossed in the air ; and never run out to a ball tossed wide on the off side. And when you make up your mind to run out run out quickly. Bowling. A good length is the first requisite in bowling ; without this, break and tw ist are both useless. Bow l in the style that comes most naturally to yourself, and stick to this style and don’t try various modes of delivery. When you are able to bowl a good length, then, and not before, by all means try variety of pace. Accustom yourself to bowling both sides of the wicket ; and when feeling tired ask to be taken off. Always try to bowl your best, whether in practice or game?. T ry not to be put off when an easy chance is missed off your bowling, but be more determined to get the batsman out next over. Judging Runs. There is always a run when the ball goes to left hand of cover slip, unless he is a left-handed fieldsman. It is the batsman’s call when he plays a ball between short leg and mid-on ; but this is the most difficult place to judge a run, and a quick field at short leg has many a chance of throwing down the w icket a t the bowler’s end. Some Gleanings from the ’Varsity Match. B y A.C.M. Oxford came out on top, as was expected, in their encounter with their rivals. Those who had played against both teams were of one opinion about Oxford winning. The play was certainly below the average, as was the case with the players. Both sides, on a wicket that rendered bowlers assistance from time to time, went in for the swerve and the spin rather than for length bowling to allow the wicket to assist the bowler. The pitch on Tuesday morning proved certainly difficult, and on such a wicket Calthorpe on the Cambridge side was, in my opinion, the best bowler in the match, with Naumann on the Oxford side next. These two maintain a decent length and give little away, added to which they make the batsman play at the ball, whereas the swinging bowler was left severely alone whenever the blind length ball came along. It is of little use bowling on a soft wicket at the stumps if the ball is going to swing a foot or so away from them, the batsmen being able to leave them alone, yet this was always happening. A friend of mine remarked that it was the absolute negation ot cricket; unless a swerving bowler makes a batsman play at four out of six balls he is never bowling well. The catching and fielding cannot be termed good— far from it—but the wicket-keeping was excellent, and those who blamed Saville for putting in Wood as keeper must have felt just a little silly. Fairbairn, a bit of a freak bowler, did well, while he fielded splendidly. Morrison played dogged cricket, and Wood, in addition to some smart work behind the stumps, hit best of any. Knight gave a display of really interesting cricket and is sure to train on. He gets under that ball to cut at present however. Colman, a good bat, pleased many, and Howell’s is steady but short of strokes. Lagden, it is to be regretted, did not show his true form. I cannot help thinking that Cambridge would have done better had she included her left-hand bowler on that wicket with Riley the hitter also in the team, the conditions suiting both types of cricketers. It proved quite a pleasure to witness cricket played on the old lines in the matches following, namely, Eton v. Harrow and Gentlemen v. Players. Swerving bowlers who cannot con­ trol the swerve to hit the wicket once in six times or make the batsman play the ball according to the setting of the field are a menace to the game. Far too much of this sort of thing, was seen in the latest 'Varsity game. -------------- 4 . -------------- E. S m ith took 9 for 25 (Bamslev v. Birstall); and among other g<xxi bowling performances in Yorkshire Council matches were Mackenzie’s 6 for 44 (Featherstone v. Ossett), Barber’s 7 for 43 (Heckmondwike v. Dewsbury and Savile); Keenan’s 5 for 33 (Morley v. Mirfield); and Smeeth’s 8 for 80 (Bradford v. Skipton). T he O xford X I at O ld B uckenham .