James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1876

10 was advisedly that I used the word meeting, and to make myself more intelli­ gible, I may explain myself to mean meeting in the most active sense, as opposed to allowing the bat passively to await the impact of the ball. Some batsmen consider themselves fully recompensed if they can dispose of a f ood ball by the simple process of allowing the bat to protect the stumps. his may possibly be a happy result for the rank and lile of the game, but I am desirous of appealing at tlie same time to the superior officers, and I do not think that this policy of offensive defence in cricket is sufficiently valued. In some instances, of course, there are balls which require every effort of the batsman to meet at all, but there are, beyond doubt, hundreds of others that this passive style of defensive batting allows to escape unpunished. To block a shooter or stop a bailer can as easily be accom­ plished m a resolute as in a hesitating manner, while in the one case runs tci/l accrue, and in the other, runs may never come Play vigorously, then, and when you “ p l ay ” a hall, play it confidently and with a resolute movement, with both arms and wrists acting in concert, as if you had some other idea than a mere passive occupation of a beleaguered fortress When you hit, hit hard ; when you block, do not be deterred from infusing vigour even into this movement. So much for what I may call the first rudiments of scientific batting. There are other points which may affect the student who has mastered the early lessons, and succeeded in gaining a knowledge of batting as well as a sufficiency of confidence to enable him to experi­ mentalise on his own behoof. I am not going to enter into a description of the three kinds into which, I have read, straight balls are divided, as I cannot but tliink that this is a line of instruction of but little practical value. It is practice, and, as I have previously remarked, the aid of a good example for imitation, that will do most to form a successful batsman. Indeed, no more useful lesson can be derived in the study of batting than the sight of a skilful batsman at work. The willing scholar will learn much to do, and more still to leave undone, from the example of a good master. He will be, os it were, initiated into mysteries that were previously beyond the pale of his comprehension. He will, if he love the game, take up readily the position, be quick to comprehend the exigency of each move­ ment/and, with increasing perception, gain increased knowledge as well as the confidence incidental thereto. He will see for himself the practical good of the theoretical instruction he has received, the practical demerits of the defects against wrhich he has been cautioned. He will find that there is something more needed to gain distinction than a display of wild hitting ; and that in hitting there is a certain skill that requires more than the po session of great physical force. He will, if the lesson proves fruitful, find that to hit well necessitates a combination of eye and hand, the former to time and the latter to strike ; as well as a large amount of wrist play which will alone tend to produce a freedom of hitting and a power incon­ ceivable to one who has not discovered the secret of this peculiar gift. He will see, too, with what confidence every ball is played, with what decision every artifice of the bowler is met, and how skilfully the line is drawn betw ecu the delicate distinctions of forward and back play. Jt is obviously in the uncertainty of deciding on those last two points that the bowler has the greatest advantage. There is a ball of a certain length that bathes every player, or at least one that requires the undivided attention of the best batsnn n. “ It is a length, sa}8 Mr. kelix, “ that brings over a man most ind( -cribable emotions. Perhaps I may not he inclined to go so far as Mr.