James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1883

1 6 LILLYWHITE'SCRICKETERS' A N N U A L. great rarity among batsmen. Take care of the stumps, and the runs will take care of themselves , is an axiom that cannot be contradicted . Consistent care from first to last will do more in the long run than impatience or desire for fast scoring . Remember, moreover , that it is not bad bowling that wants the least caution , and donot despise it, as somebatsmen are prone to do. Tounderrate a foe is weakness , and should always be avoided . One last hint to the young beginner and I have done .-Donot play with a bat too heavy for your strength . Ithink a bat should not exceed for any young batsman 2lbs . 3oz ., or even 2lbs . 2oz. It is the overweight that cripples manya promising player , and prevents him not only from doing himself justice in the present , but mars his utility in the future . C H A P T E R I V. T H ED E C L I N EO F F A S TB O W L I N G . A Nelderly gentleman, well versed in all cricketing matters , is reported to have summedup the reasons of the great success of the last Australian team that visited England in three words : pluck , energy , and unity of action . Whether this summarybe correct or not, it is beyond denial that our Anti- podean visitors did remarkably illustrate the motive power of the qualities enunciated above. It mattered not whether their opponents were gaining a decided advantage or had already acquired it, the Australians always showed pluck-a determination , that is, to makea good fight for victory ; it mattered not whether their opponents were 'worthy or unworthy of their steel ,' the Australians always strove with all the earnestness and energy of which they are possessed to emphasise their superiority , and, finally , it mattered not whether their opponents were demoralised or not, were compact or ' all to pieces ,' the Australians always worked like a machine, being ever consistent in their good fielding , their good batting , and their good bowling. It maybe stated without fear of contradiction that the last Australian team workedto- gether almost as well as any piece of complicated machinery -each man fitting into, and performing the duties of, his position ; each manworking out the duties of his particular post, and yet having an eye to the symmetry of the entire organism . In no department of the gamedid this wonderful team show moreproficiency than in that of fast-bowling. The name of Spofforth has become a familar term, not so much because that distinguished bowler scored one or two marked successes , as that his bowling was almost always consist- ently successful , and that more especially , his greatest feats were performed onthe most critical and opportune circumstances . N ocricketer has shown so conclusively the far-reaching importance of good fast-bowling , and no one, certainly , has proved himself a more plucky , a more energetic , and a more uniformly steady bowler. The possibilities of fast-bowling have never before been so markedly insisted upon its value to a team, and its immense power as a factor of loss or gain. It is true , that we, in England, have had our eminent fast-bowlers , but none of these comenear to the 'demon' as a typical specimen of all that a fast bowler is . Spofforth is truly an embodiment of the best qualities of the ideal quick trundler. If it be desired to point out a remarkable instance , under most exciting conditions of time and place , of the surpassing efficiency of really good first -class bowling , one has only to turn to the records of the England v. Australia match , played last summerat the Oval . On that day-surely a red-letter day for all time in the annals of