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THE B OWLER, 
 
 WILLIAM CLARKE, 
 
 The Slow Bowler and SeSy to the All England Eleven. 
 
THE 
 
 CRICKET FIELD: 
 
 ii^ HISTORY AND THE SCIENCE 
 
 CRICKET. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 v 
 
 P. 
 
 " THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC BATTING," 
 
 " RECOLLECTIONS OF COLLEGE DAYS," 
 
 ETC. ETC. 
 
 
 Gaudet aprici gramme camp!. — IIor. 
 
 » ^ "rf'Con^ 
 
 1867 
 
 BOSTON:'^ of Washing' 
 
 MAYHEW & BAKER, 208 WASHINGTON STREET, 
 
 18 5 9. 
 
 ■4 
 
GrV7"/7 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 In nearly all the cricket manuals published in England, we 
 find reference made to William Clarke, whose portrait we have 
 copied from the English edition of " The Cricket Field," but can 
 find no sketch of him. For the following we are indebted to 
 William H. Bray, Esq., the Cricket Editor of " The New York 
 Clipper :" " William Clarke was born at Nottingham, in 1798, 
 and entered the cricketing arena at an early age, in which he 
 was known as the « Slow Bowler of Notts/ He was one of the 
 founders, I believe, of the All England Eleven, and was, for 
 many years, and up to the time of his death, which occurred 
 about a year since, their Secretary. He was not a very brilliant 
 player, but his knowledge and management of the game rendered 
 him eligible for any eleven. His slow bowling sometimes proved 
 very destructive to the best batsmen." 
 
 Boston, Sept. 22, 1859. 
 
UDebkatetr 
 
 TO 
 
 THE MEMBERS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NORTH DEVON CRICKET CLUB, 
 
 BY 
 
 THEIR SINCERE FRIEND, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. 
 
 The following pages are devoted to the history and the science 
 of our National Game. Isaac Walton has added a charm to the 
 Rod and Line ; Col. Hawker to the Dog and the Gun ; and Nim- 
 rod and Harry Hieover to the " Hunting Field ; " but the 
 u Cricket Field" is to this day untrodden ground. We have 
 been long expecting to hear of some chronicler aided and abetted 
 by $he noblemen and gentlemen of the Marylebone Club,— one 
 who should combine, with all the resources of a ready writer, 
 traditionary lore and practical experience. But time is fast 
 thinning the ranks of the veterans. Lord Frederick Beauclerk 
 and the once celebrated player, the Hon, Henry Tufton, after- 
 wards Earl of Thanet, have passed away ; and probably Sparkes, 
 of the Edinburgh Ground, and Mr, John Goldham, hereinafter 
 mentioned, are the only surviving players who have witnessed 
 both the formation and the jubilee of the Marylebone Club, fol- 
 lowing as it has the fortunes of 'the Pavilion and of the enter- 
 prising Thomas Lord, literally through "three removes" and 
 " one fire," from White Conduit Fields to the present Lord's. 
 
 How, then, it will be asked, do we presume to save from 
 oblivion the records of Cricket ? 
 
 As regards the antiquity of the game, our history is the result 
 
 of patient researches in old English literature. As regards its 
 
 changes and chances and the players of olden time, it fortunately 
 
 happens that, some fifteen years ago, we furnished ourselves 
 1* 
 
VI PREFACE, 
 
 with old Nyren's account of the cricketers of his time and the 
 Hambledon Club, and took Bentley's Book of Matches from 
 1786 to 1825 to suggest questions and test the truth of answers, 
 and passed many an interesting hour in Hampshire and Surrey 
 by the peat fires of those villages which reared the Walkers, 
 David Harris, Beldham, Wells, and nearly all of the All Eng- 
 land players of fifty years since. Bennett, Harry Hampton, 
 Beldham, and Sparkes, who first taught us to play, — all men of 
 the last century, — have at various times contributed to our 
 earlier annals ; while Thomas Beagley, for some days our land- 
 lord, the late Mr. Ward, and especially Mr. E. H. Budd, often 
 our antagonist in Lansdown matches, have respectively assisted 
 in the first twenty years of the present century. 
 
 But distinct mention must we make of one most important 
 chronicler, whose recollections were coextensive with the whole 
 history of the game in its matured and perfect form — William 
 Pennex. And here we must thank our kind friend, the Rev. 
 John Mitford, of Benhall, for his memoranda of many a winter's 
 evening with that fine old player, — papers especially valuable 
 because Fennex's impressions were so distinct, and his observa- 
 tion so correct, that, added to his practical illustrations both 
 with bat and ball, no other man could so truthfully enable us 
 to compare ancient with modern times. Old Fennex, in his 
 declining years, was hospitably appointed by Mr. Mitford to a 
 sinecure office, created expressly in his honor, in the beautiful 
 gardens of Benhall; and Pilch, and Box and Bailey, and all his 
 old acquaintance, will not be surprised to hear that the old man 
 would carefully water and roll his little cricket- ground on sum- 
 mer mornings, and on wet and wintry days would sit in the 
 chimney-corner, dealing over and over again by the hour, to an 
 imaginary partner, a very dark and dingy pack of cards, and 
 would then sally forth to teach a long-remembered lesson to 
 some hob -nailed frequenter of the village ale-house. 
 
 Some amateurs no doubt there are who could add or replace 
 
PREFACE. Vil 
 
 many a link in our chain of history ; and, if they will kindly 
 come forward, we will thankfully avail ourselves' of their assist- 
 ance in future editions. By such collective information we 
 may gradually build up a full and satisfactory history of our 
 game. For the present we disdain not to offer our work to the 
 lovers of Cricket as an outline to fill up, or as a series of pigeon- 
 holes for general contributions. 
 
 So much for the History : but why should we venture on the 
 Science of the game ? 
 
 Many may be excellently qualified, and have a fund of anec- 
 dote and illustration, still not one of the many will venture on a 
 book. Hundreds play without knowing principles ; many know 
 what they cannot explain ; and some could explain, but fear the 
 certain labor and cost, with the most uncertain return, of author- 
 ship. For our own part, we have felt our way. The wide cir- 
 culation of our " Recollections of College Days " and " Course 
 of English Reading" promises a patient hearing on subjects 
 within our proper sphere ; and that in this sphere lies Cricket, 
 we may without vanity presume to assert. For, in August last, 
 at Mr. Dark's Repository at Lord's, our little Treatise on the 
 "Principles of Scientific Batting" (Slatter : Oxford, 1835) was 
 singled out as "the book that contained as much on Cricket as 
 all that had ever been written, and more besides." The same 
 character we find given to it in Blaine's "Encyclopaedia of 
 Rural Sports." That same day did we proceed to arrange with 
 Messrs. Longman, naturally desirous to lead a second advance 
 movement, as we led the first, and to break the spell which we 
 had thus been assured, had, for fifteen years, chained down the* 
 invention of literary cricketers at the identical point where we 
 left off; for not a single rule or principle has yet been published 
 in advance of our own; though more than one author has 
 adopted (thinking, no doubt, the parents were dead) our ideas, 
 and language too ! 
 
 " Shall we ever make new books," asks Tristram Shandy, 
 
" as apothecaries make new mixtures, by pouring only out of 
 one vessel into another?" 
 
 Common modesty should have suggested to such authors the 
 example of gipsies, who, when they steal a horse, at least pay 
 the owner the compliment of cropping the mane and tail. And, 
 in this, no one will suspect us of making any allusion to Mr. 
 Felix. "We could no more boast a resemblance to his book than 
 to his play ; indeed, we both play left-handed, while we write 
 "like other folk." "Great men have the same ideas," though 
 we wrote first; and, if "the force of genius could no further 
 go," and our sails first took the wind, who could help it ? And 
 now we may run parallel without meeting, except — and we care 
 not how often — in the cricket field ; for our respective designs 
 are now wholly different. Mr. Felix attempts but a segment: 
 we would comprehend the whole circle. He addresses the 
 initiated: we bend to "the meanest capacity; steering, how- 
 ever, a middle course, that the learner may not find us too deep? 
 nor the learned too shallow. The plain and palatable is pro- 
 vided for the young people, though a few things more highly 
 seasoned appeared only a proper compliment to the old. 
 
 Like solitary travellers from unknown lands, we are naturally 
 desirous to offer some confirmation of statements, depending 
 otherwise too much on our literary honor. We, happily, have 
 received the following from — we believe the oldest player of 
 the day that can be pronounced a good player still — Mr. E. H. 
 Budd :— 
 
 "I return the proof sheets of the History of my Cotemporaries, 
 and can truly say that they do indeed remind me of old times. 
 I find one thing only to correct, which I hope you will be in 
 time to alter, for your accuracy will then, to the best of my 
 belief, be wholly without exception : — write twenty guineas, and 
 not twenty-five, as the sum offered, by old Thomas Lord, if any 
 one should hit out of his ground where now is Dorset Square. 
 
 "You invite me to note further particulars for your second 
 
edition : the only omission I can at present detect is this, — the 
 name of Lord George Kerr, son of the Marquis of Lothian, 
 should be added to your list of the Patrons of the Old Surrey 
 Players ; for his lordship lived in the midst of them at Farnham, 
 and I have often heard Beldham say, used to provide bread and 
 cheese and beer for as many as would come out and practise on 
 a summer's evening : this is too substantial a supporter of the 
 Noble Game to be forgotten." 
 
 We must not conclude without grateful acknowledgments to 
 some distinguished amateurs representing the science both of 
 the northern and the southern counties, who have kindly 
 allowed us to compare notes on various points of play. In all 
 of our instructions in batting, we have greatly benefited by the 
 assistance, in the first instance, of Mr. A. Bass, of Burton, and 
 his friend Mr. Whateley, a gentleman who truly understands 
 "Philosophy in Sport." Then the Hon. Robert Grimston judi- 
 ciously suggested some modification of our plan. "We agreed 
 with him that, for a popular work, and one "for play hours," 
 the lighter parts should prevail over the heavier, for, with most 
 persons, a little science goes a long way, and, if made too 
 weighty, our "winged words" might not fly far; seeing, as 
 said Thucydides,* "men do find it such a bore to learn any 
 thing that gives them trouble." For these reasons we drew 
 more largely on our funds of anecdote and illustration, which 
 had been greatly enriched by the contributions of a most valued 
 correspondent Mr. E. S. E. Hartopp, and Mr. C. G. Merewether. 
 Captain Cheslyn did our cause good service in other ways. 
 When thus the science of batting had been reduced to its fair 
 proportions, it was happily undertaken by the Hon. Frederick 
 Ponsonby, not only through kindness to ourselves personally, 
 but also, we feel assured, because he takes a pleasure in protect- 
 ing the interests of the rising generation. By his advice we 
 
 * B. i. c. 20. 
 
became more distinct in our explanations, and particularly care- 
 ful of venturing on such refinements of science as, though sound 
 in theory, may possibly produce errors in practice. 
 
 " Tantce molis erat Cricetanum condere Campum." 
 
 For our artist we have one word to say : we allude to the 
 illustrations of attitudes. In vain did our artist assure us that 
 a fore- shortened position would defy every attempt at ease, 
 energy, or elegance ; and that, as a batsman looks better in any 
 point of view than as seen by the bowler, no drawings from such 
 a position could be satisfactory. Still, we were bound to insist 
 on sacrificing, if necessary, the effect of the picture to its utility 
 as an illustration. The figures, pp. 132 and 151 will prove how 
 much more effective is a side view. Our principal design is to 
 show the position of the feet and bat with regard to the wicket, 
 and how every hit, with one exception, the Cut, is made by no 
 other change of attitude than results from the movement of the 
 left foot alone. 
 
 J. P. 
 
 Barnstaple, 
 April 15th, 1851. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Page 
 Origin of the Game of Cricket 13 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 The General Character of Cricket 25 
 
 chap. in. 
 
 The Hambledon Club and the Old Players 41 
 
 ' CHAP. IY. 
 
 Cricket generally established as a National Game by the end 
 of the last Century 55 
 
 CHAP. Y. 
 
 The First Twenty Years of the present Century 78 
 
 CHAP. Yl. 
 
 A dark Chapter in the History of Cricket 92 
 
 CHAP. YEI. 
 The Science and Art of Batting 102 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Hints against Slow Bowling , . „ . 162 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 Bowling.— An Hour with " Old Clarke " 172 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 Hints on Fielding .. 183 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 Chapter of Accidents. — Miscellaneous 204 
 
THE CEICKET FIELD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE GAME OF CEICKET. 
 
 The Game of Cricket, in some rude form, is undoubt- 
 edly as old as the thirteenth century. But whether at 
 that early date Cricket was the name it generally bore 
 is quite another question. For Club-Ball we believe to 
 be the name which usually stood for Cricket in the 
 thirteenth century ; though, at the same time, we have 
 some curious evidence that the term Cricket at that 
 early period was also known. But the identity of the 
 game with that now in use is the chief point ; the 
 name is of secondary consideration. Games commonly 
 change their names, and, as every schoolboy knows, 
 bear different appellations in different places. 
 
 Nevertheless, all previous writers acquiescing quietly 
 in the opinion of Strutt, in his " Sports and Pastimes/' 
 not only forget that Cricket may be older than its name, 
 but erroneously suppose that the name of Cricket 
 occurs in no author in the English language earlier 
 
14 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 than Thomas D'Urfey, who, in his Ci Pills to purge 
 Melancholy," writes thus : — 
 
 "Her was the prettiest fellow 
 At foot-ball and at Cricket; 
 At hunting chase or nimble race 
 How featly her could prick it." 
 
 The words " How featly " Strutt properly writes in 
 place of a revolting old-fashioned oath in the original. 
 
 Strutt, therefore, in these lines, quotes the word 
 Cricket as first occurring in 1710. 
 
 About the same date Pope wrote, — 
 
 "The Judge to dance his brother Sergeants call, 
 The Senators at Cricket urge the ball." 
 
 And Duncome laying, curious to observe, the scene of 
 a match near Canterbury, wrote, — 
 
 "An ill-timed Cricket Match there did 
 At Bishops-bourne befal." 
 
 Soame Jenyns, also, early in the same century, wrote 
 in lines that showed that cricket was very much of a 
 " sporting " amusement : — 
 
 "England, when once of peace and wealth possessed, 
 Began to think frugality a jest ; 
 So grew polite: hence all her well-bred heirs 
 Gamesters and jockeys turned, and cricket-players." 
 
 Ep. I. b. ii., init. 
 
ORIGIN OF THE GAME. 15 
 
 However, we are happy to say that even among 
 comparatively modern authors we have beaten Strutt 
 in his researches by twenty-five years ; for Edward 
 Phillips, John Milton's nephew, in his " Mysteries of 
 Love and Eloquence," (8vo. 1685), writes thus : — 
 
 "Wijl you not, when you have me, throw stocks at 
 my head and cry, ' Would my eyes had been beaten 
 out of my head with a cricket-hall the day before I saw 
 thee?'" 
 
 A late author has very sensibly remarked that the 
 game could not have been popular in the days of 
 Elizabeth, or we should expect to find allusions to 
 cricket, as to tennis, football, and other sports, in the 
 early poets ; but, he says, Shakspeare and the dramatists 
 who followed are silent on the subject. 
 
 The silence of the early poets and dramatists as to 
 the game of cricket — and no one conversant with 
 English literature would expect to find it except in 
 some casual allusion or illustration in an old play — 
 we can confirm on the best authority. It would seem 
 bold to say that the early dramatists are, one and all, 
 silent on the game of cricket. How bold a negative ! 
 So rare are certain old plays that a hundred pounds 
 have been paid by the Duke of Devonshire for a single 
 play of a few loose and soiled leaves ; and shall we 
 pretend to have dived among such hidden stores ? We 
 are so fortunate ,as to be favored with the assistance of 
 the Rev. John Milford and our loving cousin John 
 
16 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 Payne Collier, two English scholars, most deeply versed 
 in early literature, and no bad judges of cricket ; and 
 since these two scholars have never met with any 
 mention of cricket in the early dramatists, nor in any 
 author earlier than 1685, there is, indeed, much reason 
 to believe that "Cricket" is a word that does not occur 
 in any English author before 1685. 
 
 But though not in any English author, does it occur 
 in no document yet unpublished ? We shall see. 
 
 Now as regards the silence of the early poets, a game 
 like cricket might certainly exist without falling in with 
 the descriptions or topics of those writers. But if we 
 actually find distinct catalogues and enumerations of 
 English games before the date of 1685, and cricket still 
 omitted, the suspicion that cricket was not then the 
 popular name of one of the many games of ball (not 
 that the game was itself unknown) is strongly con- 
 firmed. 
 
 Three such catalogues do occur ; one in the " Anat-. 
 omy of Melancholy," a second in a well-known treatise 
 of James L, and a third in the " Cotswold Games." 
 
 For the first catalogue, Strutt reminds us of the set 
 of rules from the hand of James I. for the " nurture and 
 conduct of an heir-apparent to the throne," addressed 
 to his eldest son, Henry Prince of Wales, called the 
 BA2IAIKON J SIP ON, or a " Kinge's Christian Dutie 
 towards God." Herein the king forbids gaming and 
 rough play : " As to diceing, I think it become th best 
 
ORIGIN OF THE GAME. 17 
 
 deboshed souldiers to play on the heads of their drums. 
 As to the foote-ball, it is meeter for laming than making 
 able the users thereof." But a special commendation 
 is given to certain games of ball ; " playing at the catch 
 or tennis, palle-malle, and such like other fair and 
 pleasant field-games." Certainly cricket may have been 
 included under the last general expression, though by 
 no means a fashionable game in James's reign. 
 
 For the second catalogue of games, Burton, in his 
 11 Anatomy of Melancholy," " the only book," said Dr. 
 Johnson, " that ever took me out of bed two hours 
 sooner than I wished to rise," — gives a view of the 
 sports most prevalent in the seventeenth century. 
 Here we have a very full enumeration : it specifies the 
 pastimes of " great men," and those of " base, inferior 
 persons ;" it mentions " the rocks on which men lose 
 themselves" by gambling; how "wealth runs away 
 with" their hounds, and their fortunes fly away with 
 their hawks." Then follow " the sights and shows of 
 the Londoners," and the " May-games and recreations 
 of the country folk." More minutely still, Burton 
 speaks of rope-dancers, cock-fights, and other sports 
 common both to town and country ; and though he is 
 so exact as to specify all " winter recreations" separ- 
 ately, and mentions " foot-balls and ballowns," and 
 says, " Let the common people play at ball and barley- 
 brakes," still is there, in all this catalogue, no mention 
 of cricket, 
 
 2* 
 
18 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 As a third catalogue we have the " Cots wold Games," 
 but cricket is not among them. This was an annual 
 celebration which one Captain Dover, by express 
 permission and command of James I., held on the 
 Cotswold Hills, in Gloucestershire. 
 
 Fourthly : cricket is not mentioned in " The 
 Compleat Gamester," published by Charles Browne, 
 in 1709. 
 
 But we have a catalogue of games about the same 
 date, in Stow's " Survey of London," there cricket is 
 mentioned ; but, remarkably enough, it is particularized 
 as one of the amusements of " the lower classes." 
 The whole passage is curious : — 
 
 " The modern sports of the citizens, besides drink- 
 ing (!), are cock-fighting, bowling upon greens, back- 
 gammon, cards, dice, billiards, also musical entertain- 
 ments, dancing, masks, balls, stage-plays, and club- 
 meetings in the evening ; they sometimes ride out on 
 horseback, and hunt with the lord mayor's pack of dogs^, 
 when the common hunt goes on. The lower classes 
 divert themselves at foot-ball, wrestling, cudgels, nine- 
 pins, shovel - board, cricket, stow - ball, ringing of 
 bells, quoits, pitching the bar, bull and bear baitings, 
 throwing at cocks, and lying at ale-houses." (!) 
 
 The mention of one thing is the negation of the 
 other, say the lawyers; and this rule of evidence 
 certainly applies to an omission from three distinct 
 catalogues, and the conclusion that cricket was unknown 
 
ORIGIN OF THE GAME. 19 
 
 when those lists were made would appear inevitable, 
 were it not that in this case the argument would prove 
 too much ; for it would equally prove that club-ball 
 and trap-ball were undiscovered too ; whereas both 
 these games are as old as the thirteenth century. 
 
 The conclusion of all this is, that the oft-repeated 
 assertions that cricket is a game no older than the 
 eighteenth century is erroneous ; for, first, the game 
 itself may be much older than the name by which we 
 know it; and, secondly, the "silence of antiquity" is 
 no conclusive evidence that even the name, Cricket, 
 was really unknown. 
 
 Thus do we refute those who assert a negative as to 
 the antiquity of cricket. Next, for our affirmative, we 
 will show — 
 
 First, that the game of single-wicket was played 
 as early as the thirteenth century, under the name of 
 Club-ball. 
 
 Secondly, that it might have been played at the same 
 time as " Handyn and Handoute." 
 
 Thirdly, that the genuine double-wicket game was 
 played in Scotland about 1700, under the name of 
 " Cat and Dog." 
 
 Fourthly, that " Creag," — very near " Cricce," the 
 Saxon term for the crooked stick, or bandy, which we 
 see in the old pictures of cricket, — was the name of a 
 game played in the year 1300. 
 
 First, as to a single-wicket game in the thirteenth 
 
20 THE CKICKET FIELD. 
 
 century, whatever the name of the said game migut 
 have been, we are quite satisfied with the following 
 proof : — 
 
 " In the Bodleian Library at Oxford," says Strutt, 
 "is a MS. (No. 264,) dated 1344, which represents a 
 figure, a female, in the act of bowling a ball (of the 
 size of a modern cricket-ball) to a man who elevates a 
 straight bat to strike it ; behind the bowler are several 
 figures, male and female, waiting to stop or catch the 
 ball, their attitudes grotesquely eager for a ' chance.' 
 The game is called club-ball, but the score is made by 
 hitting and running, as in cricket." 
 
 Secondly, Barrington, in his remarks on the more 
 ancient statutes, comments on 17 Edw. IV. a. d. 1477, 
 thus : — 
 
 "The. disciplined soldiers were not only guilty of 
 pilfering on their return, but also of the vice of gaming. 
 The third chapter therefore forbids playing at cloish, 
 ragle, half-bowle, quekebord, handyn and handoute. 
 Whosoever shall permit these games to be played in 
 their house or yard is punishable with three years' 
 imprisonment ; those who play at any of the said games 
 are to be fined 10Z., or lie in jail two years. 
 
 "This," says Barrington, " is the most severe law 
 ever made in any country against gaming, and some of 
 those forbidden seem to have been manly exercises, 
 particularly the handyn and handoute, which I should 
 suppose to be a kind of cricket, as the term hands is 
 still (writing in 1740) retained in that game." 
 
OKIGIN OF THE GAME. 21 
 
 : Thirdly, as to the double- wicket game, Dr. Jamieson, 
 in his Dictionary, published in 1722, gives the follow- 
 ing account of a game played in Angus and Lothian : — 
 
 " This is a game for three players at least, who are 
 furnished with clubs. They cut out two holes, each 
 about a foot in diameter and seven inches in depth, and 
 twenty-six feet apart ; one man guards each hole with 
 his club ; these clubs are called Dogs. A piece of 
 wood, about four inches long and one inch in diameter, 
 called a cat, is pitched, by a third person, from one 
 hole towards the player at the other, who is to prevent 
 the cat from getting into the hole. If it pitches in the 
 hole, the party who threw it takes his turn with the 
 club. If the cat be struck, the club-bearers change 
 places, and each change of place counts one to the 
 score, like club ball J 9 
 
 The last observation shows that in the game of club- 
 ball above-mentioned, the score was made by " runs," 
 as in cricket. 
 
 In what respect, then, do these games differ from 
 cricket, as played now ? The only exception that can 
 be taken is to the absence of any wicket. But every 
 one familiar with a paper given by Mr. Ward, and 
 published in " Old Nyren," by the talented Mr. C. 
 Cowden Clarke, — a friend of Charles Lamb, and his 
 style has a genuine savour of " Elia," — will remember 
 that the traditionary " blockhole " was a veritable hole 
 in former times, and that the batsman was made out in 
 
22 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 running, not, as now, but putting down a wicket, but 
 by popping the ball into the bole before the bat was 
 grounded in it, The same paper represents that the 
 wicket was two feet wide, — a width which is only 
 rendered credible by the fact that the said hole was not 
 like our mark for guard, four feet distant from the 
 stumps, but between them ; an arrangement which 
 would require space for the frequent struggle of the 
 batsman and wicket-keeper, as to who should reach the 
 blockhole first. 
 
 The conclusion of all is, that cricket is identical with 
 club-ball, — a game played in the thirteenth century as 
 single- wicket, and played, if not then, later as a double- 
 wicket game ; that where balls were scarce, a Cat, or 
 bit of wood, as seen in many a village, supplied its 
 place ; also that handyn a*nd handoute was probably 
 another name. Fosbroke, in his Dictionary of Anti- 
 quities, said " club-ball was the ancestor of cricket : " 
 he might have said, " club-ball was the old name for 
 cricket, the games being the same." 
 
 The points of difference are not greater than every 
 cricketer can show between the game as now played 
 and that of the last century. 
 
 But, lastly, as to the name of cricket. The bat, 
 which is now straight, is represented in old pictures as 
 crooked, and " cricce " is the simple Saxon word for a 
 crooked stick. The derivation of billiards from the 
 Norman billart, a cue, or from ball-yard, according to 
 Johnson, also ninepins and trapball, are obvious 
 
OKIGIN OF THE GAME. 23 
 
 instances of games which derived their names from 
 the implements with which they are played. Now it 
 appears highly probable, that when a wicket to be 
 bowled down by a rolling ball superseded the blockhole 
 to be pitched into, that the club best suited for a pitch 
 should have given way to the bandy or crooked bat of 
 the last century ; and, if so, the game, which first was 
 named from the club " club-ball," should afterwards 
 be named from the crooked stick " cricket." 
 
 Add to which the game might have been played in 
 two ways, — sometimes more in the form of club-ball, 
 sometimes more like cricket ; and the following remark- 
 able passage proves that a term very similar to cricket 
 was applied to some game as far back as the thirteenth 
 century, the identical date to which we have traced 
 that form of cricket called club-ball and the game of 
 handyn and handoute. 
 
 From the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lviii. p. 1., 
 a. d. 1788, we extract the following : — 
 
 " In the wardrobe account of the 28th year of King 
 Edward the First, a. d. 1300, published in 1787 by 
 the Society of Antiquaries, among the entries of money 
 paid his chaplain, one Mr. John Leek, for the use of 
 his son Prince Edward in playing at different games, is 
 the following : — 
 
 '•' ' Domino Johanni de Leek, capellano Domini 
 Edwardi fil' ad Oreag' et alios ludos per vices, per 
 manus proprias, 100 s. Apud Westm. 10 die Aprilis, 
 1305.'" 
 
24 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 The writer observes, that the glossaries have been 
 searched in vain for any other name of a pastime but 
 cricket to which the term Creag' can apply. 
 
 Creag' and cricket, therefore, being presumed iden- 
 tical, the cricketers of Warwick and of Gloucester may 
 be reminded that they are playing the same game as 
 was played by the dauntless enemy of Robert Bruce, 
 afterwards the prisoner at Kenilworth, and lastly the 
 victim of Mortimer's ruffians in the dark tragedy of 
 Berkeley Castle. 
 
 The same game in later times, we know, has been 
 the pastime and discipline of many an English soldier. 
 Our barracks are now provided with cricket grounds ; 
 every regiment and every man-of-war has its club ; and 
 our soldiers and sailors astonish the natives of every 
 clime, both inland and maritime, with a specimen of a 
 British game : and it deserves to be better known that 
 it was at a cricket match that " some of our officers 
 were amusing themselves on the 12th June, 1815," 
 says Captain Gordon, "in company with that devoted 
 cricketer, the Duke of Richmond, when the Duke of 
 Wellington arrived, and shortly after came the Prince 
 of Orange, which of course put a stop to our game. 
 Though the hero of the Peninsula was not apt to let 
 his movements be known, on this occasion he made 
 no secret that, if he were attacked from the south, 
 Halle would be his position, and, if on the Namur side, 
 Waterloo.' ' 
 
25 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 
 
 The game of cricket, philosophically considered, is a 
 standing panegyric on the English character ; none 
 but an orderly and sensible race of people would so 
 amuse themselves. It calls into requisition all the 
 cardinal virtues, some moralist would say. As with 
 the Grecian games of old, the player must be sober and 
 temperate. Patience, fortitude, and self-denial, the 
 various bumps of order, obedience, and good humour, 
 with an unruffled temper, are indispensable. For 
 intellectual virtues we want judgment, decision, and 
 the organ of concentrativeness — every faculty in the 
 free use of all its limbs — and every idea in constant 
 air and exercise. Poor, rickety, and stunted wits will 
 never serve : the widest shoulders are of little use 
 without a head upon them : the cricketer wants wits 
 down to his fingers' ends. As to physical qualifi- 
 cations, we require not only the volatile spirits of the 
 Irishman Rampant, nor the phlegmatic caution of the 
 Scotchman Couchant, but we want the English combi- 
 nation of the two ; though, with good generalship* 
 
26 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 cricket is a game for Britons generally : the three 
 nations would mix not better in a regiment than an 
 eleven ; especially if the Hibernian were trained in 
 London, and taught to enjoy something better than 
 what has been termed his supreme felicity, " Otium 
 cum dig-gin- taties." From the southern and south- 
 eastern counties of England the game spread — not a 
 little owing to the Propaganda of the metropolitan 
 clubs, which played chiefly first at the Artillery Ground, 
 then at White Conduit Fields, and lastly at Lord's, 
 as well as latterly at the Oval, Kennington, and on all 
 sides of London — through all the southern half of 
 England ; and during these last twenty years the 
 northern counties, and even Edinburgh, have sent forth 
 distinguished players. But considering that the com- 
 plement of the game is twenty-two men, besides two 
 umpires and two scorers ; and considering also that 
 cricket, unlike every other manly contest, by flood or 
 field, occupies commonly more than one day ; the 
 railways, as might be expected, have tended wonder- 
 fully to the diffusion of cricket, — giving rise to clubs 
 depending on a circle of some thirty or forty miles, as 
 also to that club in particular under the canonized 
 saint, John Zingari, into whom are supposed to have 
 migrated all the erratic spirits of the gipsy tribe. The 
 Zingari are a race of ubiquitous cricketers, exclusively 
 gentlemen-players ; for cricket affords to a race of 
 professionals a merry and abundant, though rather a 
 
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 27 
 
 laborious livelihood, from the time that the May-fly is 
 up to the time the first pheasant is down. Neither 
 must we forget the All England Eleven, who, under 
 the generalship of Mr. Clarke of Nottingham, play 
 numbers varying from sixteen to twenty- two in almost 
 every country in England ; and so proud are the clubs 
 of the honour that, besides a subscription of some 70Z., 
 and part or all of the money at the field-gate, being* 
 willingly accorded for their services, much hospitality 
 is exercised wherever they go. This tends to a healthy 
 circulation of the life's blood of cricket, vaccinating 
 and inoculating every wondering rustic with the princi- 
 ples of the national game. Our soldiers, we said, by 
 order of the Horse Guards, are provided with cricket- 
 grounds adjoining their barracks ; and all of her 
 Majesty's ships have bats and balls to astonish the 
 cockroaches at sea, and the crabs and turtles ashore. 
 Hence it has come to pass that, wherever her Majesty's 
 servants have " carried their victorious arms " and 
 legs, wind and weather permitting, cricket has been 
 played. Still the game is essentially Anglo-Saxon. 
 Foreigners have rarely, very rarely, imitated us. The 
 English settlers and residents everywhere play ; but of 
 no single cricket club have we ever heard dieted either 
 with frogs, sour crout, or macaroni. But how remark- 
 able that cricket is not naturalized in Ireland ! the fact 
 is very striking that it follows the course rather of ale 
 than whiskey. Witness Kent, the land of hops, and 
 
28 THE CBICKET FIELD. 
 
 the annual antagonists of "All England." Secondly, 
 Parnham, which, as we shall presently show, with its 
 adjoining parishes, nurtured the finest of the old 
 players, as well as the finest hops, — cundbula Trojce, 
 the infant school of cricketers. Witness also the 
 Burton Clubs, assisted by our excellent friend next 
 akin to bitter ale. Witness again Alton ale, on which 
 old Beagley throve so well, and the Scotch ale of 
 Edinburgh, on which John Sparkes, though commenc- 
 ing with the last generation, has carried on his instruc- 
 tions, in which we ourselves once rejoiced, into the 
 middle of the present century. The mountain mists 
 and " mountain dew " suit better with deer stalking 
 than with cricket : our game disdains the Dutch cour- 
 age of ardent spirits. The brain must glow with 
 nature's fire, and not depend upon a spirit lamp. 
 Mens sana in corpore sano : feed the body, but do not 
 cloud the mind. You, sir, with the hectic flush, the 
 fire of your eyes burnt low in their sockets, with beak 
 as sharp as a woodcock's from living upon suction, 
 with pallid face and shaky hand, — our game disdains 
 such ghostlike votaries. Rise with the lark and scent 
 the morning air, and drink from the bubbling rill, and 
 then, when your veins are no longer fevered with 
 alcohol, nor puffed with tobacco smoke, — when you 
 have rectified your illicit spirits and clarified your un- 
 settled judgment, — "come again and devour up my 
 discourse." And you, sir, with the figure of Falstaff 
 
GENERAL CHARACTER OE CRICKET. 29 
 
 and the nose of Bardolf, — not Christianly eating that 
 you may live, but living that you may eat, — -one of the 
 nati consumere fruges, the devouring caterpillar and 
 grub of human kind : our noble game has no sympathy 
 with gluttony, still less with the habitual " diner-out," 
 on whom outraged nature has taken vengeance, by 
 emblazoning what was his face (minium ne crede colori,) 
 encasing each limb in fat, and condemning him to be 
 his own porter to the end of his days. " Then I am 
 your man — and I — and I," cry a crowd of self-satisfied 
 youths ; " sound are we in wind and limb, and none 
 have quicker hand or eye." Gently, my friends, so 
 far well ; good hands and eyes are instruments indis- 
 pensable, but only instruments. There is a wide differ- 
 ence between a good workman and a bag of tools, 
 however sharp. We must have head as well as hands- 
 You may be big enough and strong enough, but the 
 question is whether, as Virgil says, 
 
 " Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus 
 Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet," 
 
 And in these lines Virgil truly describes the right sort 
 
 of man for a cricketer: plenty of life in him: not 
 
 barely soul enough, as Robert South said, to keep his 
 
 body from putrefaction ; but, however large his stature, 
 
 though he weigh twenty stone, like (we will not say 
 
 Mr. Mynn),,but an olden wicket-keeper, named Burt, 
 
 or a certain infant genius in the same line, of good 
 3* 
 
30 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 Cambridge town, — he must, like these worthies afore- 
 said, have nous in perfection, and be instinct with 
 sense all over. Then, says Virgil, igneus est ollis vigor ; 
 " they must always have the steam up," otherwise the 
 bard would have agreed with us, they are no good in 
 an Eleven, because— 
 
 " Noxia corpora tardant 
 Terrenique hebetant artus, moribundaque membra ; " 
 
 that is, you must suspend the laws of gravitation before 
 they can stir, — dull clods of the valley, and so many 
 stone of carrion ; and then Virgil proceeds to describe 
 the discipline to render those who suffer the penalties 
 of idleness or intemperance fit to join the chosen few in 
 the cricket-field : 
 
 " Exinde per amplum 
 Mittimur Elysium et pauci Iceta arva tenemus," 
 
 Superfluous were it to make any apology for classi- 
 cal quotations ; above all when the English is ap- 
 pended. At the Universities, cricket and scholarship 
 very generally go together. When, in 1836, we 
 played victoriously on the side of Oxford against Cam- 
 bridge, seven out of our eleven were classmen, and it is 
 doubtless only to avoid an invidious distinction that 
 " Heads v. Heels," as was once suggested, has failed to 
 be an annual University match ; the seri studiorum 
 — those put to school late — would not have a chance. 
 From all this we argue that, on the authority of 
 
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 31 
 
 ancient and the experience of modern times, cricket 
 was mind as well as matter, and, in every sense of trie 
 word, a good understanding. How is it that Clarke's 
 slow bowling is so successful ? Ask Bayley or Calde- 
 court ; or say Bayley's own bowling, or that of Lilly- 
 white, or others not much indebted to pace. " You 
 see, sir, they bowl with their heads." Then only is 
 the game worthy the notice of full-grown men. "A 
 rubber of whist," says the author of the " Diary of a 
 •Late Physician," in his " Law Studies," " calls into 
 requisition all those powers of mind that a barrister 
 most needs ; " and nearly as much may be said of a 
 • scientific game of cricket. Mark that first-rate bowler ; 
 the batsman is hankering for his favorite cut — no — leg 
 stump is attacked again — extra man on leg side — right 
 — that's the spot — leg stump, and not too near him. 
 He is screwed up, and cannot cut away ; Point has it 
 — persevere — -try again — his patience soon will fail. 
 Ah, look at that ball ; the bat was more out of the 
 perpendicular — now the bowler alters his pace — good. 
 A dropping ball — over-reached and all but a mistake ; 
 now a slower pace still, with extra twist — hits furiously 
 to leg, too soon. Leg-stump is grazed, and bail off. 
 «' You see, sir," says the veteran, turning round, " a 
 man has no room to cut from leg-stump — is more apt 
 to hit across from leg-stump — is often caught from leg- 
 stump ; even " leg before wicket " comes from leg- 
 stump — gets off his ground from leg-stump, and cannot 
 
32 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 stop so readily from leg-stump — so keep on at leg- 
 stump with an imperfect player. It wants a very long- 
 headed player ; aye, and one of steady habits, the result 
 of long experience in all the chances of the game, to 
 remain steady ball after ball. An old player, who 
 knows what is and what is not on the ball, alone 
 can resist all the temptations that leg-balls involve. 
 Young players are going their round of experiments, 
 and are too fond of admiration and brilliant hits ; where- 
 as it is your upright straight players that worry a* 
 bowler — twenty-two inches of wood, by four and a 
 quarter — every inch of them before the stumps, hitting 
 or blocking, is ra-ther disheartening ; but the moment 
 a man makes ready for a leg hit, the bat points to Slip 
 instead of to bails, and only about five inches -by four 
 of wood can cover the wicket ; so leg-hitting is the 
 bowler's chance : cutting also for a similar reason. If 
 there were no such thing as leg-hitting, we should see 
 a full bat every time, the man steady on his legs, and 
 only one thing to think of; and what a task a bowler 
 would have. That was Mr. Ward's play — good for 
 something to the last. First-rate straight play and 
 free leg-hitting seldom last long together: when once 
 exulting in the luxurious excitement of a leg-volley, 
 the muscles are always on the quiver to swipe round, 
 and the bowler sees the bat raised more and more 
 across wicket. So, also, it is with men who are yearn- 
 ing for a cut — forming for the cut like forming for leg- 
 
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 33 
 
 hit, aye, and almost the idea of those hits coming 
 across the mind, set the muscles off straight play, and , 
 give the bowler a chance. There is a deal of head- 
 work in bowling: once make your batsman set his 
 mind on one hit, and give him a ball requiring the con- 
 trary, and he is off his guard in a moment.' ' 
 
 " Lilly white," said a first-rate Cambridge mathe- 
 matician and cricketer who knew him well, " has a 
 mind that would have made him eminent in many posi- 
 tions in life. The game, when he plays it, is very 
 often the bowler's head and hands against the batman's 
 hands alone. Of course, the old professional players 
 at last have learnt all his manoeuvres : but then it is 
 no small praise to him that they have had to learn it ; 
 and he has raised the standard of batting, and remained 
 a first-rate bowler nearly half a century. It will easily 
 be understood, therefore, that there is something 
 highly intellectual in our noble and national pastime. 
 But the cricketer must possess certain qualifications, not 
 only physical and intellectual, but moral qualifications 
 also ; but of what avail is the mind to design, and the 
 hand to execute, if a sulky temper paralyzes his exer- 
 tions, and throws a damp upon the field ; or if impa- 
 tience dethrones judgment, and the man hits across at 
 good balls, because loose balls are long in coming ; or, 
 again, if a contentious and imperious disposition leaves 
 the cricketer all ' alone in his glory,' voted the pest of 
 every eleven." 
 
34 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 The pest of the hunting-field is the man always 
 •thinking of his own horse and own riding, galloping 
 against men and not after dogs. The pest of the 
 cricket-field is the man who bores you about his aver- 
 age — his wickets — his catches ; and looks blue, even 
 at the success of his own party. If unsuccessful in 
 batting or fielding, he " shuts up " — " the wretch con- 
 centred all in self." No ! Give me the man who for- 
 gets himself in the game, and, missing a ball, does not 
 stop to exculpate himself by dumb show, but rattles 
 away after it — who does not blame his partner when 
 he is run out — who plays like play, and not like earn- 
 est — who can say good-humoredly, " runs enough I 
 hope without mine." If such a man makes a score, 
 players remark on all sides, " Our friend deserves luck 
 for his good-humor and true spirit of the game." 
 
 Add to all this, perseverance and self-denial, and a 
 soul above vain glory and the applause of the vulgar. 
 Aye, perseverance in well-doing, — perseverance in a 
 straight-forward, upright and consistent course of ac- 
 tion. — See that player practising apart from the rest. 
 What an unpretending style of play — a hundred pounds 
 appears to depend on every ball — not a hit for these 
 five minutes — see, he has a shilling on his stumps, and 
 Hillyer is doing his best to knock it off. A question 
 asked after every ball, the bowler being constantly in- 
 vited to remind him of the least inaccuracy in hitting 
 or danger in defence. The other players are hitting all 
 
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 35 
 
 over the field, making every one (but a good judge) 
 marvel. Our friend's reward is that in the first good 
 match, when some supposed brilliant Mr. Dashwood 
 has been stumped from leg ball — (he cannot make his 
 fine hits in his ground) — bowled by a shooter or 
 caught by that sharpest of all Points, "Jval avdgwv 
 see our persevering friend — ball after ball dropping 
 harmless from his bat, till ever and anon a single or a 
 double are safely played away — two figures are ap- 
 pended to his name ; and Caldecourfc, as he puts the 
 bails on, remarks, " We' ve some good cricket this 
 morning, gentlemen." 
 
 Conceit in a cricketer, as in other things, is a bar to 
 all improvement — the vain-glorious is always thinking 
 of the lookers-on instead of the game, and generally is 
 condemned to live on the reputation of one skying leg- 
 hit, or some twenty runs off three or four overs (his 
 merriest life is a short one) for half a season. 
 
 In one word, there is no game in which amiability 
 and an unruffled temper is so essential to success, or 
 in which virtue is rewarded half as much as in the 
 game of cricket. Dishonest or shuffling ways cannot 
 prosper ; the umpires will foil every such attempt — 
 those truly constitutional judges, bound by a code of 
 written laws — and the public opinion of a cricket club, 
 militates against his preferment. For cricket is a 
 social game. Could a cricketer play a solo, or with a 
 dummy (other than the catapult), he might play in 
 humor or out of humor ; but an Eleven is of the nature 
 
36 THE CRICKET FIELD 
 
 of those commonwealths of which Cicero said, that 
 without some regard to the cardinal virtues, they could 
 not possibly hold together. 
 
 The game of cricket — would that all men would re- 
 member ! — -is' truly a game — a recreation; so away with 
 pettish words and sombre looks. " If it's play, why 
 look so serious and unhappy ? " said a lady once in our 
 hearing ; and added, with that fine discernment in 
 which ladies so much excel, " cricket never appears to 
 me so honestly a game of play as when Mr. Charles 
 Taylor holds the bat — every movement is so easy, the 
 whole field is made alive, and his style and appearance 
 so joyous." 
 
 Cricket is not solely a game of skill — chance has 
 sway enough to leave the vanquished an if and a hut. 
 A long innings bespeaks good play ; but " out the 
 first ball " is no disgrace. A game, to be really a 
 game, really playful, should admit of chance as well as 
 skill. It is the bane of chess that its character is too 
 severe. — to lose its games is to lose your character ; 
 and, most painful of all, to be outwitted in a fair and 
 undeniable contest of long-headedness, tact, manoeuv- 
 ring, and common sense — qualities in which no man 
 likes to come off second best. There stand the same 
 mechanical pieces alike for both: the sole difference 
 consists in the mind of the player. Hence the restless 
 nights and unforgiving state of mind that has so often 
 followed one checkmate. Hence that " agony of rage 
 
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 37 
 
 and disappointment from which," said Sydney Smith, 
 
 14 the Bishop of broke my head with a chess-board 
 
 fifty years ago at college." 
 
 But did we say that ladies, famed as some have been 
 in the hunting-field, know anything of cricket too ? 
 Not often ; though I could have mentioned two, — the 
 wife and daughter of the late William Ward, all 
 three now no more, who could tell you, — the daughter 
 especially — the forte and the failing of every player at 
 Lord's. I accompanied them home one evening to see 
 some records of the game, to their humble abode in 
 Connaught Terrace, where many an ornament reminded 
 me of the former magnificence of the Member for the 
 City, the Bank Director, and the great Russia merchant, 
 when in his mansion in the then not unfashionable 
 Bloomsbury Square, the banqueting room of which 
 many a Wykehamist has cause to remember ; for when 
 famed, as they were, for the quickest and best of field- 
 ing, the Wykehamists had won their annual match at 
 Lord's, and twenty years since they but rarely lost, Mr. 
 Ward would bear away triumphantly the winners to end 
 the dry with him. But talking of the ladies, to say 
 nothing of Miss Wills, who invented over-hand bowling, 
 their natural powers of criticism, if honestly consulted, 
 would, we think, tell some home truths to a certain 
 class of players who seem to forget that to be a cricketer 
 he must be still a man ; and that a manly, graceful style 
 of play is worth something, independently of effect on 
 4 
 
38 THE CKICKET FIELD. 
 
 the score. Take the case of the Skating Club. Will 
 they elect a man because, in spite of arms and legs cen- 
 trifugally flying, he can do some tricks of a posture-mas- 
 ter, however wonderful ? No ! elegance in simple move- 
 ments is the first thing : without elegance nothing counts. 
 And so should it be with cricket. I have seen men, ac- 
 counted players, quite as bad as some of the cricketers 
 in Mr. Pips's diary. " Pray, Lovell," I once heard, 
 "have I the right guard?" " Guard indeed! Yes! 
 keep on looking as ugly and as awkward as you are now, 
 and no man in England can bowl for fright ! " Apropos, 
 one of the first hints in archery is, " don't make faces 
 when you pull your bow." Now we do seriously 
 entreat those young ladies into whose hands this book 
 may fall to profess, on our authority, that they are 
 judges of the game as far as appearance goes ; and also 
 that they will quiz, banter, tease, lecture, never-leave- 
 alone, and otherwise plague and worry all such brothers 
 or husbands as they shall see enacting these anatomical 
 contortions, which too often disgrace the game of 
 cricket. 
 
 Cricket, we said, is a game chiefly of skill, but partly 
 of chance. Skill avails enough for interest, and not too 
 much for friendly feeling. No game is played in better 
 humor — never lost till won — the game 's alive till the 
 last ball. True it is that certain evil-disposed persons 
 will sometimes leave all proper feelings behind them ; 
 and, if conceited of their own play, or bent on mortifying 
 
GENERAL CHARACTER OF CRICKET. 39 
 
 their adversaries, " angry passions rise," none can won- 
 der. But for the most part there is so little to ruffle the 
 temper, or to cause unpleasant collision, that there is 
 no place so free from temptation — no such happy plains 
 or lands of innocence — as our cricket fields. We give 
 bail for our good behavior from the moment that we 
 enter them. Still is a cricket-field a sphere of whole- 
 some discipline in obedience and good order; not to 
 mention that manly spirit that faces danger without 
 shrinking, and bears disappointment with good nature. 
 Disappointment ! and say where is there more poignant 
 disappointment, while it lasts, than after all your prac- 
 tice for a match, and anxious thought and" resolution 
 to avoid every chance, and score off every possible ball, 
 to be balked and run out, caught at the slip, or stumped 
 even off' a shooter. "The course of true love (even for 
 cricket) never did run smooth." Old Robinson, one of 
 the finest batsmen of his day, had six unlucky innings 
 in succession ; once caught by Hammond, from a draw ; 
 then bowled with shooters, or picked up at short slip, 
 the poor fellow said he had lost all his play, thinking 
 " the fault is in ourselves, and not our stars ; " and 
 was with difficulty persuaded to play one match more, 
 in which — whose heart does not rejoice to hear? — he 
 made one hundred and thirty runs. 
 
 "But as to stirring excitement," writes a friend, 
 " what can surpass a hardly contested match when you 
 have been manfully playing an up-hill game, and grad- 
 ually the figures on the telegraph keep telling a better 
 
40 THE CRICKET FIELD, 
 
 and a better tale, till at last the scorers stand up and 
 proclaim a tie, and you win the game by a single and 
 rather a nervous wicket, or by five or ten runs." If in 
 the field with a match of this sort, and trying hard to 
 prevent these few runs being knocked off by the last 
 wickets, I know of no excitement so intense for the 
 time, or which lasts so long afterwards. The recollec- 
 tion of these critical moments will make the heart jump 
 for years and years to come ; and it is extraordinary to 
 see the delight with which men call up these grand mo- 
 ments to memory ; and to be sure how they will talk 
 and chatter, their eyes glistening and pulses getting 
 quicker, as if they were again finishing " that rattling 
 good match." People talk of the excitement of a good 
 run with the Quorn or Belvoir hunt. I have now and 
 then tumbled in for these good things ; and, as far as 
 my own feelings go, I can safely say that a fine run is 
 not to be compared to a good match ; and the excite- 
 ment of the keenest sportsman is nothing either in 
 intensity or duration to that caused by a " near thing " 
 at cricket. The next good run takes the place of the 
 other ; whereas hard matches, like the snow-ball, gather 
 as they go. " This is my decided opinion ; and that, 
 after watching and weighing the subject for some years. 
 I have seen men tremble and turn pale at a near match, 
 while through the field the deepest and most awful 
 silence reigns, unbroken but by some nervous fieldsman 
 humming a tune, or snapping his fingers, to hide his 
 agitation." 
 
41 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 THE HAMBLETON CLUB AND THE OLD PLAYEBS. 
 
 What have become of the old scores and the earliest 
 records of the game of cricket ? Bentley's Book of 
 Matches gives the principal games from the year 1786 ; 
 but where are the earlier records of matches made by 
 Dehany, Paulett, and Sir Horace Mann ? All burnt ! 
 
 What the destruction of Rome and its records by 
 the Gauls was to Niebuhr, — what the fire of London 
 was to the antiquary in his walk from Pudding Lane . 
 to Pie Corner, such was the burning of the Pavilion at 
 Lord's, and all the old score books — it is a mercy that 
 the old painting of the M. C. C. was saved — to the 
 annalist of cricket. " When we were built out by 
 Dorset Square," says Mr. E. H. Budd, " we played 
 for three years where the Regent's Canal has since 
 been cut, and still called our ground " Lord's," and 
 our dining-room " the Pavilion." Here many a time 
 have I looked over the old papers of Dehany and Sir 
 H. Mann ; but the room was burnt, and the old scores 
 perished in the flames. 
 4* 
 
42 
 
 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 The following are curious as the oldest scores preser- 
 ved, — one of the north, the other of the South : — - 
 
 NAMES OF THE PERSONS WHO PLAYED AGAINST 
 SHEFFIELD. 
 
 In 1771 at Nottingham, and 1772 at Shefield. 
 
 Nottingham, Aug. 26, 1771 
 
 
 Sheffield June 1, 1772. 
 
 Huthwayte 
 
 
 Coleman 
 
 Turner 
 
 
 Turner 
 
 Loughman 
 
 
 Loughman 
 
 Coleman 
 
 
 Roe 
 
 Roe 
 
 
 Spurs 
 
 Spurr 
 
 
 Stocks 
 
 Stocks 
 
 
 Collishaw 
 
 Collishaw 
 
 
 Troop 
 
 Troop 
 
 
 Mew 
 
 Mew 
 
 
 Bamford 
 
 Rawson. 
 
 
 Gladwin. 
 
 Sheffield. 
 
 Nottingha 
 
 m. 
 
 Nottingham. 
 
 Sheffield 
 
 1st inn. 81 
 
 1st inn. 
 
 76 
 
 1st inn. 14 
 
 Near 70 
 
 2nd 62 
 
 2nd 
 
 112 
 
 
 3rd 105 
 
 
 
 
 248 
 
 
 188 
 
 
 Tuesday, 9 o'clock, a. 
 
 m. 
 
 Nottingham gave in. 
 
 commenced, 8th man 0, 
 
 9th 
 
 
 5, 1 to come in, and onty 
 
 ' 60 
 
 
 a head, when the Sheffield left 
 
 
 the field. 
 
 
 
 
 
THE HAMBLEDON CLUB. 
 
 43 
 
 TLENT AGAINST ALL ENGLAND. 
 
 Played in the Artillery -Ground) London, 1746. 
 
 2nd 
 
 Innings* 
 
 b by Mills. 
 
 b 
 
 Hadswell. 
 
 b 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 b 
 
 Danes. 
 
 b 
 
 Mills. 
 
 b 
 
 Hadswell. 
 
 c 
 
 Kips. 
 
 c 
 
 Ld. J. Sackville 
 
 b 
 
 Hadswell. 
 
 b 
 
 Mills. 
 
 — 
 
 not out. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 1st Innings, 
 
 RUNS. HUNS. 
 
 Harris b by Hadswell 4 
 
 Dingate 3 b Ditto 11 
 
 Newland Ob Mills 3 
 
 Cuddy Ob Hadswell. 2 
 
 Green Ob Mills 5 
 
 Waymark ... 7 b Ditto 9 
 
 Bryan 12 s Kips 7 
 
 Newland 18 — not out . . 15 
 
 Harris Ob Hadswell. 1 
 
 Smith c Bartrum.. 8 
 
 Newland Ob Mills .... 5 
 
 Byes Byes . . 
 
 40 70 
 
 KENT. 
 
 1st Innings, 2nd Innings* 
 
 RUNS. RUNS. 
 
 Lord Sackville 5 c by Waymark . 3 b by Harris. 
 
 Long Robin. . 7 b Newland . . 9 b Newland* 
 
 Mills Ob Harris 6 c Ditto. 
 
 Hadswell .... Ob Ditto 5 — not out. 
 
 Cutbush 3 c Green 7 — not out. 
 
 Bartrum 2 b Newland. . b Newland. 
 
 Danes 6 b Ditto c Smith. 
 
 Sawyer . . c "Waymark . 5 b Newland. 
 
 Kips 12 b Harris 10 b Harris. 
 
 Mills 7 — not oiit . . . 2 b Newland. 
 
 Romney 11 b Harris.... 8 c Harris. 
 
 Byes.... 3 
 
 53 58 
 
44 THE CRICKET EIELD. 
 
 And now the oldest chronicler is Old Nyren, who 
 wrote an account of the cricketers of his time. The 
 said Old Nyren borrowed the pen of our kind friend 
 Charles Cowden Clarke, to whom John Keats dedi- 
 cated an epistle, and who rejoiced in the friendship of 
 Charles Lamb ; and none but a kindred spirit to Elia 
 could have written like " Old Nyren." Nyren was a 
 fine old English yeoman, whose chivalry was cricket : 
 and Mr. Clarke has faithfully recorded his vivid descrip- 
 tions and animated recollections. And, with his charm- 
 ing little volume in hand, and inkhorn at my button, 
 in 1837 I made a* tour among the cottages of William 
 Belden, and the few surviving worthies of the same 
 generation; and, having also the advantage of a MS. 
 by the Rev. John Midford, taken from many a winter's 
 evening with Old Fennex, I am happy to attempt the 
 best account that the lapse of time admits, of cricket in 
 the olden time. 
 
 From a MS. my friend received from the late Mr. 
 William Ward, it appears that the wickets were placed 
 twenty-two yards apart as long since as the year 1700 ; 
 that stumps were then only one foot high, but two feet 
 wide. The width some persons have doubted ; but it 
 is rendered credible by the auxiliary evidence that 
 there was, in those days, width enough between the 
 two stumps for cutting the wide blockhole already men- 
 tioned, and also because — whereas now we hear of 
 stumps and bails — we read formerly of " two stumps 
 with one stump laid across." 
 
THE HAMBLEDON CLUB. 45 
 
 We are informed, also, that putting down the wick- 
 ets to make a man out in running, instead of the old 
 custom of popping the ball into the hole, was adopted 
 on account of severe injuries to the hands, and that the 
 wicket was changed at the same time — 1779-1780 — to 
 the dimensions of twenty-two inches by six, with a 
 third stump added. 
 
 Before this alteration the art of defence was almost 
 unkown : balls often passed over the wicket, and often 
 passed through. At the time of the alteration Old 
 Nyren truly predicted that the innings would not be 
 shortened but better played. The long pod and curved 
 form of the bat, as seen in the old paintings, was made 
 only for hitting, and for ground balls too. Length balls 
 were then by no means common ; neither would low 
 stumps encourage them : and even upright play was 
 then practised by very few. Old Nyren relates that 
 one Harry Hall, a gingerbread baker of Farnham, gave 
 peripatetic lectures to young players, and always 
 insisted on keeping the left elbow well up ; in other 
 words, on straight play. " Now-a-days," said Beld- 
 ham, "all the world knows that; but when I began 
 there was very little length bowling, very little straight 
 play, and little defence either." Fennex, said he, was 
 the first who played out at balls ; before his day batt- 
 ing was too much about the crease. Beldham said 
 that his own supposed tempting of Providence con- 
 sisted in running in to hit. " You do frighten me 
 
46 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 there jumping out of your ground," said our Squire 
 Paulett: and Fennex used also to relate how, when he 
 played forward to the pitch of the ball, his father 
 "had never seen the like in all his days;" the said 
 days extending a long way back towards the beginning 
 of the century. "While speaking of going in to hit, 
 Beldham said, " My opinion has always been that too 
 little is attempted in that direction. Judge your ball, 
 and, when the least overpitched, go in and hit her 
 away." In this opinion Mr. C. Taylor's practice 
 would have borne Beldham out, and a fine dashing 
 game this makes, only it is a game for none but prac- 
 tised players. When you are perfect in your ground, 
 then, and then only, try what you can do out of it, as 
 the best means to scatter the enemy and open the field. 
 
 " As to bowling," continued Beldham, " when I 
 way a boy (say 1780), nearly all bowling was fast, and 
 all along the ground. In those days the Hambledon 
 Club could beat all England ; but our three parishes 
 around Farnham beat Hambledon." 
 
 It is quite evident that Farnham was the cradle of 
 cricketers. " Surrey," in the old scores, means noth- 
 ing more than the Farnham parishes. This corner of 
 Surrey, in every match against All England, was reck- 
 oned as part of Hampshire, and Beldham truly said 
 " you find us regularly on the Hampshire side in 
 Bentley's Book." 
 
 " I told you, sir," said Beldham, " that in my early 
 
THE HAMBLEDON CLUB. 47 
 
 days all bowling was what we called fast, or at least a 
 moderate pace. The first lobbing slow bowler I ever 
 saw was Tom Walker. When, in 1792, England 
 played Kent, I did feel so ashamed of such baby bow- 
 ling ; but, after all, he did more than even David 
 Harris himself. Two years after, in 1794, at Dartford 
 Brent, Tom Walker, with his slow bowling, headed a 
 side against David Harris, and beat him easily." 
 
 " Kent, in early times, was not equal to our coun- 
 ties. Their great man was Crawte, and he was taken 
 away from our parish of Alresford by Mr. Amherst, the 
 gentleman who made the Kent matches. In those 
 days, except around our parts, Farnham and the Surrey 
 side of Hampshire, a little play went a long way. 
 Why, no man used to be more talked of than Yalden, 
 and when he came among us we soon made up our 
 minds what the rest of them must be. If you want to 
 know, sir, the time the Hambledon Club was formed, I 
 can tell by this ; — when we beat them, in 1780, I heard 
 Mr. Paulett say, ' Here have I been thirty years raising 
 our club, and are we to be beaten by a mere parish ? ' 
 so there must have been a cricket club that played every 
 week regularly, as long ago as 1750. We used to go 
 as eagerly to a match as if it were two armies fighting ; 
 we stood at nothing if we were allowed the time ; from 
 our parish to Hambledon is twenty-seven miles, and 
 we used to ride both ways the same day, early and 
 late. At last I and John Wells were about building 
 
48 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 a cart, you have heard of tax carts, sir ; well the tax 
 was put on then, and that stopped us. The members 
 of the Hambledon Club had a caravan to take their 
 eleven about, and used once to play always in velvet 
 caps. Lord Winchelsea's eleven used to play in silver 
 laced hats, and always the dress was knee breeches and 
 stockings. We never thought of knocks ; and remem- 
 ber I played against Browne of Brighton too. Cer- 
 tainly you would see a bump heave under the stocking, 
 and even the blood came through ; but I never knew a 
 man killed, now you ask the question, and never saw 
 any accident of much consequence, though many an all 
 but, in all my experience. Fancy the old fashion before 
 cricket shoes, when I saw John Wells tear a finger 
 nail off against his shoe-buckle in picking up a ball."' 
 
 " Your book, sir, says much about old Nyren. This 
 Nyren was fifty years old when I began to play ; he 
 was our general in the Hambledon matches, but not 
 half a player as we reckon now. He had a small farm 
 and inn near Hambledon, and took care of the ground." 
 
 " I remember when many things first came into the 
 game which are common now. The law for leg before 
 wicket was not made, nor much wanted, till Ring, one 
 of our best hitters, was shabby enough to get his leg 
 in the way, and take advantage of the bowlers, and 
 when Tom Taylor, another of the best hitters, did the 
 same, the bowlers found themselves beaten, and the 
 law was passed to make leg before wicket out. The 
 
THE HAMBLEDON CLUB. 49 
 
 law against jerking was owing to the frightful pace 
 Tom Walker put on, and I believe that Harry also 
 tried something more like the modern throwing bowl- 
 ing, and caused the words against throwing also. 
 Wills was not the inventor of that kind of round 
 bowling ; he only revived what was forgotten or new 
 to the young folk. 
 
 " The umpires did not formerly pitch the wickets. 
 David Harris used to think a great deal of pitching 
 himself a good- wicket, and took much pains in suiting 
 himself every match day." 
 
 "Lord Stowell was fond of cricket. He employed 
 me to make a ground for him at Holt Pound." 
 
 In the last century, when the waggon and the pack- 
 horse supplied the place of the penny train, there was 
 little opportunity for these frequent meetings of men 
 from distant counties that now puzzles us to remember 
 who is North and who is South, who is Surrey or who 
 is Kent. The matches then were truly county matches, 
 and had more of the spirit of hostile tribes and rival 
 clans. " There was no mistaking the Kent boys," 
 said Beldham, " when they came staring in to the 
 Green Man. A few of us had grown used to London, 
 but Kent and Hampshire men had but to speak, or 
 even show themselves, and you need not ask them 
 which side they were on." So the match seemed like 
 Sir Horace Mann and Lord Winchelsea and their 
 respective tenantry — for when will the feudal system 
 
50 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 be quite extinct ? And there was no little pride and 
 honor in the parishes that sent them up, and many a 
 flagon of ale depending in the farms or the hop grounds 
 they severally represented, as to whether they should, 
 as the spirit-stirring saying was, "prove themselves 
 the better men." " I remember in one match," said 
 Eeldham, "in Kent, Ring was playing against David 
 Harris. The game was much against him. Sir Horace 
 Mann was cutting about with his stick among the 
 daisies, and cheering every run, — you would have 
 thought his whole fortune (and he did always bet some 
 hundreds) was staked upon the game ; and as a new 
 man was going in, he went across to Ring, and said, 
 ' Ring, carry your bat through and make up all the 
 runs, and I'll give you 10Z. a-year for life.' Well, 
 Ring was out for sixty runs, and only three to tie, and 
 four to .beat, and the last man made them. It was Sir 
 Horace who took Aylward away with him out of 
 Hampshire, but the best bat made but a poor bailiff we 
 heard. 
 
 " Cricket was played in Sussex very early, before 
 my day at least ; but that there was no good play I 
 know by this, that Richard Newland, of Slinden, in 
 Sussex, as you say, sir, taught old Richard Nyren, and 
 that no Sussex man could be found to play him. Now 
 a second rate player of our parish beat Newland easily ; 
 so you may judge what the rest of Sussex then were. 
 But before 1780 there were some good players about 
 
THE HAMBLEDON CLUB. 51 
 
 Hambledon and the Surrey side of Hampshire. Crawte, 
 the best of the Kent men, was taken away from us ; so 
 you will not be wrong, sir, in writing down that Farn- 
 ham, and thirty miles round, reared all the best players 
 up to my day, about 1780. 
 
 " There were some who were then called ' the old 
 players,' and here Fennex's account quite agreed with 
 Beldham's, including Frame and old Small, who Ben- 
 nett believed by tradition to have been the man who 
 \ found out cricket,' or brought play to any degree of 
 perfection; also Sueter, the wicket-keeper, who, in 
 those days, had very little stumping to do, and Min- 
 shull and Colshorn, all mentioned in Nyren." "These 
 men played puddling about their crease with no free- 
 dom. I like to see players upright and well forward, 
 to face the ball like a man. The Duke of Dorset made 
 a match at Dartford Brent between ' the Old Players 
 and the New.' — You laugh, sir," said this tottering sil- 
 ver-haired old man, " but we all were new once ; — 
 well I played with the Walkers, John Wells, and the 
 rest of our men, and beat the old ones very easily." 
 
 " Tom Walker was the most tedious fellow to bowl 
 to, and the slowest runner between wickets I ever saw. 
 I have seen, in running a four, Noah Mann, as fast as 
 Tom was slow, overtake him, pat him on the back, and 
 say, ' Good name for you is Walker, for you never were 
 a runner.' It used to be said that David Harris had 
 once bowled him 170 balls for one run ! David was a 
 
52 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 potter by trade, and in a kind of skittle alley made be- 
 tween hurdles, lie used to practise bowling four dif- 
 ferent balls from one end, and then picking them up he 
 would bowl them back again. His bowling cost him a 
 great deal of practice ; but it proved well worth his 
 while, for no man ever bowled like him, and he was 
 always first chosen of all the men in England. Nil 
 sine labore, remember young cricketers all. ' Lam- 
 bert ' (not the great player of that name), said Nyren, 
 * had a most deceitful and teasing way of delivering the 
 ball ; he tumbled out the Kent and Surrey men, one 
 after another, as if picked off by a rifle corps. His per- 
 fection is accounted for by the circumstance that, when 
 he was tending his father's sheep, he would set up a 
 hurdle or two, and bowl away for hours together.' 
 
 " There was some good hitting in those days, though 
 too little defence. Tom Taylor would cut away in fine 
 style, almost after the manner of Mr. Budd. Old Small 
 was among the first members of the Hambledon Club. * 
 He began to play about 1750, and Lumpy Stevens at the 
 same time. I can give you some notion of what cricket 
 was in those days, for Lumpy, a very bad bat, as he 
 was well aware, once said to me, ' Beldham, what do 
 you think cricket must have been in those days when I 
 was thought a good batsman ? ' But fielding was very 
 good as far back as I can remember." Now what Beld- 
 ham called good fielding must have been good enough. 
 He was himself one of the safest hands at a catch. Mr. 
 
THE HAMBLEDON CLUB. 53 
 
 Budd, when past forty, was still one of the quickest 
 men I ever played with, taking always middle wicket, 
 and often, by swift running, doing part of long field's 
 work. Sparks, Fennex, Bennett, and young Small, 
 and Mr. Parry, were first rate, not to mention Beagley, 
 whose style of long stopping in the North and South 
 Match of 1836, made Lord Frederick and Mr. Ward 
 justly proud of so good a representative of the game in 
 their younger days. Albeit, an old player of seventy, 
 describing the merit's of all these men, said, " put Mr. 
 King at point, Mr. C. Ridding long-stop, and Mr. 
 Pickering cover, and I never saw the man that could 
 beat either of them." 
 
 " John Wells was a most dangerous man in a single 
 wicket match, being so dead a shot at a wicket. In a 
 celebrated match Lord Frederick warned the Honorable 
 H. Tuffton to beware of him ; but John Wells found an 
 opportunity of maintaining his character by shying 
 down from the side little more than the single stump. 
 Tom Sheridan joined some of our matches, but he was 
 no good but to make people laugh. In our days there 
 were no padded gloves. I have seen Tom Walker rub 
 his bleeding fingers in the dust ! David used to say he 
 liked to rind him." 
 
 " The matches against twenty-two were not uncom- 
 mon in the last century. In 1788 the Hambledon 
 Club played two-and-twenty at Cold Ash Hill. ' Draw- 
 ing ' between leg and wicket is not a new invention. 
 5* 
 
54 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 Old Small, of 1750, was famous for drawing, and for 
 the greater facility he changed the crooked bat of his 
 day for a straight bat. There was some fine cutting 
 before Saunders' day. Harry "Walker was the first, I 
 believe, who brought it to perfection. The next gen- 
 uine cutter, for they were very scarce (I never called 
 mine cutting, not like that of Saunders at least), was 
 Robinson. Walker and Robinson would wait for the 
 ball all but past the wicket, and cut with great force. 
 Others made good off hits, but did not hit late enough 
 for a good Cut. I would never cut with slow bowling. 
 I believe that Walker, Fennex and myself, first opened 
 the old players' eyes to what could be done with the 
 bat ; Walker by cutting, and Fennex and I by forward 
 play : but all improvement was owing to David Harris's 
 bowling. His bowling rose almost perpendicular: it 
 was once pronounced a jerk ; it was altogether most ex- 
 traordinary. For thirteen years I averaged forty-three 
 a match, though frequently I had only one innings ; 
 but I never could half play unless runs were really 
 wanted." 
 
HAMBLEDONIANS DISPERSED. 55 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 CRICKET GENERALLY ESTABLISHED AS A NATIONAL 
 GAME BY THE END OE THE LAST CENTUBY. 
 
 Little is recorded of the Hambledon Club after the 
 year 1786. It broke up when Old Nyren left it, in 
 1791. Though in this last year the true old Hamble- 
 don Eleven all but beat twenty-two of Middlesex at 
 Lord's. Their cricket - ground on Broadhalfpenny 
 Down, in Hampshire, was so far removed from the 
 many noblemen and gentlemen who had seen and 
 admired the severe bowling of David Harris, the bril- 
 liant hitting of Beldham, and the interminable defence 
 of the Walkers, that these worthies soon found a more 
 genial sphere for their energies on the grounds of Kent, 
 Surrey, and Middlesex. Still, though the land was 
 deserted, the men survived, and imparted a knowledge 
 of their craft to gentles and simples far and wide. 
 
 Most gladly would we chronicle that these good men 
 and true were actuated by a great and a patriotic spirit, 
 to diffuse an aid to civilization — for such our game 
 claims to be — among their wonder-stricken fellow- 
 
56 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 countrymen ; but, in truth, we confess that " reaping 
 golden opinions" and coins, " from all kinds of men," 
 as well as that indescribable tumult and joyous emo- 
 tions which attend the ball vigorously propelled or 
 heroically stopped, while hundreds of voices shout 
 applause, that such stirring motives, more powerful far 
 with vain glorious man than any foreshortened view of 
 abstract virtue, tended to the migration of the pride of 
 Hambledon. Still, doubtful though tbe motive, certain 
 is the fact, that the Hambledon players did carry their 
 bats and stumps out of Hampshire into the adjoining- 
 counties, and gradually, like all great commanders, 
 taught their adversaries to conquer too. In some 
 instances, as with Lord Winchelsea, Mr. Amherst, and 
 others, noblemen combined the utile dulci, pleasure and 
 business, and retained a great player as a keeper or a 
 bailiff, as Martingell once was engaged by Earl Ducie. 
 In other instances, the play of the summer led to 
 employment through the winter; or else these busy 
 bees lived on the sweets of their sunshine toil, enjoying 
 otium cum digfiitate — that is, living like gentlemen, 
 with nothing to do. 
 
 This accounts for our finding these Hampshire men 
 playing Kent matches ; being, like a learned Lord in 
 Punch's picture, " naturalized everywhere," or citizens 
 of the world. 
 
 Let us trace these Hambledonians in all their con- 
 tests, from the date mentioned (1786 to 1800), the 
 
OLD CRICKET GROUNDS. 57 
 
 eventful period of the French Revolution and Nelson's 
 victories, and see how the Bank stopping payment, the 
 mutiny of the fleet, and the threatened invasion, put 
 together, did not prevent balls from flying over the 
 tented field, in a far more innocent and rational way 
 on this than on the other side of the water. 
 
 Now, what were the matches in the last century — 
 6 * eleven gentlemen against the twelve Csesars? " No ! 
 these, though ancient names, are of modern times. 
 Kent and England was as good an annual match in the 
 last as in the present century. The White Conduit 
 Fields and the Artillery- Ground supplied the place of 
 Lord's, though in 1787 the name of Lord's is found in 
 Eentley's Matches, implying, of course, the old Maryle- 
 bone Ground, now Dorset Square, under Thomas Lord, 
 and not the present by St. John's Wood, more properly 
 deserving the name of Dark's than Lord's. The Kent- 
 ish battle-fields were Sevenoaks, the land of Clout, one 
 of the original makers of cricket-balls ; Coxheath, 
 Dandelion Fields, in the Isle of Thanet, and Cobham 
 Park ; also Dartford Brent and Pennenden Heath ; 
 there is also early mention of Gravesend, Rochester, 
 and Woolwich. 
 
 Next in importance to the Kent matches were those 
 of Hampshire and of Surrey, with each of which 
 counties indifferently the Hambledon men used to play. 
 For it must not be supposed that the whole county of 
 Surrey put forth a crop of stumps and wickets all at 
 
58 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 once : we have already said that malt and hops and 
 cricket have ever gone together. Two parishes in 
 Surrey, adjoining Hants, won the original laurels for 
 their county, and those in the immediate vicinity of 
 the Farnham hop county. The Holt, near Farnham, 
 and Moulsey Hurst, were the Surrey grounds. The 
 match might truly have been called " Farnham' s hop- 
 gatherers v. those of Kent." The former, aided occa- 
 sionally by men who drank the ale of Alton, just as 
 Burton-on-Trent, life-sustainer to our Indian empire, 
 sends forth its giants, refreshed with bitter ale, to 
 defend the honor of the neighboring towns and 
 counties. The men of Hampshire, after Broadhalf- 
 penny was abandoned to docks and thistles, pitched 
 their tents generally either upon Windmill Downs or 
 upon Stoke Downs ; and once they played a match 
 against T. Asheton Smith, whose mantle has descended 
 on a worthy representative, whether on the level turf 
 or by the cover's side. Albeit, when that gentleman 
 has a " meet," as occasionally advertised at Hambledon, 
 he must unconsciously avoid the spot where " titch and 
 turn" — the Hampshire cry — did once exhilarate the 
 famous James Aylward, among others, as he astonished 
 the Farnham waggoner, by continuing one and the same 
 innings as the man drove up on the Tuesday afternoon 
 and down on the Wednesday morning. This match 
 was played at Andover, and the surnames of most of 
 the Eleven may be read on the tombstones, with the 
 
MIDDLESEX. HARROW. 59 
 
 best of characters, in Andover Churchyard. Bourne 
 Paddock, Earl Darnley's estate, and Burley Park, in 
 Rutlandshire, constituted often the debatable ground 
 in their respective counties. Earl Darnley, as well as 
 Sir Horace Mann and Earl Winchelsea, Mr. Paulett 
 and Mr. East, lent their names and patronage to 
 Elevens ; sometimes in the places mentioned, some- 
 times at Lord's, and sometimes at Perriam Downs, 
 near Luggershal, in Wiltshire. 
 
 Middlesex also, exclusively of the Marylebone Club, 
 had its Eleven in these days ; or, we should say, its 
 twenty-two, for that was the number then required to 
 stand the disciplined forces of Hampshire, Kent, or 
 England. And this reminds us of an " Uxbridge 
 ground," where Middlesex played and lost, and 
 64 Hornchurch, Essex," where Essex, in 1791, was suf- 
 ficiently advanced to win against Marylebone, an occa- 
 sion memorable, because Lord Frederic Beauclerk there 
 played his first recorded match, making scarce any 
 runs, but bowling four wickets. " There was also," 
 writes the Hon. R. Grimstone, " 'the Bowling-green,' 
 at Harrow-on-the-Hill, where the school played : Rich- 
 ardson, who subsequently became Mr. Justice Richard- 
 son, was the captain of the School Eleven in 1782." 
 
 Already, in 1790, the game was spreading north- 
 wards, or, rather, proofs exist that it had long before 
 struck far and wide its roots and branches in northern 
 latitudes ; and also that it was a game as popular with 
 
60 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 the men of labor as the men of leisure, and therefore 
 incontestably of home growth : no mere exotic, or im- 
 portation, of the favored few can cricket be, if, like its 
 namesake, it is found "a household word" with those 
 whom Burns aptly calls " the many-aproned sons of 
 mechanical life." 
 
 In 1791, Eton, that is, the old Etonians, played 
 Marylebone, four players given on either side ; and all 
 true Etonians will thank us for informing them, not 
 only that the seven Etonians were more than a match 
 for their adversaries, but also that this match proves 
 that Eton had, at that early date, the honor of sending 
 forth the most distinguished amateurs of the day ; for 
 Lord Winchelsea, Hon. H. Fitzroy, Earl Darnley, 
 Hon. E. C. Bligh, C. Anguish, Asheton Smith — good 
 men and true — were Etonians all. This match was 
 played in Burley Park, Rutlandshire, on the following 
 day, June 25th, 1791: the Marylebone played eleven 
 yeomen and artisans of Leicester ; and though the 
 Leicestrians cut a sorry figure, still the fact that the 
 Midland Counties practised cricket sixty years ago is 
 worth recording. Peter Heward, of Leicester, a famous 
 wicket-keeper, of twenty years since, told me of a trial 
 match in which he saw his father, quite an old man, 
 with another veteran of his own standing, quickly put 
 out with the old-fashioned slow bowling for some 
 twenty runs a really good Eleven — good, that is, 
 against the modern style of bowling ; and cricket was 
 
CBICKET (EARLY) AT NOTTINGHAM. 61 
 
 not a new game in this old man's early days (say 1780) 
 about Leicester and Nottingham, as the score in page 
 33, alone would prove ; for such a game as cricket, 
 evidently of gradual development, must have been 
 played in some primitive form many a long year before 
 the date of 1775, in which it had excited sufficient 
 interest, and was itself sufficiently matured in form to 
 show the two Elevens of Sheffield and of Nottingham. 
 Add to this, what we have already mentioned, a rude 
 form of cricket as far north as Angus and Lothian in 
 1700, and we can hardly doubt that cricket was known 
 as early in the Midland as in the Southern Counties. 
 The men of Nottingham — land of Clarke, Barker, and 
 of Redgate — next month, in the same year (1791), 
 threw down the gauntlet, and shared the same fate ; 
 and next day the Marylebone, " adding," in a cricket- 
 ing sense, "insult unto injury," played twenty-two of 
 them, and won by thirteen runs. 
 
 In 1790, the shopocracy of Brighton had also an 
 Eleven; and Sussex and Surrey, in 1792, sent an 
 eleven against England to Lord's, who scored the 
 longest number in one innings on record — 453 runs ! 
 " M. C. C. v. twenty-two of Nottingham," we now find 
 an annual match; and also u M. C. C. v. Brighton," 
 which becomes at once worthy of the fame that Sussex 
 long has borne. In 1793, the old Westminster men 
 all but beat the old Etonians : and Essex and Herts, 
 too near not to emulate the fame of Kent and Surrey, 
 
62 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 were content, like second-rate performers, to have, 
 though playing twenty-two, one benefit between them, 
 in the shape of defeat in one innings from England. 
 And here we are reminded by two old players, a Kent 
 and an Essex man, that, being schoolboys in 1785, 
 they can respectively testify that, both in Kent and in 
 Essex, cricket appeared to them more of a village game 
 than they have ever seen it of late years. " There was 
 a cricket-bat behind the door, or else up in the bacon 
 rack, in every cottage. We heard little of clubs, 
 except around London ; still the game was played by 
 many or by few, in every school and village green in 
 Essex and in Kent, and the field placed much as when 
 with the Sidmouth I played the Teignbridge Club in 
 1826. Mr. Whitehead was the great hitter of Kent; 
 and Frame and Small were names as often mentioned 
 as Pilch and Parr by our boys now." And now (1793) 
 the game had penetrated further West ; for eleven 
 yeomen at Oldfield Bray, in Berkshire, had learned 
 long enough to defeat a good eleven of the Marylebone 
 Club. 
 
 In 1795, the Hon. Colonel Lennox, memorable for a 
 duel with the Duke of York, fought on the cricket 
 ground at Dartford Brent, headed Elevens against the 
 Earl of Winchelsea ; and now, first the Marylebone 
 eleven beat sixteen Oxonians on Bullingdon Green. 
 
 In 1797, the Montpelier Club and ground attract our 
 notice. The name of this club is one of the most 
 
HON. COLONEL LENNOX. 63 
 
 ancient, and their ground a short distance only from 
 the ground of Hall of Camberwell. 
 
 SwafFham, in Norfolk, is now mentioned for the first 
 time. But Norfolk lies out of the usual road, and is a 
 county that, as Mr. Dickens said of Golden Square, be- 
 fore it was the residence of Cardinal Wiseman, " is 
 nobody's way to or from any place." So, in those 
 slow coach and pack-horse days, the patrons of Kent, 
 Surrey, Hants, and Marylebone, who alone gave to 
 what else were " airy nothing, a local habitation and a 
 name," could not so easily extend their circuit to the 
 land of turkeys, lithotomy, and dumplings. But it 
 happened once that Lord Frederic Beauclerk was heard 
 to say, his eleven should beat any three elevens in the 
 county of Norfolk ; whence arose a challenge from the 
 Norfolk men, whom, sure enough, his Lordship did beat, 
 and that in one innings ; and a print, though not on 
 pocket-handkerchiefs, was struck off to perpetuate this 
 honorable achievement. 
 
 Lord F. Beauclerk was now one of the first batsmen 
 of his day ; as also were the Hon. H. and I. Tuffton ; 
 and frequently headed a division of the Marylebone, or 
 some county club, against Middlesex, and even Hamp- 
 stead and Highgate. 
 
 In this year (1798) these gentlemen aforesaid made 
 the first attempt at a Gentlemen and Players' match ; 
 and on this first occasion the players won ; but when 
 we mention that they had three players given, and also 
 
64 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 that T. Walker, Beldham, and Hammond were the 
 three, certainly it was like playing England, " the part 
 of England being left out by particular desire," 
 
 Kent attacked England in 1798, but, being beaten 
 in about half an innings, we find the Kentish men, in 
 1800, though still hankering after that cosmopolitan 
 distinction, modestly accept the odds of nineteen, and 
 afterwards play twenty-three men to twelve. 
 
 The chief patronage, and consequently the chief 
 practice, in cricket, was beyond all comparison in Lon- 
 don. There the play was nearly all professional : even 
 the gentlemen made a profession of it ; and, therefore, 
 though cricket was far more extensively spread through- 
 out the villages of Kent than of Middlesex, the clubs 
 of the metropolis figure in the score books as defying 
 all competition. Professional players, we may observe, 
 have always a decided advantage in respect of judicious 
 choice and mustering their best men. The best eleven 
 players are almost always known, and can be mustered 
 on a given day. Neither favor, friendship, nor eti- 
 quette interferes with their election ; but the eleven 
 gentlemen of England can never be anything more than 
 the best eleven known to the party who make the 
 match, and such as can spare the time and money 
 which the match demands. 
 
 Having now traced the rise and progress of the game 
 to the time of its general establishment till the time 
 that Beldham had shown the full powers of the bat 
 
GENTLEMEN V. PLAYERS. 65 
 
 and Lord Frederic had, as Fennex always declared, 
 formed his style upon Beldham's ; and since now we 
 approach the era of a new school, and the forward play 
 of Fennex, — which his father termed an innovation 
 and presumption " contrary to all experience," — till 
 the same forward play was proved effectual by Lam- 
 bert ; and Hammond had shown that, in spite of wicket 
 keepers, bowling, if slow especially, might be met and 
 hit away at the pitch ; now we will wait to character- 
 ize, in the words of eye-witnesses, the heroes of the 
 contests already mentioned. 
 
 Of the old players I may be brief, because the few 
 old gentlemen (with one of whom I am in daily com- 
 munication) who have heard even the names of the 
 Walkers, Frame, Small, and David Harris, are passing 
 away, full of years, and almost all their written history 
 consists in undiscriminating scores. 
 
 In point of style, the old players did not play the 
 steady game with maiden overs as at present. The de- 
 fensive was comparatively unknown : both the bat and 
 the wicket, and the style of bowling too, were all 
 adapted to a short life and a merry one. The wooden 
 substitute for a ball, as in Cat and Dog, before de- 
 scribed, evidently implied a hitting, and not a stopping 
 game. 
 
 The wicket, as we collect from a MS. furnished by 
 an old friend to the late William Ward, Esq., was, in 
 the early days of the Hambledon Club, one foot high 
 6* 
 
66 THE CKICKET FIELD. 
 
 and two feet wide, consisting of two stumps only, with 
 one stump laid across. Thus straight balls passed be- 
 tween, and what we now call well pitched balls would 
 of course rise over. Where, then, was the encourage- 
 ment to block, when fortune would so often serve the 
 place of science ? And, as to the bat, look at the pic- 
 ture of cricket as played in the old Artillery Ground ; 
 the bat is curved at the end like a hockey stick, or the 
 handle of a spoon, — and as common implements usually 
 are adapted to the work to be performed, you will 
 readily believe that in olden time the freest hitter was 
 the best batsman. The bowling was all along the 
 ground, hand and eye being everything, and judgment 
 nothing, because the art originally was to bowl nnder 
 the bat ; the wicket was too low for rising balls ; and 
 the reason we hear sometimes of the block hole was, 
 not that the block hole originally denoted guard, but 
 because between these two-feet-asunder stumps there 
 was cut a hole big enough to contain the ball, and, as 
 now with the scool boy's game of rounders, the hitter 
 was made out in running a notch by the ball being 
 popped into this hole (whence popping crease) before 
 the point of the bat could reach it. 
 
 Did we say running a notch ? unde notch ? What 
 wonder ere the days of useful knowledge, and Sir 
 William Curtis's three B/s, or reading, writing, and 
 arithmetic, that natural science should be evolved in a 
 truly natural way ; what wonder that notches on a 
 
CRICKET IN FORMER DAYS. 67 
 
 stick like the notches in the milk- woman's tally in 
 Hogarth's picture, should supply the place of those 
 complicated papers of vertical columns, which subject 
 the bowling, the batting, and the fielding to a process 
 severely and scrupulously just, of analytical observa- 
 tion, or differential calculus. Where now there sit 
 on kitchen chairs, with ink bottle tied to a stump 
 the worse for wear, Messrs. Caldecourt and Bailey 
 ('tis pity two such men should ever not be umpires), 
 with an uncomfortable length of paper on their 
 knees, and large tin telegraphic letters above their 
 heads ; and where now is Lillywhite's printing press 
 to hand down every hit as soon as made on twopenny 
 cards to the next generation; there, or in a similar 
 position, old Frame, or young Small (young once : he 
 died in 1834, aged eighty) might have placed a trusty 
 yeoman to cut notches with his bread and bacon knife 
 on an ashen stick. Oh! 'tis enough to make the 
 Hambiedon heroes sit upright in their graves with 
 astonishment to think that, in the Gentlemen and 
 Players' Match, in 1850, the cricketers of old Sparkes' 
 Ground, at Edinburgh, could actually know the score 
 of the first innings in London, almost as soon as the 
 second had commenced. 
 
 But when we say that the old players had little or 
 nothing of the defensive, we speak of the play before 
 1780, when David Harris flourished : for William 
 Beldham distinctly assured us that the art of bowling 
 over the bat by "length balls" originated with the 
 
68 THE CKICKET FIXLD. 
 
 famous David. An assertion, we will venture to say, 
 which requires a little, and only a little qualification. 
 Length bowling, or three quarter balls, to use a popular, 
 though 'exploded, expression, was introduced in David's 
 time, and by him first brought to perfection. And what 
 rather confirms this statement is, that the early bowl- 
 ers, were very swift bowlers, — such was not only David, 
 but the famous Brett, of earlier date, and Frame of 
 great renown : a more moderate pace resulted from the 
 new discovery of a well pitched bail ball. 
 
 The old players well understood the art of twisting, 
 or bias bowling. Lambert, " the little farmer," says 
 Nyren, " improved on the art, and puzzled the Kent 
 men in a great match, by twisting the reverse of the 
 usual way, — that is, from the off to the leg stump." 
 Tom Walker tried what Nyren calls the throwing- 
 bowling, and defied all the players of the day to 
 withstand this novelty ; but, by a council of the Ham- 
 bledon Club, this was forbidden, and Wills, a Sussex 
 man, had the praise of inventing it some twenty years 
 later. In a notable match of the Hambledon Club, it 
 was observed, at a critical point of the game, that the 
 ball passed three times between the two stumps without 
 knocking off the bail ; and then, first about 1780, a 
 third stump was added, and, seeing that the new style 
 of balls which rise over the bat rose also over the 
 wickets, then but one foot high, the wicket was altered 
 to the dimensions of 22 inches by 6, at which measure 
 
MEASUKEMENT OF WICKETS. 6& 
 
 it remained till about 1814, when it was increased to 
 
 26 inches by 8, and again to its present dimensions of 
 
 27 inches by 8 in 1817. 
 
 David Harris' bowling, Fennex used to say, intro- 
 duced, or at least established and fixed, a steady and 
 defensive style of batting. " I have seen," said Sparks, 
 " seventy or eighty runs in an innings, though not more 
 than eight or nine made at Harris's end." " Harris," 
 said an excellent judge, who well remembers him, 
 " attained nearly all the quickness of rise and height 
 of delivery, of the over-hand bowling, with far greater 
 straightness and precision. The ball appeared to be 
 forced out from under his arm with some unaccountable 
 jerk, so that it was delivered breast-high. His precision 
 exceeded anything 1 have ever seen, insomuch that 
 Tom Walker declared that, on one occasion, where turf 
 was thin, and the color of the soil readily appeared, 
 one spot was positively uncovered by the repeated 
 pitching of David's balls in the same place." " This 
 bowling," said Sparkes, " compelled you to make the 
 best of your reach forward ; for if you let the ball pitch 
 too near and crowd upon you, no player could possibly 
 prevent a mistake from the height and rapidity with 
 which it cut up the ground." This account agrees 
 with the well-known description of Nyren. " Harris's 
 mode of delivering the ball was very singular. He 
 would bring it from under the arm by a twist, and 
 nearly as high as his arm-pit, and with this action push 
 
70 THE CRICKET EIELD. 
 
 it, as it were, from him. How it was that the balls 
 acquired the velocity they did by this mode of delivery, 
 I never could comprehend. His balls were very little 
 beholden to the ground ; it was but a touch and up 
 again ; and woe be to the man who did not get in to 
 block then, for they had such a peculiar curl they would 
 grind his fingers against the bat." 
 
 And Nyren agrees with my informants in ascribing 
 great improvement in batting, and he specifies, " par- 
 ticularly in stopping " (for the act of defence, we said, 
 was not essential to the batsman in the ideas of one of 
 the old players), to the bowling of David Harris, and 
 bears testimony to an assertion, that forward play, that 
 is, meeting at the pitch balls considerably short of a 
 half volley, was little known to the oldest players, and 
 was called into requisition chiefly by the bowling of 
 David Harris. Obviously, with the primitive fashion 
 of ground bowling, called sneakers, forward play could 
 have no place, and even well-pitched balls, like those of 
 Noah Mann, alias Lumpy, of moderate pace might be 
 played with some effect, even behind the crease ; but 
 David Harris, with pace, pitch, and rapid rise combined, 
 imperatively demanded a new invention, and such was 
 forward play about 1800. Old Fennix, who died, alas ! 
 in a Middlesex workhouse, aged eighty, in 1839 (had 
 his conduct been as straightforward and upright as his 
 bat, he would have known a better end), always 
 declared that he was the first, and remained long 
 
FORWARD PLAY INVENTED. 71 
 
 without followers ; and no small praise is due to the 
 boldness and originality that set at nought the received 
 maxims of his forefathers before he was born or thought 
 of; daring to try things that, had they been ordinarily 
 reasonable, would not, of course, have been ignored by 
 Frame, by Pinchase, nor by Small. The world wants 
 such men as Fennex ; men, who, like the late lamented 
 Sir Robert Peel, will shake off the prejudices of birth, 
 parentage, and education, and boldly declare that age 
 has taught them wisdom, and that the policy of their 
 predecessors, however expensively stereotyped, must be 
 revised and corrected and adapted to the demands of a 
 more inquiring generation. " My father,'' said Fenriex, 
 " asked me how I came by that new play, reaching out 
 as no one ever saw before." The same style be lived 
 to see practised, not elegantly, but with wonderful 
 power and effect by Lambert, " a most severe and 
 resolute hitter ; " and Fennix also boasted that he had 
 a most proficient disciple in Fuller Pilch : though I 
 suspect — that as " poeta nascitur non Jit ; " that is, that 
 all great performers appear to have brought the secret 
 of their excellence into the world along with them, and 
 are not the mere puppets of which others pull the 
 strings — that Fuller Pilch may think he rather coin- 
 cided with than learnt from William Fennex. 
 
 Now the David Harris aforesaid, who wrought quite 
 a revolution in the game, changing cricket from a back- 
 ward and a slashing to a forward and defensive game, 
 
72 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 and claiming higher stumps to do justice to his skill — 
 this David, whose bowling was many years before his 
 generation, having all the excellence of Lillywhite's 
 high delivery, though free from all imputation of unfair- 
 ness — this David rose early, and late took rest, and ate 
 the bread of carefulness, before he attained such 
 distinction as, in these days of railroads, Thames tun- 
 nels, and tubular gloves and bridges, to deserve the 
 notice of our pen. " For," said John Bennett, " you 
 might have seen David practising at dinner time and 
 after hours, all the winter through;" and " many a 
 Hampshire barn," said Beagley, "has been heard to 
 resound with bats and balls as well as threshing." And 
 now we must mention the men, who, at the end of the 
 last century, represented the Pilch, the Parr, the Wen- 
 man, and the Wisden of the present day. 
 
 Lord Beauclerk was formed on the style of Beldham, 
 whom, in brilliancy of hitting, he nearly resembled. 
 The Hon. H. Bligh and Hon. H. Tufton were of the 
 same school. Sir Peter Burrell was also a good hitter, 
 and these were the most distinguished gentlemen play- 
 ers of the day. Earl Winchelsea was in every principal 
 match, but rather for his patronage than his play : and 
 the Hon. Col. Lennox for the same reason. Mr. R. 
 Whitehead was a Kent player of great celebrity. But 
 Lord F, Beauclerk was the only gentleman who had 
 any claim in the last century to play in an All England 
 eleven. He was also one of the fastest runners. 
 
DAVID HAREIS. 73 
 
 Hammond was the great wicket-keeper; but then the 
 bowling was slow : Sparkes said he saw him catch out 
 Robinson by a draw between leg and wicket. Free- 
 mantle was the first long stop ; but Ray the finest field 
 in England ; and in those days, when the scores were 
 long, fielding was of even more consideration than at 
 present. Of the professional players, Beldham, Ham- 
 mond, Tom and Harry Walker, Freemantle, Robinson, 
 Fennex, J. Wells, and J. Small were the first chosen 
 after Harris had passed away ; for Nyren says that even 
 Lord Beauclerk could hardly have seen David Harris 
 in his prime. At this time there was a sufficient 
 number of players to maintain the credit of the left 
 hands. On the 10th of May, 1790, the Left-handed 
 beat the Right by thirty-nine runs. This match reveals 
 that Harris and Aylward, and the three best Kent 
 players, Brazier, Crawte, and Clifford, — Sueter, the 
 first distinguished wicket-keeper, — H. Walker, and 
 Freemantle were all left-handed: so also was Noah 
 Mann. 
 
 The above mentioned players are quite sufficient to 
 give some idea of the play of the last century. Sparkes 
 is well known to the author of these pages as his quon- 
 dam instructor. In batting, he differed not widely from 
 the usual style of good players, save that he never 
 played forward to any very great extent. Playing 
 under leg, according to the old fashion (we call it old- 
 fashion though Pilch adopts it,) served instead of the 
 7 
 
74 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 far more elegant and efficient "draw." Sparkes was 
 also a fair bias bowler, but of no great pace, and not 
 very difficult. I remember his saying that the old 
 school of slow bowling was beaten by Hammond 
 setting the example of running in. " Hammond," he 
 said, " on one occasion, hit back a slow ball to Lord F. 
 Beauclerk with such frightful force that it just skimmed 
 his Lordship's unguarded head, and he had scarcely 
 nerve to bowl after. Of Fennex, we can also speak 
 from our friend Rev. John Mitford. Fennex was a fair 
 straight-forward hitter, and once as good a single wicket- 
 player as any in England. His attitude was easy, and 
 he played elegantly, and hit well from the wrist. If 
 his bowling was any specimen of that of his contempo- 
 raries, they were by no means to be despised. His 
 bowling was very swift and of high delivery, the ball 
 cut and ground up with great quickness and precision. 
 Fennex used to say that the men of the present day 
 had little idea of what the old underhand bowling 
 really could effect; and, from the specimen which Fen- 
 nex himself gave at sixty-five years of age, there ap- 
 peared to be much reason in his assertion. Of all the 
 players Fennex had ever seen (for some partiality for 
 by-gone days we must of course allow) none elicited his 
 notes of admiration like Beldham. We cannot com- 
 pare a man who played underhand with those who are 
 formed on overhand bowling. Still there is reason to 
 believe what Mr. Ward and others have told us, that 
 
BELDHAM f. BROWNE. 75 
 
 Beldham had that genius for cricket, that wonderful 
 eye (although it failed him very early), and quickness 
 of hand, that would have made him a great player in 
 any age. 
 
 Beldham related to us, in 1838, and that with no 
 little nimbleness of hand and vivacity of eye, while he 
 suited the action to the word with a bat of his own 
 manufacture, how he had drawn forth the plaudits of 
 Lords as he hit round and helped on the bowling of 
 Browne, of Brighton, even faster than before, though 
 the good men of Brighton thought that no one could 
 stand against him, and Browne had thought to bowl 
 Beldham off his legs. This match of Hants against 
 England in 1819 Fennex was fond of describing, and 
 certainly it gives some idea of what Beldham could do. 
 " Osbaldeston," said Mr. Ward, " with his tremen- 
 dously fast bowling, was defying every one at single 
 wicket, and he and Lambert challenged Mr. E. H. 
 Budd with three others. Just then I had seen Browne's 
 swift bowling, and a hint from me settled the match. 
 Browne was engaged, and Osbaldeston was beaten with 
 his own weapons." A match was now made to give 
 Browne a fair trial, and " we were having a social 
 glass," said Fennex, "and talking over with Beldham 
 the match of the morrow at the ' Green Man/ when 
 Browne came in, and told Beldham, with as much sin- 
 cerity as good-humor, that he should soon send his 
 stumps a-flying." " Hold there," said Beldham, fin- 
 
76 THE CKICKET FIELD. 
 
 gering his bat, " you will be good enough to allow me 
 this bit of wood, won't you ? " " Certainly, " said 
 Browne. " Quite satisfied," answered Beldham, '* so 
 to-morrow you shall see." " Seventy- two runs," said 
 Fennex, and the score book attests his accuracy, ""was 
 Beldham' s first and only innings," and Beagley also 
 joined with Fennex, and assured us, that he never saw 
 a more complete triumph of a batsman over a bowler. 
 Nearly every ball was cut or slipped away till Browne 
 hardly dared to bowl within his reach. 
 
 We desire not to qualify the praises of Beldham, but 
 when we hear that he was unrivalled in elegant and 
 brilliant hitting, and in that wonderful versatility that 
 cut indifferently, quick as lightning, all round him, we 
 cannot help remarking, that such bowling as that of 
 Redgate or Wisden renders imperatively necessary a 
 severe style of defence, and an attitude of cautious 
 watchfulness, that must render the batsman not quite 
 such a picture for the artist as might be seen in the 
 days of Beldham and Lord F. Beauclerk. 
 
 So far we have traced the diffusion of the game and 
 the degrees of proficiency attained to the beginning of 
 the present century. To sum up the evidence, by the 
 year 1800, cricket had become the pastime even of the 
 common people in Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, and 
 Kent ; and had been introduced into the adjoining 
 counties, and though we cannot trace its continuity 
 beyond Rutlandshire and Burley Park, certainly it had 
 
BELDHAM V, BROWNE. 77 
 
 been long familiar to the men of Leicester and of Not- 
 tingham and Sheffield. That, in point of skill, Field- 
 ing, generally, was already as good, and quite as much 
 valued in a match as it has been since ; and Wicket- 
 keeping in particular had been ably executed by Sueter, 
 for he could stump off Brett, whose pace Nyren, ac- 
 quainted as he was with all the bowlers to the days of 
 Lillywhite, called quite of the steam-engine power, 
 albeit no wicket-keeper could shine like Wenman or 
 Box, except with the regularity of overhand bowling* ; 
 and already Bowlers had attained by bias and quick 
 delivery all the excellence which underhand bowling 
 admits. Still, as regards Batting, the very fact that 
 the stumps remained six inches wide, by twenty- two 
 inches in height, undeniably proves that the secret of 
 success was limited to comparatively a small number of 
 players. 
 
78 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS OF THE PRESENT CENTURY. 
 
 Before this century was one year old, David Harris, 
 Harry Walker, Purchase, Aylward, and Lumpy had 
 left the stage, and John Small, instead of hitting bad 
 balls whose stitches would not last a match, had learnt 
 to make commodities so good that Clout's and Duke's 
 were mere toyshop in comparison. Noah Mann was 
 the Caldecourt, or umpire, of the day, and Harry 
 Bentley also, when he did not play. Five years more 
 saw nearly the last of Earl Winchelsea, Sir Horace 
 Mann, Earl Darnley, and Lord Yarmouth ; still Surrey 
 had a generous friend in Mr. Laurell, Hants in Mr. T. 
 Smith, and Kent in the Honorables H. and J. TufFton. 
 The Pavilion at Lord's, then and since 1787 on the 
 site of Dorset Square, was attended by Lord Frederick 
 Beauclerk, then a young man of four-and-twenty, the 
 Honorables Colonel Bligh, General Lennox, H. and J. 
 TufFton, and A. Upton. Also, there were usually 
 Messrs. B. Whitehead, G. Leycester, S. Vigne, and F. 
 Ladbroke. These were the great promoters of the 
 
DUKE OF YORK AND GEORGE IV. 79 
 
 matches, and the first of the amateurs. Cricket, we 
 have shown, was originally classed among the games of 
 the lower orders ; so we find the yeomen infinitely su- 
 perior to the gentlemen even before cricket had become 
 by any means so much of a profession as it is now. 
 Tom Walker, Beldham, John Wells, Fennex, Ham- 
 mond, Robinson, Lambert, Sparkes, H. Bentley, Ben- 
 nett, Freemantle, were the best professionals of the 
 day. For it was seven or eight years later that E. H. 
 Budd, and his unequal rival, Mr. Brand, and his sport- 
 ing friend, Osbaldeston, as also that fine player, E. 
 Parry, Esq., severally appeared; and later still, that 
 Mr. Ward, Howard, Beagley, Thumwood, Caldecourt, 
 Slater, Flavel, Ashby, Searle, and Saunders, succes- 
 sively showed every resource of bias bowling to shorten 
 the scores, and of fine hitting to lengthen them. By 
 the end of these twenty years, all these distinguished 
 players had taught a game in which the batting beat 
 the bowling. Matches took up three days ; the wicket 
 had been twice enlarged, once about 1814, and again 
 about 1817; old Lord had tried his third, the present, 
 ground; the Legs had taught the wisdom of playing 
 rather for love than money ; slow coaches had given 
 way to fast, long whist to short, and ultimately Lam- 
 bert, John Wells, Howard, and Powell, Handed over 
 the ball to Broadbridge and Lillywhite. 
 
 Such is the scene, the characters, and the perform- 
 ance. Matches in those days were more numerously 
 
80 1HE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 attended than now, said Mr, Ward : he thought that 
 the old game was more attractive, because more busy, 
 than the new. Tom Lord's flag was the well known 
 telegraph that brought him in from three to four 
 thousand sixpences at a match. John Groldham, the 
 octogenarian inspector of Billingsgate, has seen the 
 Duke of York and his adversary, Honorable Colonel 
 Lennox, in the same game, and had the honor of play- 
 ing with both, and the Prince Regent, too, in the 
 White Conduit Fields, on which spot Mr. Goldham 
 built his present house. Great matches, in those days, 
 as in these, cost money. Six guineas to win and four 
 to lose was the player's fee, or five and three if they 
 lived in town. So as every match cost some seventy 
 pounds, over the fire-place at Lord's you would see a 
 Subscription List for Surrey against England, or for 
 England against Kent, as the case might be, and find 
 notices at Brookes's and other clubs. 
 
 But what were the famed cricket Counties in these 
 twenty years ? The glory of Kent had for a time de- 
 parted. Time was when Kent could challenge England 
 man for man, but now only with such odds as twenty- 
 three to twelve. As to its wide extension, cricket ad- 
 vanced but slowly compared with recent times. Still a 
 small circle round London would comprise all the finest 
 players. It was not till 1820 that Norfolk, forgetting 
 its three Elevens beaten by Lord Frederick, again 
 played Marylebone, and though three gentlemen were 
 
KENT IN THE SHADE. 81 
 
 given and Fuller Pilch played — then a lad of seventeen 
 years — Norfolk lost by 417 runs, including Mr. Ward's 
 longest score on record, — 278. " But he was missed," 
 said Mr. Budd, " the easiest possible catch before he 
 had scored thirty." Kennington Oval, perhaps, was 
 then all docks and thistles. Still Surrey was the first 
 cricket county, and Mr. Laurell (Robinson was his 
 keeper ; an awful man for poachers, 6 feet 1 inch, and 
 16 stone, and strong in proportion), most generous of 
 supporters, was not slow to give orders on Lord for 
 golden guineas, when a Surrey man by catch, or in- 
 nings, called forth applause. Of the same high order 
 were Sir J. Cope of Bramshill Park and Mr. Barnett, 
 the banker, promoter of the B. matches; Hon. D. Kin- 
 naird, and Mr. W. Ward, who, by purchase of a lease, 
 saved Lord's from building ground ; an act of gener- 
 osity in which he imitated the good old Duke of 
 Dorset, who, said Mr. Budd, " gave the ground called 
 the Vine, at Sevenoaks, to the use of cricketers for 
 ever." 
 
 The good men of Surrey, in 1800, monopolized 
 nearly all the play of England. Lord Frederick Beau- 
 clerk and Hammond were the only All England players 
 not Surrey men. 
 
 Kent had then some civil contests — petty wars of 
 single clans — but no county match ; and their great 
 friend, Ii. Whitehead, Esq., depended on the M.C.C. 
 for his finest games. The game had become a profes- 
 
82 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 sion : a science to the gentlemen, and an art or 
 handicraft to the players ; and Farnham found in 
 London the best market for its cricket as for its 
 hops. The best Kent play was displayed at Rochester, 
 and yet more at Woolwich, but chiefly among our 
 officers, whose bats were bought in London, not at 
 Sevenoaks. Games reflecting none such honor to the 
 county as when the Earls of Thanet and of Darnley 
 brought their own tenantry to Lord's or Dartford Brent, 
 armed with the native willow wood of Kent. So the 
 Honorables H. and A. TufFton were obliged to yield to 
 the altered times, and play two-and-twenty men where 
 their noble father, the Earl of Thanet, had won with 
 eleven. 6i Thirteen to twenty-three was the number we 
 enjoyed/' said Sparkes, " for with thirteen good men 
 well-placed, and the bowling good, we did not want 
 their twenty-three. A third man on, and a forward 
 point, or kind of middle wicket, with slow bowling, or 
 an extra slip with fast, made a very strong field : the 
 Kent men were sometimes regularly pounded." 
 
 In 1805, we find a curious match : the " twelve best 
 against twenty-three next best." Lord Frederick was 
 the only amateur among the former ; but Barton, one 
 of the " next best " among the latter, proved worth 
 100 runs ! Mr. Budd first appeared at Lord's in 
 1808, and was among the longest scorers from the very 
 first. 
 
 The Homerton Club also furnished an annual match : 
 
MR. E. H. BTJDD AND LAMBERT. 83 
 
 still all within the sound of Bow bells. " To forget 
 Homerton," said Mr. Ward, " were to ignore Mr. 
 Vigne, our wicket-keeper, but one of very moderate 
 powers. Hammond was the best we ever had. He 
 played till his sixtieth year ; but Browne and Osbald- 
 estone put all wicket-keeping to the rout. Hammond's 
 great success was in the days of slow bowling. John 
 Wells and Howard were the two best fast bowlers, though 
 Powell was very true. Osbaldestone beat his side with 
 byes and slips — thirty byes in the B. match." Few 
 men could hit him before wicket ; whence the many 
 single wicket-matches he plaved ; but Mr. Ward put an 
 end to his reign by finding out Browne of Brighton. 
 Beagley said of Browne, as the players now say of Mr. 
 Fellows, they had no objection to him when the ground 
 was smooth. 
 
 The Homerton Club also boasted of Mr. Ladbroke, 
 one of the great promoters of matches, as well as the 
 late Mr. Aislaby, always fond of the game, but all his 
 life " too big to play," — the remark by Lord . Frederick 
 of Mr. Ward, which, being repeated, did no little 
 to develop the latent powers of that most efficient 
 player. 
 
 The Montpelier Club, also, with men given, annually 
 played Marylebone. 
 
 Lord Frederick, in 1803, gave a little variety to the 
 matches by leading against Marylebone ten men of 
 Leicester and Nottingham with the two Warsops. " T. 
 Warsop," said Clarke, " was one of the best bowlers I 
 
84 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 ever knew." Clarke has also a high opinion of Lam- 
 bert, from whom he learnt more *>f the game than from 
 any other man. 
 
 Lambert's bowling was like Mr. Budd's, against 
 which I have often played*: • a high underhand delivery, 
 slow, but rising very high, very accurately pitched, and 
 turning in from leg stump. " About the year 1818, 
 Lambert and I," said Mr. Budd, " attained to a kind 
 of round-armed delivery (described as Clarke's), by 
 which we rose decidedly superior to all the batsmen of 
 the day. Mr. Ward could not play it, but he headed 
 a party against us, and oar new bowling was ignored." 
 Tom Walker and Lord Frederick were of the tediously 
 slow school; Lambert and Budd several degrees faster. 
 Howard and John Wells were the fast underhand 
 bowlers. 
 
 Lord Frederick was a very successful bowler, but was 
 at last beat by men running into him. Sparks men- 
 tioned another player, who brought very slow bowling 
 to perfection, and beat in the same way. Beldham 
 thought Mr. Budd's bowling better than Lord Fred- 
 erick's. 
 
 His Lordship is generally supposed to have been the 
 best amateur of his day — an assertion I can by no 
 means reconcile with acknowledged facts ; for Mr. 
 Budd made the best average, though usually placed 
 against Lambert's bowling, and playing almost exclu- 
 sively in the great matches. Mr. Budd was a much 
 
MR. E. H. BTJDD AND LAMBERT, 85 
 
 more powerful hitter. Lord Frederick said, " Budd 
 always wanted to win the game off a single ball : " 
 Beldham observed, '" if Mr. Budd would not hit so 
 eagerly, he would be the finest player in all England." 
 When I knew him, his hitting was quite safe play. 
 
 But since Mr. Budd had the largest average in spite 
 of his hitting, Beldham becomes a witness in his favor. 
 Mr. Budd measured Rve feet ten inches, and w r eighed 
 twelve stone, very clean made and powerful, with an 
 eye singularly keen, and great natural quickness, being 
 one of the fastest runners of his day. He stood 
 usually at middle wicket. I never saw safer hands at 
 a catch ; and I have seen him very quick at stumping 
 out. But Lord Frederick could not take every part of 
 the field ; but was always short slip, and not one of the 
 very best. Mr. Budd hit well with the wrist. At 
 Woolwich he hit a volley to long field for nine, though 
 Parry threw it in. He also hit out of Lord's old 
 ground. " Lord had said he would forfeit twenty-five 
 guineas if any one thus proved his ground too small ; 
 so we all crowded around Budd," said Beldham, " and 
 told him what he might claim. ' Well, then,' he said, 
 * I claim it, and give it among the players.' But Lord 
 was shabby, and would not pay." Mr. Budd is now 
 in his sixty-sixth year, still I have never seen the 
 country Eleven that could spare him yet. 
 
 Lambert was also good at every point. In batting, 
 he was a bold, forward player. He stood with left foot 
 8 
 
86 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 a yard in advance, swaying his bat and body as if to 
 attain momentum, and reaching forward almost to 
 where the ball must pitch. 
 
 Lambert's chief point was to take the ball at the 
 pitch and drive it powerfully away, "and," said Mr. 
 Budd, " to a slow bowler his return was so quick and 
 forcible, that his whole manner was really intimidating 
 to a bowler." Every one remarked how completely 
 Lambert seemed master of the ball. Usually the bowler 
 appears to attack, and the batsman to defend ; but 
 Lambert seemed always on the attack, and the bowler 
 at his mercy, and "hit," said Beldham, "what no one 
 else could meddle with." 
 
 Lord Frederick was formed on Beldham's style. Mr. 
 Budd's position at the wicket was much the same : the 
 right foot placed as usual, but the left rather behind, 
 and nearly a yard apart, so that instead of the upright 
 bat and figure of Pilch, the bat was drawn across, and 
 the figure hung away from the wicket. This was a 
 mistake. Before the ball could be played, Mr. Budd 
 was too good a player not to be up, like Pilch, and 
 play well over his off stump. Still Mr. Budd explained 
 to me that this position of the left foot was just where 
 one naturally shifts it to have room for a cut ; so this 
 strange attitude was supposed to favor their fine off 
 hits. I say Off hit, because the Cut did not properly 
 belong to either of these players : Robinson and Saun- 
 ders were the men to cut, — cutting balls clean away 
 
GENTLEMEN V. PLAYERS. 87 
 
 from the bails, though Robinson had a maimed hand, 
 burnt when a child : the handle of his bat was grooved 
 to fit his stunted fingers. Talking of his bat, the 
 players once discovered by measurement it was beyond 
 the statute width, and would not pass through the 
 standard. So, unceremoniously, a knife was produced, 
 and the bat reduced to rather its just than fair propor- 
 tions. "Well," said Robinson* "I'll pay you off for 
 spoiling my bat;" and sure enough he did, hitting 
 tremendously, and making one of his largest innings, 
 which were often near a hundred runs. 
 
 During these twenty years, Hampshire, like Kent, 
 had lost its renown, but simply because Hambledon 
 was now no more ; nor did Surrey and Hampshire any 
 longer count as one. To confirm our assertion that 
 Farnham produced the players, — for in 1808, Surrey 
 had played and beat England three times in one sea- 
 son, and from 1820 to 1825 Godalming is mentioned 
 as the most powerful antagonist ; but, whether called 
 Godalming or Surrey, we must not forget that the 
 locality is the same — 'we observe, that, in 1821* M. C. 
 C. plays " The Three Parishes," namely, Godalming, 
 Farnham, and Hartley Row, which parishes, after rear- 
 ing the finest cotemporaries of Beldham, then boasted 
 a later race of players in Flavel, Searle, Howard, Thum- 
 wood, Mathews. 
 
 ■ "About this time (July 23, 1821)," said Beldham, 
 " we played the Coronation Match; ■ M. C. C. against 
 
88 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 the Players of England.' We scored 278 and only six 
 wickets down, when the game was given up. I was 
 hurt and could not run my notches ; still James Bland, 
 and the other Legs, begged of me to take pains, for it 
 was no sporting match, ' any odds and no takers ; ' and 
 they wanted to shame the gentlemen against wasting 
 their (the Legs') time in the same way another time." 
 
 But the day for Hampshire, as for Kent, was doomed 
 to shine again. Fennex, Small, the Walkers, J. Wells, 
 and Hammond, in time drop off from Surrey, — and 
 about the same time, 1815, Caldecourt, Holloway, 
 Beagley, Thumwood, Shearman, Howard, Mr. Ward, 
 and Mr. Knight, restore the balance of power for 
 Hants, as afterwards, Broadbridge and Lilly white for 
 Sussex. 
 
 "In 1817, we went," said Mr. Budd, "with Os- 
 baldestone to play twenty-two of Nottingham. In that 
 match Clarke played. In common with others I lost 
 my money, and was greatly disappointed at the termin- 
 ation. One paid player was accused of selling, and 
 never employed after. The concourse of people was 
 very great : these were the days of the Luddites 
 (rioters), and the magistrates warned us, that, unless 
 we would stop our game at seven o'clock, they could 
 not answer for keeping the peace. At seven o'clock 
 we stopped, and simultaneously the thousands who 
 lined the ground began to close in upon us. Lord 
 Frederick lost nerve and was very much alarmed ; but 
 
GREAT SINGLE- WICKET MATCH. ti\) 
 
 I said they didn't want to hurt us. " No ; they simply 
 came to have a look at the eleven men who ventured to 
 play two for one." His Lordship broke his finger, and, 
 batting with one hand, scored only eleven funs. Nine 
 men, the largest number perhaps on record, are recorded 
 as "caught by Budd." 
 
 Just before the establishment of Mr. Will's round- 
 hand bowling, as if to prepare the way, Ashby came 
 forth with an unusual bias, but no great pace. Sparkes 
 bowled in the same style ; as also Matthews and Mr. 
 Jenner somewhat later. Still the batsmen were full as 
 powerful as ever, reckoning Saunders, Searle, Beagley, 
 Messrs. Ward, Kingscote, Knight ; Suffolk became very 
 strong with Pilch, the Messrs. Blake, and others, of the 
 famous Bury Club ; while Slater, Lilly white, King, 
 and the Broadbridges, raised the name of Midhurst and 
 of Sussex. 
 
 Against such batsmen every variety of underhand 
 delivery failed to maintain the balance of the game, till 
 J. Broadbridge and Lillywhite, after many protests and 
 discussions, succeeded in establishing what long was 
 called " the Sussex Bowling." 
 
 "About 1820," said Mr. Budd, "at our anniversary 
 dinner (three-guinea tickets) at the Clarendon, Mr. 
 Ward asked me if I had said I would play any man in 
 England at single wicket, without fieldsmen. An 
 affirmative produced a match p. p. for fifty guineas. 
 On the day appointed Mr. Brand proved my opponent. 
 8* 
 
90 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 He was a fast bowler. I went in first, and, scoring 
 seventy runs with some severe blows on the legs, — 
 nankeen knees and silk stockings, and no pads in those 
 days, — I consulted a friend and knocked down my own 
 wicket, lest the match should last to the morrow, and I 
 be unable to play. Mr. Brand was out without a run ! 
 I went in again, and making up the 70 to 100, I once 
 more knocked down my own wicket, and once more my 
 opponent failed to score ! ! 
 
 The flag was flying — the signal of a great match — 
 and a large concourse were assembled, and considering 
 Mr. Ward, a good judge, made the match, this is prob- 
 ably the most hollow beat on record. 
 
 Osbaldestone's victory was even more satisfactory. 
 Lord Frederick with Beldham made a p. p. match with 
 Osbaldestone and Lambert. " On the day named," said 
 Budd, " I went to Lord Frederick, representing my 
 friend was too ill to stand, and asked him to put off the 
 match. " No ; play or pay," said his Lordship, quite 
 inexorable. "Never mind," said Osbaldestone, "I 
 won't forfeit : Lambert may beat them both, and if he 
 does the fifty guineas shall be his." I asked Lambert 
 how he felt. "Why," said he, "they are anything 
 but safe." His Lordship wouldn't hear of it. " Non- 
 sense," he said, " you can't mean it." " Yes ; play or 
 pay, my Lord, we are in earnest, and shall claim the 
 stakes ! " and in fact Lambert did beat them both. 
 For to play such a man when on his mettle was rather 
 
osbaldestone's match. 91 
 
 discouraging, and " he did make desperate exertion : " 
 said Beldham, " Once he rushed up after his ball, and 
 Lord Frederick was caught so near his bat that he lost 
 his temper, and said it was not fair play. Of course, all 
 hearts were with Lambert.' ' 
 
 " Osbaldestone's mother sat by in her carriage, and 
 enjoyed the match, and then," said Beldham, " Lam- 
 bert was called to the carriage and bore away a paper 
 parcel : some said it was a gold watch, — some, bank 
 notes. Trust Lambert to keep his own secrets. We 
 were all curious, but no one ever knew." 
 
92 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 A DARK CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OE CRICKET. 
 
 The lovers of cricket may congratulate themselves at 
 the present day that matches are made at cricket, as at 
 chess, rather for love and the honor of victory than for 
 money. 
 
 It is now many years since Lord's was frequented 
 by men with book and pencil, betting as openly and 
 professionally as in *the ring at Epsom, and ready to 
 deal in the odds with any and every person of specu- 
 lative propensities. Far less satisfactory was the state 
 of things with which Lord F. Beauclerk and Mr. Ward 
 had to contend, to say nothing of the earlier days of 
 the Earl of Winchelsea and Sir Horace Mann. As to 
 the latter period, " Old Nyren " bewails its evil doings. 
 He speaks of one who had "the trouble of proving 
 himself a rogue," and also of " the legs at Marylebone," 
 who tried, for once in vain, to corrupt some primitive 
 specimens of Hambledon innocence. He says, also, 
 the grand matches of his day were always made for 
 5001. a side. Add to this the fact that the bets were 
 
SAD DOINGS. 93 
 
 in proportion, that Jim and Joe Bland, of turf notoriety, 
 Dick Whitlom, of Covent Garden, Simpson, a gaming- 
 house keeper, and Toll, of Isher, as regularly attended 
 at a match as Crockford and Gully at Epsom and 
 Ascot ; and the idea that all the Surrey and Hampshire 
 rustics should either want or resist strong temptations 
 to sell is not to be entertained for a moment. The 
 constant habit of betting will take the honesty out of 
 any man. A half-crown sweepstakes, or betting such 
 odds as lady's long kids to gentleman's short ditto, 
 is all very fair sport ; but if a man after years of high 
 betting can still preserve the fine edge and tone of 
 honest feeling, he is indeed a wonder. To bet on a 
 certainty all admit is swindling. If so, to bet where 
 you feel it a certainty must be very bad moral practice. 
 "If gentlemen wanted to bet," said Beldham, "just 
 under the pavilion sat men ready with money down to 
 give and take the current odds, and by far the best 
 men to bet with, because if they lost it was all in the 
 way of business : they paid their money and did not 
 grumble." Still they had all sorts of tricks to make 
 their betting safe. " One artifice," said Mr. Ward, 
 " was to keep a player out of the way by a false report 
 that his wife was dead." Then these men would come 
 down to the Green Man and Still, and drink with us, 
 and always said that those who backed us, or " the 
 nol5s," as they called them, sold the matches ; and so, 
 sir, as you are going the round beating up the quarters 
 
94 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 of the old players, you will find some to persuade you 
 this is true. But don't believe it. That any gentleman, 
 in my day, ever put himself into the power of these 
 blacklegs by selling matches, I can't credit. Still, one 
 day I thought I would try how far these tales were true. 
 So, going down into Kent with " one of high degree," 
 he said to me, " Will, if this match is won, I lose a 
 hundred pounds." " Well," said I, " my Lord, you 
 and I could order that." He smiled as if nothing were 
 meant, and talked of something else ; and, as luck 
 would have it, he and I were in together, and brought 
 up the score between us, though every run seemed to 
 me like " a guinea out of his Lordship's pocket." 
 
 In those days foot races were very common. Lord 
 Frederick and Mr. Budd were first-rate runners, and 
 bets were freely laid. So, one day, old Fennex laid a 
 trap for the gentlemen : he brought up to act the part 
 of some silly conceited youngster, with his pockets full 
 of money, a first-rate runner out of Hertfordshire. 
 This soft young gentleman ran a match or two with 
 some known third-rate men, and seemed to win by a 
 neck, and no pace to spare. Then he calls out, "I'll 
 run any man on the ground for 25Z., money down." 
 A match was quickly made, and money laid on pretty 
 thick on Fennex's account. Some said, " Too bad to 
 win of such a green young fellow ; " others said, " He's 
 old enough — serve him right." So the laugh was finely 
 against those who were taken in ; " the green one " ran 
 away like a hare ! 
 
THE NOTTINGHAM MATCH. 95 
 
 " You see, sir," said one fine old man, with brilliant 
 eye and quickness of movement, that showed his right 
 hand had not yet forgot its cunning, " matches were 
 bought, and matches were sold, and gentlemen who 
 meant honestly lost large sums of money, till the rogues 
 beat themselves at last. They overdid it ; they spoilt 
 their own trade ; and, as I told one of them, a knave 
 and a fool makes a bad partnership : so, you and your- 
 self will never prosper. Well, surely there was robbery 
 enough, and not a few of the great players earned 
 money to their own disgrace ; but, if you '11 believe me, 
 there was not half the selling there was said to be. 
 Yes, I can guess, sir, much as you -have been talking to 
 all the old players over this good stuff (pointing to the 
 brandy and water I had provided,) no doubt you have 
 
 heard that B sold as bad as the rest. I'll tell the 
 
 truth : one match up the country I did sell, — a match 
 made by Mr. Osbaldestone at Nottingham. I had been 
 sold out of a match just before, and lost 101., and 
 happening to hear it I joined two others of our eleven 
 to sell, and get back my money. I won 10Z. exactly, 
 and of this roguery no one ever suspected me ; but 
 many was the time I have been blamed for selling when 
 as innocent as a babe. In those days when so much 
 money was on the matches, every man who lost his 
 money would blame some one. Then if A missed a 
 catch, or B made no runs, — and where 's the player 
 whose hand is always in ? — that man was called a rogue 
 
96 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 directly. So when a man was doomed to lose his char- 
 acter, and bear all the smart, there was the more 
 temptation to do like others, and after * the kicks ' to 
 come in for * the halfpence.' But I am an old man now, 
 and heartily sorry I have been ever since, because, but 
 for that Nottingham match, I could have said, with a 
 clear conscience, to a gentleman like you, that all that 
 was said was false, and I never sold a match in my life ; 
 but now I can't. But if I had fifty sons, I would never 
 put one of them, for all the games in the world, in the 
 way of the- roguery that I have witnessed. The temp- 
 tation really was very great, — too great by far for any 
 poor man to be exposed to, — no richer than ten shil- 
 lings a week, let alone harvest time. I never told you 
 the way I first was brought to London. I was a lad of 
 eighteen at this Hampshire village, and Lord Winchel- 
 sea had seen us play among ourselves, and watched the 
 match with the Hambledon Club on Broad-halfpenny, 
 when I scored forty-three against David Harris, and 
 ever so many of the runs against David's bowling, and 
 no one ever could manage David before. So, next 
 year, in the month of March, I was down in the 
 meadows, when a gentleman came across the field with 
 Farmer Hilton, and thought I, all in a minute, now this 
 is something about cricket. Well, at last it was settled. 
 I was to play Hampshire against England, at London, 
 in White Conduit-Fields ground, in the month of June. 
 For three months I did nothing but think about that 
 
PLAYERS AT THE GREEN MAN. 97 
 
 match. Tom Walker was to travel up from this country, 
 and I agreed to go with him, and found myself at last, 
 with a merry company of cricketers, all old men, whose 
 names I had ever heard as foremost in the game — met 
 together, drinking, card-playing, betting, and singing 
 at the Green Man (that was the great cricketer's house), 
 in Oxford Street, — no man without his wine, I assure 
 you, and such suppers as three guineas a game to lose, 
 and five to win (that was then the pay for players) 
 could never pay for long. To go to London by a 
 waggon, earn five guineas three or four times told, and 
 come back with half the money in your pocket to the 
 plough again, was all very well talking. You know 
 what young folk are, sir, when they get together : 
 mischief brews stronger in large quantities : so many 
 spent all their earnings, and were soon glad to make 
 more money some other way. Hundreds of pounds 
 were bet upon the great matches, and other wagers laid 
 on the scores of the finest players, and that too by men 
 who had a book for every race, and every match in the 
 sporting world : men who lived by gambling ; and as to 
 honesty, gambling and honesty don't often go together. 
 What was easier, then, than for such sharp gentlemen 
 to mix with the players, take advantage of their diffi- 
 culties, and say, your backers, my Lord this, and the 
 Duke of that, sell matches and overrule all your good 
 play, so why shouldn't you have a share of the plunder? 
 That was their constant argument. Serve them as they 
 9 
 
98 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 serve you. You have heard of Jim Bland, the turfs- 
 man, and his brother Joe — two nice boys. "When 
 Jemmy Dawson was hanged for poisoning the horse, 
 the Blands never felt safe till the rope was round Daw- 
 son's neck, and, to keep him quiet, persuaded him to 
 the last hour that they dared not hang him : and a 
 certain nobleman had a reprieve in his pocket. Well, 
 one day in April, Joe Bland found me out in this parish, 
 and tried his game on with me. ' You may make a 
 fortune,' he said, ' if you will listen to me : so much 
 for the match with Surrey, and so much more for the 
 Kent match — ' ' Stop,' said I : ' Mr. Bland, you talk 
 too fast ; I am rather too old for this trick ;. you never 
 buy the same man but once : if their lordships ever 
 sold at all, you would peach upon them if ever after 
 they dared to win. You '11 try me once, and then you '11 
 have me in a line like him of the mill last year.' No, 
 sir, a man was a slave when once he sold to these folk : 
 fool and knave aye go together. Still they found fools 
 enough for their purpose ; but rogues can never trust 
 each other. One day a sad quarrel arose between two 
 of them ; that opened the gentlemen's eyes too wide to 
 close again to these practices. Two very big rogues at 
 Lord's fell a quarrelling, and blows were given ; a 
 crowd drew round, and the gentlemen ordered them 
 both into the pavilion. When the one began, ' You had 
 20Z. to lose the Kent match, bowling leg long hops and 
 missing catches.' ' And you were paid to lose at Swaff- 
 
TREASON OUT. 99 
 
 ham — ' Why did that game with Surrey turn about — 
 three runs to get, and you didn't make them ? ' Angry 
 words came out fast, and, when they are circumstantial 
 and square with previous suspicions, they are proofs as 
 strong as holy writ. In one single- wicket match," he 
 continued, " and those were always great matches for 
 the sporting men, because usually you had first-rate 
 men on each side, and their merits known ; dishonesty 
 was as plain as this : just as a player was coming in 
 (John B. will confess this, if you talk of the match) he 
 said to me, ' You'll let me score five or six, for appear- 
 ances, won't you, for I am not going to make many if I 
 can ? ' ' Yes,' I said, ' you rogue, you shall, if I can not 
 help it.' But when a game was all but won, and the 
 odds heavy, and all one way, it was cruel to see how 
 the fortune of the day then would change about. In 
 that Kent match, — you can turn to it in your book 
 (Bentley's scores), played 28th July, 1807, on Pennen- 
 den Heath, — I and Lord Frederick had scored sixty- 
 one, and thirty remained to win, and six of the best 
 men in England went out for eleven runs. Well, sir, I 
 lost some money by that match, and as seven of us 
 were walking homewards to meet a coach, a gentleman 
 who had backed the match drove by and said, ' Jump 
 up, my boys, we have all lost together. I need not 
 mind if I hire a pair of horses extra next town, for I 
 have lost money enough to pay for twenty pair or more. 
 Well, thought I, as I rode along, you have rogues 
 
100 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 enough in your carriage now, if the truth were told, 
 I '11 answer for it ; and one of them let out the secret 
 some ten years after. But, sir, I can't help laughing 
 when I tell you, once there was a single-wicket match 
 played at Lord's, and a man on each side was paid to 
 lose. One was bowler, and the other batsman, when 
 the game came to a near point. I knew their politics, 
 the rascals, and saw in a minute how things stood ; and 
 how I did laugh, to be sure : for seven balls together, 
 one would not bowl straight, and the other would not 
 hit ; but at last a straight ball must come, and down 
 went the wicket." 
 
 From other information received, I could tell this 
 veteran that, even in his much-repented Nottingham 
 match, his was not the only side that had men resolved 
 to lose. The match was sold for Nottingham too, and 
 that with less success, for Nottingham won : an event 
 the less difficult to accomplish, as Lord Frederick Beau- 
 clerk broke a finger in an attempt to stop a designed 
 and wilful overthrow ! and played the second innings 
 with one hand. 
 
 It is true, Clarke, who played in the match, thought 
 all was fair : still, he admits, he heard one Nottingham 
 man accused on the field, by his own side, of foul play. 
 This confirms the evidence of the Bev. C. W., no slight 
 authority in Nottingham matches, who said he was 
 cautioned before the match that all would not be 
 fair. 
 
NOTTINGHAM MATCH SOLD. 101 
 
 " This practice of selling matches," said Beldham, 
 " produced strange things sometimes. Once, I remem- 
 ber, England was playing Surrey, and, in my judgment, 
 Surrey had the best side ; still I found the Legs were 
 betting seven to four against Surrey ! This time they 
 were done ; for they betted on the belief that some 
 Surrey men ha# sold the match, but Surrey played to 
 win. 
 
 Crockford used to be seen about Lord's, and Mr. 
 Gully also occasionally, but only for society of sporting 
 men : they did not understand the game, and I never 
 saw them bet. Mr. Gully was often talking to me 
 about the game for one season ; but I could never put 
 any sense into him ! He knew plenty about fighting, 
 and afterwards of horse-racing ; but a man cannot 
 learn the odds of cricket unless he is something of a 
 player.'' 
 
 9* 
 
102 
 
 CHAP. VII. % 
 
 THE SCIENCE AND ART OE BATTING-. 
 
 A writer in " Blackwood " once attributed the success 
 of his magazine to the careful exclusion of every bit of 
 science, or reasoning, above half an inch long. The 
 Cambridge Professors do not exclusively represent the 
 mind of Parker's Piece, so away with the stiffness of 
 analysis and the mysteries of science : the laws of 
 dynamics might puzzle, and the very name of physics 
 alarm, many an able-bodied cricketer ; so, invoking the 
 genius of our mother tongue, let us exhibit science in 
 its more palatable form. 
 
 All the balls that can be bowled may, for all prac- 
 tical purposes, be reduced to a few simple classes, and 
 plain rules given for all and each. There are what are 
 called good balls, and bad balls. The former, good 
 lengths, and straight, while puzzling to the eye ; the 
 latter, bad lengths, and wide, while easy to see and to 
 hit. 
 
 But, is not a good hand and eye quite enough, with 
 a little practice, without all this theory? Do you 
 
LENGTH BALLS. 103 
 
 ignore the Pilches and the Parrs, who have proved 
 famous hitters from their own sense alone ? The ques- 
 tion is not how many have succeeded, but how many- 
 more have failed. Cricket by nature is like learning 
 from a village dame ; it leaves a great deal to be 
 untaught before the pupil makes a good scholar. If 
 you have Caldecourt's, Bayley's, or Dakin's instruc- 
 tions, viva voce, why not on paper also? What though 
 many excellent musicians do not know a note, every 
 good musician will bear witness that the consequence 
 of Nature's teaching is, that men form a vicious habit 
 almost impossible to correct, a lasting bar to brilliant 
 execution. And why? — because the piano or the 
 violin leaves no dexterity or rapidity to spare. The 
 muscles act freely in one way only, in every other way 
 with loss of power. So with batting. A good ball 
 requires all the power and energy of the man ! And as 
 with riding, driving, rowing, or every other exercise, 
 it depends on a certain form, attitude, or position, 
 whether this power be forthcoming or not. 
 
 The scope for useful instructions for forming good 
 habits of hitting before their place is pre- occupied with 
 bad- — for " there's the rub" — is very great indeed. If 
 Pilch, and Clarke, and Lillywhite, averaging fifty years 
 each, are still indifferent to pace in bowling, — and if 
 Mr. Ward, as late as 1844, scored forty against Mr. 
 Kirwan's swiftest bowling, while some of the most 
 active young men, of long experience in cricket, are 
 
104 THE CKICKET FIELD. 
 
 wholly unequal to the task,— then is it undeniable that 
 a batsman may. form a certain invaluable habit, which 
 youth and strength cannot always give, nor age and 
 inactivity entirely take away. 
 
 The following are simple rules for forming correct 
 habits of play ; for adding the judgment of the veteran 
 to the activity of youth, or putting an old head on 
 young shoulders, and teaching the said young shoul- 
 ders not to get in each other's way. 
 
 All balls that can be bowled are reducible to "length 
 balls " and " not lengths." 
 
 Not lengths are the toss, the tice, the half volley, the 
 long hop, and ground balls. 
 
 These are not length balls, not pitched at that critical 
 length which puzzles the judgment as to whether to 
 play forward or back, as will presently be explained. 
 These are all " bad balls," and among good players 
 considered certain hits, though, from the delusive con- 
 fidence they inspire, sometimes they are bowled with 
 success against the best players. 
 
 These not lengths, therefore, being the easiest to play, 
 as requiring only hand and eye, but little judgment, 
 are the best for a beginner to practise ; so we will set 
 the tyro in a proper position to play them with cer- 
 tainty and effect. 
 
 Position. — Look at any professional player, — ob- 
 serve how he stands and holds his bat. Much, very 
 much, depends on position, — so look at the figure of 
 
SIMPLE EULES. 105 
 
 v 
 
 ilch. This is substantially the attitude of every good 
 oatsman. Some think he should bend the right knee a 
 little ; but an anatomist reminds me that it is when the 
 limb is straight that the muscles are relaxed, and most 
 ready for sudden action. Various as attitudes appear 
 to the casual observer, all coincide in the main points 
 imarked in the figure of Pilch in our frontispiece. For 
 iall good players, — 
 
 1st. Stand with the right foot just within the line; 
 further in would limit the reach and endanger the 
 wicket, and further out would endanger stumping. 
 
 2dly. All divide their weight between their two feet, 
 though making the right leg more the pillar and sup- 
 port, the left being rather lightly placed, and more 
 ready to move on, off, or forward, and this we will call 
 the balance foot. 
 
 3dly. All stand as close as they can without being 
 before the wicket, otherwise the bat cannot be upright, 
 nor can the eye command a line from the bowler's 
 hand. 
 
 4thly. All stand at guard as upright as is easy to 
 them. We say easy, not to forbid a slight stoop, — 
 the attitude of extreme caution. Height is a great 
 advantage, " and a big man," says Dakin, " is foolish 
 to make himself into a little man." If the eye is low 
 you cannot have the commanding sight, nor, as players 
 say, " see as much of the game," as if you hold up your 
 head, and look well at the bowler. 
 
106 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 5thly. All stand easy, and hold the bat lightly, yet 
 firmly in their hands. However rigid your muscles, 
 you must relax them, as already observed, before you 
 can start into action. Rossi, the sculptor, made a 
 beautiful marble statue of a batsman at guard, for the 
 late Mr. William Ward, who said, " You are no 
 cricketer, Mr. Sculptor ; the wrists are too rigid, and 
 hands too much clenched." 
 
 Such is your position at guard, and when I tell you 
 what you have to do, you will readily understand the 
 meaning of fig. 1., " Receiving the Ball," or " Pre- 
 paring for Action," in the next page. 
 
 Meet the ball with as full a bat as the case admits. 
 Consider the full force of this rule. 
 
 1st. Meet the ball. The bat must strike the ball, 
 not the ball the bat. Even if you block, you can block 
 hard, and the wrists may do a little, so with a good 
 player this rule admits of no exception. Young players 
 must not think I mean a flourish, but an exact move- 
 ment of the bat only at the latest possible instant. In 
 playing back to a bail ball, a good player meets the 
 ball, and plays it with a resolute movement of arm and 
 wrist. Pilch is not caught in the attitude of what 
 some call Hanging guard, letting the ball hit his bat 
 dead, once in a season. 
 
 2dly. With a full bat. A good player has never less 
 wood than 21 inches by 4.£ inches before his wicket as 
 he plays the ball, a bad player has rarely more than a 
 
STRAIGHT PLAT PUZZLES BOWLERS. 
 
 07 
 
 Fig. 1. 
 
 Preparing for Action.* 
 
 bat's width alone. Remember the old rule, to keep 
 the left shoulder over the ball, and left elbow well up. 
 Good players must avoid doing this in excess, and 
 playing from leg to off across the line of the ball in 
 
 * The toes are too much before Wicket, and foot hardly 
 within the crease. Foreshortening suits our illustration better 
 than artistic effect. 
 
108 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 their over care to keep the shoulder over it. Fix a bat 
 by pegs in the ground, and try to bowl the wicket 
 down, and you will perceive what an unpromising 
 antagonist this simple rule creates. I like to see a bat, 
 as the ball is coming, hang perpendicular as a pendu- 
 lum from the player's wrists. The best compliment 
 ever paid me was this. " Whether you play forward 
 or back, hitting or stopping, the wicket is always 
 covered to the full measure of your bat." So said a 
 friend well known in North Devon, whose effective 
 bowling, combined with his name, has so often pro- 
 voked the pun of " the falls of the Clyde." 
 
 Herein, then, consists the great excellence of batting, 
 in presenting the largest possible face of the bat to the 
 ball. While the bat is descending on the ball, the ball 
 may rise or turn, to say nothing of the liability of the 
 hand to miss, and then the good player has always half 
 the width of his bat, besides its height, to cover the 
 deviation, whereas the cross player may err not only 
 from the inaccuracy of hand and eye, but from the twist 
 of the ball. 
 
 And would you bring a full bat even to a toss ? 
 Would you not cut it to the off or hit across to the on ? 
 
 This question tries my rule very hard, certainly ; but 
 though nothing less than a hit from a toss can satisfy a 
 good player, still I have seen the most brilliant hitters, 
 when a little out of practice, lose their wicket, or hit a 
 catch from the edge of the bat, by this common custom 
 of hitting across even to a toss or long hop. 
 
BAD BOWLING EFFECTIVE. 109 
 
 To hit tosses is good practice, requiring good time 
 and quick wrist play. If you see a man play stiff, and 
 " up in a heap," a swift toss is worth trying. Bowlers 
 should practise both toss and tice. 
 
 We remember Wenman playing well against fine 
 bowling ; an underhand bowler was put on, who bowled 
 him with a toss, fourth ball. 
 
 To play tosses, and ground balls, and hops, and 
 every variety of loose bowling, by the rigid rules of 
 straight and upright play, is a principle by which the 
 old hands have often had a laugh at the young ones. 
 Often have I been amused to see the wonder and disap- 
 pointment occasioned, when some noted member of a 
 University Eleven, or the Marylebone Club, from whom 
 all expected, of course, the most tremendous hitting off 
 " mere underhand bowling," has been easily disposed 
 of by a toss or a ground ball, yclept a " sneak." 
 
 A fast ball to the middle stump, however badly 
 bowled, no player can afford to treat too easily. A ball 
 that grounds more than once may turn more than once, 
 and the bat, though properly 4J inches wide, is consid- 
 erably reduced when used across wicket ; so never hit 
 across wicket. To turn to loose bowling, and hit 
 from leg stump square to the on side with full swing of 
 the body, is very gratifying and very effective, and per- 
 haps you may hit over the tent, or, as I once saw, into 
 a neighbor's carriage ; but while the natives are marvel- 
 10 
 
110 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 stricken, Caldecourt will shake his head, and inwardly 
 grieve at folly so triumphant. 
 
 This reminds me of a memorable match in 1834, of 
 Oxford against Cowley, the village which fostered those 
 useful members of university society, who, during the 
 summer term, bowl at sixpences on stumps, sometimes 
 eight hours a day, and have strength enough left at the 
 end to win one sixpence more. 
 
 The Oxonians, knowing the ground, or knowing 
 their bowlers, scored above 200 runs in their first 
 innings. Then Cowley grew wiser ; and even now a 
 Cowley man will tell the tale how they put on one 
 Tailor Humphreys to bowl twisting underhand sneaks, 
 at which the Oxonians laughed, and called it " no 
 cricket ; " but it actually levelled their wickets for 
 fewer runs than were made against Bayley and Cobbett 
 the following week. The Oxonians, too eager to score, 
 and thinking it so easy, hit across, and did not play 
 their usual game. 
 
 Never laugh at bowling that takes wickets. Bowling 
 that is bad, often, for that very reason, meets with 
 batting that is worse. Nothing shows a thorough 
 player more than playing with caution even badly 
 pitched underhand bowling. 
 
 One of the best judges of the game I ever knew was 
 once offered by a fine hitter a bet that he could not, 
 with his underhand bowling, make him " give a chance" 
 in half an hour. 
 
BAD BOWLING EFFECTIVE. Ill 
 
 " Then you know nothing of the game," was the 
 reply ; " I would bowl you nothing but off tosses, 
 which you must cut ; you would not cut those correctly 
 for half an hour, for you could not use a straight bat 
 once. Your bethought to be, — no chance before so 
 many runs." 
 
 Peter Heward, an excellent wicket-keeper of Leices- 
 ter, — of the same day as Henry Davis, one of the finest 
 and most graceful hitters ever seen, as Dakin or any 
 midland player will attest, — once observed to me, 
 " Players are apt to forget that a bad bowler may bowl 
 one or two balls as well as the best ; so to make a 
 good average you must always play the same guarded 
 and steady game, and take care especially when late in 
 the season." " Why late in the season ? " " Because 
 the ground is damp and heavy — it takes the spring out 
 of good bowling, and gives fast underhand bowling as 
 many twists as it has bops, besides making it hang in 
 the ground. This game is hardly worth playing, it is 
 true ; but a man is but half a player who is only pre- 
 pared for true ground." " We do not play cricket," 
 he continued, " on billiard tables ; wind and weather 
 and the state of the turf make all the difference. So, 
 if you play to win, play the game that will carry you 
 through, and that is a straight and upright game ; use 
 your eyes well ; play not at the pitch, nor by the 
 length, but always (what few men do) at the ball itself, 
 and never hitting across wicket." 
 
112 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 Next as to the half-volley. This is the most delight- 
 ful of all balls to hit, because it takes the right part of 
 the bat, with all the quickness of its rise or rebound. 
 Any player will show you what a half-volley is, and I 
 presume that every reader has some* living lexicon to 
 explain common terms. A half-volley, then, is very 
 generally hit in the air, soaring far above every fields- 
 man's head ; and to know the power of the bat, every 
 hitter should learn so to hit at pleasure. Though as 
 a rule, high hits make a low average. But I am now 
 to speak only of hitting half-volleys along the ground. 
 
 Every time you play forcibly at the pitch of a ball 
 you have more or less of the half- volley ; so this is a 
 materia] point in batting. The whole secret consists 
 partly in timing your hit well, and partly in taking 
 the ball at the right part of the rise, so as to play 
 the ball down without wasting its force against the 
 ground. 
 
 Every player thinks he can hit a half-volley along 
 the ground ; but if once you see it done by a really 
 brilliant hitter, you will soon understand that such 
 hitting admits of many degrees of perfection. You 
 will also see that there is a certain way of feeling the 
 ball on the bat, while you spring it away with an 
 elastic impulse ; also, when the ball is quite within 
 your reach, there is a certain smartness of hitting, the 
 bat appearing to be loosely flung upon the ball, pro- 
 ducing an astonishing effect ; for, the ball appears not 
 
THEORY OF HITTING. 113 
 
 so much hit as shot away, with such speed as defies the 
 fieldsman to cover it. 
 
 Clean hitting requires a loose arm, the bat held 
 firmly, but not clutched in the hand ; clumsy gloves are 
 a sad hindrance, the hit is not half so crisp and smart ; 
 the bat must be brought forward not only by the free 
 swing of the arm working well from the shoulder, but 
 also by the wrist. (Refer to Jig. 1. p. 107.) Here is 
 the bat ready thrown back, and wrists proportionally 
 bent ; from that position a hit is always assisted by 
 wrists as well as arm. The effect of the wrist alone, 
 slight as its power appears, is very material in hitting ; 
 this probably arises from the greater precision and 
 better time in which a wrist hit is commonly made. 
 
 As to hard hitting, if two men have equal skill, the 
 strong man will strike the harder blow. Many slight 
 men drive a ball nearly as far as larger men, because 
 they exert their force in a more skilful manner. We 
 have seen a man six feet three inches in height, and of 
 power in proportion, hit a ball tossed to him — not once 
 or twice, but repeatedly — a hundred yards or more in 
 the air. This, perhaps, is more than any light man 
 could do. But " the best man at putting the stone 
 and throwing a weight," observes a friend, " I ever 
 saw, was a man of little more than ten stone. The 
 application of a man's whole weight at the proper 
 moment is the chief point in this as in wrestling, and 
 so also is hard hitting. " 
 10* 
 
114 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 The whirl of the bat may be accelerated by wrist, 
 forearm, and shoulder, let each joint bear its proper 
 part. 
 
 Nuts fob, strong teeth. — All effective hits must 
 be made with both hands and arms ; and, in order that 
 both arms may apply their force, the point at which the 
 object aimed at is struck should be opposite the middle 
 of the body. 
 
 Take a bat in your hand, poise the body as for a 
 volley hit forward, the line from shoulder to shoulder 
 being parallel with the line of the ball. Now whirl 
 the bat in the line of the ball, and you will find that it 
 reaches that part of its circle where it is perpendicular 
 to the ground, — midway between the shoulders ; at 
 that moment, the bat attains its greatest velocity, so 
 then alone can the strongest hit be made. Moreover, 
 a hit made at this moment, will drive the ball parallel 
 to and skimming the ground. And if, in such a hit, 
 the lower six inches of the bat's face strike the ball, 
 the hit is properly called a " clean hit," being free from 
 all imperfections. The same may be said of a horizontal 
 hit, or cut. The bat should meet the ball when oppo- 
 site the body. I do not say that every hit should be 
 made in this manner ; I only say that a perfect hit can 
 be made in no other, and that it should be the aim of 
 the batsman to attain this position of the body as often 
 as he can. Nor is this mere speculation on the 
 scientific principle of batting ; it arises from actual 
 
CLEAN HITTING. 115 
 
 observation of the movements of the best batsmen. 
 All really good hitters make their hits just at the 
 moment when the ball is opposite the middle of their 
 body. Watch any fine off hitter. If he hits to mid- 
 wicket, his breast is turned to mid-wicket ; if he hits, 
 I mean designedly, to point, his breast is turned to 
 point. I do not say that his hits would always go to 
 those parts of the field because the speed and spin of 
 the ball will always, to a greater or less degree, prevent 
 its going in the precise direction of the hit ; but I only 
 say that the ball is always hit by the best batsmen 
 when just opposite to them. Cutting forms no excep- 
 tion : the best cutters turn the body round on the basis 
 of the feet till the breast fronts the ball, — having let 
 the ball go almost as far as the bails, — and then the full 
 power of the hitter is brought to bear with the least 
 possible diminution of the original speed of the ball. 
 This is the meaning of the observation, — that fine 
 cutters appear to follow the ball, and at the latest 
 moment cut the ball off the bails ; for, if you do not 
 follow the ball, by turning your breast to it at the 
 moment you hit, you can have no power for a fine cut. 
 It makes good "chamber practice " to suspend a ball 
 oscillating by a string : you will soon see wherein lies 
 the peculiar power of cutting, which characterizes Mr. 
 Bradshaw, Mr. Felix, and Mr. C. Taylor ; as of old, 
 Searle, Saunders, and Robinson. Robinson cut so late 
 that the ball often appeared past the wicket. 
 
116 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 And these hints will suffice to awaken attention to 
 the powers of the bat. Clean hitting is a thing to be 
 carefully studied ; the player who has never discovered 
 his deficiency in it, had need examine and see whether 
 there is not a secret he has yet to learn. 
 
 The Tice. Safest to block: apt to be missed, be- 
 ca\ise a dropping ball ; hard to get away, because on 
 the ground. Drop the bat smartly on the ground, and 
 it will make a run, but do not try too much of a hit. 
 The Tice is almost a full pitch ; the way to hit it, says 
 Caldecourt, is to go in and make it a full pitch : I can- 
 not advise this for beginners. Going in even to a Tice 
 puts you out of form for the next ball, and creates a 
 dangerous habit. 
 
 Ground balls, and all balls that touch the ground 
 more than once between wickets, I have already hinted, 
 are reckoned very easy, but they are always liable to 
 come in very dangerous. Sometimes you have three 
 hops, and the last like a good length ball : they are 
 liable to twist both on and off with the inequalities of 
 the ground ; also, if bowled with the least bias, there 
 is much scope for that bias to produce effect. All 
 these peculiarities account for the often puzzling fact 
 that the best batsmen are out with the worst bowling. 
 Bad bowling requires a game of its own, and a game 
 of the greatest care, where too commonly we find the 
 least, because u only underhand bowling, not by any 
 means good lengths ; " it requires especially playing at 
 
SECRET OF HARD HITTING, 117 
 
 the ball itself, even to the last inch, and not by cal- 
 culation of the pitch and rise. 
 
 Let me further remark that hitting, to be either free, 
 quick, or clean, must be done by the arms and wrists, 
 and not by the body, yet the weight of the body must 
 be thrown in at the proper moment by putting down 
 the left leg. Take it as a rule in hitting, that that 
 which is not elegant is not right ; for the human frame 
 is rarely inelegant in its movements when all the 
 muscles act in their natural direction. Many men play 
 with their shoulders up to their ears, and their sinews 
 all in knots, and because they are conscious of desper* 
 ate exertion, they forget that their force is going any* 
 where than into the ball. It is an old saying, that 
 hard hitting does not depend on strength. No. It 
 depends not on the strength a man has, but on the 
 strength he brings to bear ; and strength is exerted in 
 hitting, as in throwing a ball, in exact proportion to 
 the rapidity of the whirl or circle which the bat or 
 hand describes. The point of the bat moves faster in 
 the circle than any other part, and, therefore, did not 
 the jar, resulting from the want of resistance, place the 
 point of hitting, as experience shows, a little higher up, 
 the nearer the end the harder would be the hit. The 
 wrist, however slight its force, acting with a multiply* 
 ing power, adds greatly to the speed of this whirl. 
 
 Hard hitting, then, depends, first, on the freedom 
 with which the arm revolves from the shoulder, unim- 
 
118 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 peded by constrained efforts and contortions of the 
 body ; next on the play of the arm at the elbow ; 
 thirdly, on the wrists. Observe any cramped, clumsy 
 hitter, and you will recognize these truths at once. 
 His elbow is glued to his side, his shoulder stiff at the 
 joint, and the little speed of his bat depends on a twist 
 and a wriggle of his whole body. 
 
 Keep your body as composed and easy as the re- 
 quisite adjustment of the left leg will admit; let your 
 arms do the hitting ; and remember the wrists. The 
 whiz that meets the ear will be a criterion of increasing 
 power. Practise hard hitting, — that is, the full and 
 timely application of your strength, not only for the 
 value of the extra score, but because hard hitting and 
 correct and clean hitting are one and the same thing. 
 Mere stopping balls and poking about in the blockhole 
 is not cricket, however successful ; and I must admit, 
 that one of the most awkward, poking, vexatious block- 
 ers that ever produced a counterfeit of cricket, defied 
 Bayley and Cobbett at Oxford in 1836, — three hours, 
 and made five and thirty runs. Another friend, a bet- 
 ter player, addicted to the same teasing game, in a 
 match at Exeter in 1845, blocked away till his party, 
 the N. Devon, won the match, chiefly of byes and wide 
 balls ! Such men might have turned their powers to 
 much better account. 
 
 Some maintain that anything that succeeds is cricket ; 
 but not such cricket as full-grown men should vote a 
 
HOW TO USE YOUR EYES. 119 
 
 scientific and a manly exercise ; otherwise, to " run cun- 
 ning'' might be Coursing, and to kill sitting Shooting. 
 A player may happen to succeed with what is not 
 generally a successful style, — winning in spite of his 
 awkwardness, and not by virtue of it. 
 
 But there is another cogent reason for letting your 
 arms, and not your body, do the work, — namely, that 
 it makes all the difference to your sight whether the 
 level of the eye remains the same as with a composed 
 and easy hitter, or unsteady and changing, as with the 
 wriggling and the clumsy player. Whether a ball 
 undulates in the air, or whether there is an equal 
 undulation in the line of the eye which regards that 
 ball, the confusion and indistinctness is exactly the 
 same. Look at any distant object, and wave your head 
 up and down for an experiment, and you will under- 
 stand the confusion of sight to which I allude. The 
 only security of a good batsman, as of a good shot, 
 consists in the hand and eye being habituated to act 
 together. Now the hand may obey the eye when at 
 rest, but have no such habit when in unsteady motion. 
 And this shows how uncertain all hitting must be, 
 when, either by the movement of the body or other 
 cause, the line of sight is suddenly raised or depressed. 
 
 The same law of sight shows the disadvantage of 
 men who stand at guard very low, and then suddenly 
 raise themselves as the ball is coming. 
 
 The same law of sight explains the disadvantage of 
 
120 THE CHICKET FIELD. 
 
 stepping in to hit, especially a slow dropping ball : the 
 eye is puzzled by a double motion — the change in the 
 level of the ball, and the change in the level of the line 
 of sight. 
 
 So much for our theory — now for experience. Look 
 at Pilch and all fine players ! 
 
 How characteristic is the ease and repose of their 
 figures — no hurry or trepidation. How little do their 
 heads or bodies move ! Whereas bad players move a 
 dozen times while the ball is coming, as if they stood 
 on a hot iron, with precisely the disadvantage that 
 attends an unsteady telescope. " Then you would 
 actually teach a man how to see ? " We would teach 
 him how to give his eyes a fair chance. Of sight, as 
 of quickness, most players have enough, if they would 
 only make good use of it. 
 
 To see a man wink his eyes and turn his head away 
 is not uncommon the first day of partridge shooting, 
 and quite as common at the wicket. An undoubting 
 judgment and knowledge of the principles of batting 
 literally improves the sight, for it increases that calm 
 confidence which is essential for keeping your eyes 
 open and in a line to see clearly. 
 
 Sight of a ball also depends on a habit of undivided 
 attention both before and after delivery. 
 
UPRIGHT PLAY. 121 
 
 A HABIT OF STRAIGHT AND UPRIGHT PLAY. 
 
 To be a good judge of a horse, to have good com- 
 mon sense, and to hit straight and upright at Cricket, 
 are qualifications never questioned without dire offence. 
 Yet few, very few, ever play as upright as they might 
 play, and that even to guard their three stumps. To 
 be able, with a full and upright bat, to play well over 
 and command a ball a few inches to the Off, or a little 
 to the leg, is a very superior and rare order of ability. 
 
 The first exercise for learning upright play is to 
 practise several times against an easy bowler, with 
 both hands on the same side of the handle of the bat. 
 Not that this is the way to hold a bat in play, though 
 the bat so held must be upright ; but this exercise of 
 rather poking than playing will insure you to the habit 
 and method of upright play. Afterwards, shift your 
 hands to their proper position, and practise slipping 
 «your left hand round into the same position, while in 
 the act of coming forward. 
 
 But be sure you stand up to your work, or close to 
 your block-hole ; and let the bowler admonish you 
 every time you shrink aw T ay or appear afraid of the 
 ball. Much practice is required before it is possible 
 for a young player to attain that perfect composure and 
 indifference to the ball that characterizes the professor. 
 11 
 
122 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 The least nervousness or shrinking is sure to draw the 
 bat out of the perpendicular. As to shrinking from the 
 ball — I do not mean any apprehension of injury, but 
 only the result of a want of knowledge of length or 
 distance, and the result of uncertainty as to how the 
 ball is coming, and how to prepare to meet it. Nothing 
 distinguishes the professor from the amateur, more than 
 the composed and unshrinking posture in which he 
 plays a ball. 
 
 Practice alone will prevent shrinking : encouraging 
 your bowler continually reminds you of it. As to 
 practising with a bowler, you see some men at Lord's 
 and the University grounds batting hour after hour, as 
 if cricket were to be taken by storm. Ta practise long 
 at one time is positively injurious. For about one 
 hour a man may practise to advantage ; for a second 
 hour he may rather improve his batting even by keep- 
 ing wicket, or being long stop. Anything is good 
 practice for batting that habituates the hand and eye to 
 act together. 
 
 The next exercise is of a more elegant kind, and 
 quite coincident with your proper game. Always 
 throw back the point of the bat, while receiving the 
 ball, to the top of the middle stump, as in figure, page 
 107 ; then the handle will point to the bowler, and the 
 whole bat be in the line of the wicket. By com- 
 mencing in this position, you cannot fail to bring your 
 bat straight and full upon the ball. If you take up 
 
A CONVENIENT EXERCISE. 123 
 
 your bat straight, you cannot help hitting straight ; 
 but, if once you raise the point of the bat across the 
 wicket, to present a full bat for that ball is quite im- 
 possible. 
 
 One advantage of this exercise is that it may be 
 practised even without a bowler. The path of a field, 
 with ball and bat, and a stick for a stump, are all the 
 appliances required. Place the ball before you, one, 
 two, or more feet in advance, and more or less On or 
 Off, at discretion. Practise hitting with right foot al- 
 ways fixed, and with as upright and full a bat as 
 possible : keep your .left elbow up, and always over the 
 ball. 
 
 This exercise will teach, at the same time, the full 
 powers of the bat ; what style of hitting is most effica- 
 cious ; at what angle you smother the ball, and at 
 what you can hit clean ; only, be careful to play in 
 form ; and always see that your right foot has not 
 moved before you follow to pick up the ball. Fixing 
 the right foot is alone a great help to upright play ; 
 for, while the right foot remains behind, the right 
 shoulder cannot come forward ; and this it must do to 
 hit across wicket. Firmness in the right foot is also 
 essential to hard hitting, for you cannot exert much 
 strength unless you stand in a firm and commanding 
 position. 
 
 Upright and straight hitting, then, requires, briefly, 
 the point of the bat thrown back to the middle stump 
 
124 THE CRICKET EIELD. 
 
 as the ball is coming ; secondly, the left elbow well 
 up ; and, thirdly, the right foot fixed, and near the 
 blockhole. 
 
 Never play a single ball without strict attention to 
 these three rules. At first, you will feel cramped and 
 powerless ; but practice will soon give ease and ele- 
 gance ; and you will have mastered the principle, not 
 only of all sure defence, but of all certain hitting ; for 
 the straight player has always wood enough and to 
 spare in the way of the ball ; whereas, the deviation of 
 half an inch leaves the cross-player at fault. Mr. "Wil- 
 liam Ward once played a single wicket match with a 
 thick stick, against another with a bat ; yet these are not 
 much more than the odds of good straight play against 
 cross play. At Cheltenham College, the first Eleven 
 plays the second Eleven "a broomstick match.'' From 
 the 400 pupils and masters an Eleven is chosen su- 
 perior to any in the county of Gloucester ; and I ven- 
 ture to predict that Mr. M. K. will be among the first 
 players in Cambridge, and raise Cheltenham high among 
 the schools of cricketers. 
 
 When a player hits almost every time he raises his 
 bat, the remark is, What an excellent eye that batsman 
 has ! But upright play tends far more than eye to cer- 
 tainty in hitting. It is not easy to miss when you 
 make the most of every inch of your bat. But when 
 you trust to the width alone, a slight error produces a 
 miss, and not uncommonly a catch. 
 
PLAYING FORWARD AND BACK. 125 
 
 The great difficulty in learning upright play consists 
 in detecting when you are playing across. So your 
 practice-bowler must remind you of the slightest shift- 
 ing of the foot, shrinking from the wicket, or declina- 
 tion of your bat. Straight bowling is more easy to i 
 stand up to without nervous shrinking, and slow bowl- 
 ing best reveals every weak point, because a slow ball 
 must be played : it will not play itself. Many a 
 stylish player is beat by slow bowling, because never 
 thoroughly grounded in the principles of correct play 
 and judgment of lengths. 
 
 Underhand bowling is the best of any for a learner, 
 and learners are, or should be, a large class. Being 
 generally at the wicket, it produces the straigntest 
 play: falling stumps are "no flatterers, but feelingly 
 remind us what we are." Caldecourt, who had a plain, 
 though judicious, style of bowling, once observed a 
 weak point in Mr. Ward's *play, and levelled his 
 stumps three times in about as many balls. Many 
 men, boasting, as Mr. Ward then did, of nearly the 
 first average of his day, would have blamed the bowler, 
 the ground, the wind, and, in short, any thing but 
 themselves ; but Mr. Ward, a liberal patron of the 
 game, in the days of his prosperity, gave Caldecourt 
 a guinea for his judgment in the game and his useful 
 lesson. "Such," Dr. Johnson would say, "is the 
 spirit and self-denial of those whose memories are not 
 11* 
 
126 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 doomed to decay" with their bats, but play cricket for 
 " immortality.' ' 
 
 PLAYING FORWARD AND BACK. 
 
 We have now to speak of playing length-balls, and 
 when to play forward at the pitch of the ball, and 
 when back for better sight of the rebound. 
 
 A length-ball is one that pitches at a puzzling length 
 from the bat. This is a length that cannot be reduced 
 to measurement, depending on the delivery of the 
 bowler and the reach of the batsman. 
 
 Any ball is a length-ball which pitches almost, but 
 not quite, within the command of a batsman, according 
 to his reach and ability. For more intelligible ex- 
 planation, I must refer you to your friends. 
 
 Every player is conscious of one particular length 
 that puzzles him, — of one point between himself and 
 the bowler, in which he would rather that the ball 
 should not pitch. " There is a length-ball that 
 almost blinds you," said an experienced player at 
 Lord's. There is a length that makes many a 
 player shut his eyes and turn away his head. " A 
 length," says Mr. Felix, " that brings over a man 
 most indescribable emotions." There arc two ways 
 to play such balls ; to discriminate is difficult, and, " if 
 
PLAYING FORWARD AND BACK. 127 
 
 you doubt, you are lost." Let a be the furthest point 
 
 to which a good player can reach, so as to plant his bat 
 at the proper angle, at once preventing a catch, stop- 
 ping a shooter, and intercepting* a bailer. Then, at 
 any point short of A, should the bat be placed, the ball 
 may rise over the bat if held to the ground, or shoot 
 under if the bat is a little raised. At b the same single 
 act of planting the bat cannot both cover a bailer and 
 stop a shooter. Every ball which the batsman can 
 reach, as at a, may be met with a full bat forward ; 
 and, being taken at the pitch, it is either stopped or 
 driven away with all its rising, cutting, shooting, or 
 twisting propensities undeveloped. But any ball you 
 cannot cover, as at b, must be played back nearly in 
 the attitudes shown in pages 107, and 14.1. This back 
 play gives as long a sight of the ball as possible, and 
 enables the player either to be up for a bailer or down 
 for a shooter. 
 
 More Hard Nuts. — Why do certain lengths puzzle, 
 and what is the nature of all this puzzling emotion ? It 
 is a sense of confusion and of doubt. At the moment of 
 
128 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 the pitch, the ball is lost in the ground ; so you doubt 
 whether it will rise, or whether it will shoot — whether 
 it will twist, or come in straight. The eye follows the 
 ball till it touches the ground : till this moment there 
 is no great doubt, for its course is known to be uniform. 
 I say no great doubt, because there is always some 
 doubt till the ball has passed some yards from the 
 bowler's hand. The eye cannot distinguish the direc- 
 tion of a ball approaching, till it has seen a fair portion 
 or a good sample of the flight of it. Then only can 
 you calculate what the rest of the flight will be. Still, 
 before the ball has pitched, the first doubt is resolved, 
 and the batsman knows the ball's direction ; but, when 
 once it touches the ground, the change of light alone 
 (earth instead of air being the back ground) is trying 
 to the eye. Then at the rise recommences all the un- 
 certainty of a second delivery ; for the direction of the 
 ball has once more to be ascertained, and that requires 
 almost as much time for sight as will sometimes bring 
 the ball into the wicket. 
 
 All this difficulty of sight applies only to the bats- 
 man ; to him the ball is advancing and foreshortened 
 in proportion as it is straight. If the ball is rather 
 wide, or if seen, as by Point, from the side, the ball 
 may be easily traced, without confusion, from first to 
 last. It is the fact of an object approaching perfectly 
 straight to you, that confuses your sense of distance. 
 Thus, a man standing on a railway cannot judge of the 
 
FORWARD PLAY. 129 
 
 nearness of the engine ; nor a man behind a target of 
 the approach of the arrow. Though seen obliquely, 
 the flight is clear. A long hop is not a puzzling length, 
 because there is time to ascertain the second part of 
 the course or rebound : a toss is easy, because one 
 course only. The tice also, and the half-volley, or any 
 over-pitched ball, are not so puzzling, because they 
 may be met forward, and thus the two parts of the 
 flight reduced to one. Such is the philosophy of 
 forward play, intended to obviate the batsman's chief 
 difficulty, which is with the second part or the rebound 
 of the ball. 
 
 The following are good rules :— 
 
 1 . Meet every ball at the pitch by forward play which 
 you can conveniently cover. 
 
 Whatever ball you can play forward, you can play 
 safely — as by one single movement. But in playing 
 the same ball back, you give yourself two things to 
 think of instead of one — stopping and keeping down a 
 bailer, and stopping a shooter. Every ball is the more 
 difficult to play back in exact proportion to the ease 
 with which it might be played forward. The player 
 has a shorter sight, and less time to see the nature of 
 the rise ; so the ball crowds upon him, affording neither 
 time nor space for effective play. Never play back but 
 of necessity ; meet every ball forward which you can 
 conveniently cover — I say conveniently, because, if the 
 pitch of the ball cannot be reached without danger of 
 
130 1HE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 losing your balance, misplacing your bat, or drawing 
 your foot out of your ground, that ball should be con- 
 sidered out of reach, and be played back. This rule 
 many fine players, in their eagerness to score, are apt to 
 violate ; so, if the ball rises abruptly, they are bowled 
 or caught. There is also danger of playing wide of the 
 ball, if you over-reach. 
 
 2. Some say, when in doubt, play back. Certainly 
 all balls may be played back ; but many it is almost 
 impracticable to play forward. But since the best for- 
 ward players may err, the following hint, founded on 
 the practice of Fuller Pilch, will suggest an excellent 
 means of getting out of a difficulty : — Practise the art 
 of half-play ; that is, practise going forward to balls a 
 little beyond your reach, and then, instead of planting 
 your bat near the pitch, which is supposed too far 
 distant to be effectually covered, watch for the ball 
 about half-way, being up if it rises, and down if it 
 shoots. By this half-play, which I learnt from one of 
 Pilch's pupils, I have often saved my wicket when I 
 found myself forward for a ball out of reach ; though 
 before, I felt defenceless, and often let the ball pass 
 either under or over my bat. Still half-play, though a 
 fine saving clause for proficients, is but a choice of 
 evils, and no practice for learners, as forming a bad 
 habit. By trying too many ways, you spoil your 
 game. 
 
 3. Ascertain the extent of your utmost reach for- 
 
FORWARD PLAY. 131 
 
 ward, and practise accordingly. The simplest method 
 is to fix your right foot at the crease, and try how far 
 forward you can conveniently plant your bat at the 
 proper angle ; then, allowing that^ the ball may be 
 covered at about three feet from its pitch, you will see 
 at once how many feet you can command in front of 
 the crease. Pilch could command from ten to twelve 
 feet. Some short men will command ten feet ; that is 
 to say, they will safely meet forward every ball pitching 
 within that distance from the crease. 
 
 There are two ways of holding a bat in playing 
 forward. The position of the hands, as of Pilch, in 
 the frontispiece, standing at guard, will not admit of 
 a long reach forward. But by shifting the left hand 
 behind the bat, the action is free, and the reach 
 unimpeded. 
 
 Every learner must practise this shifting of the left 
 hand in forward play. The hand will soon come round 
 naturally. Also learn to reach forward with composure 
 and no loss of balance. Play forward evenly and grace- 
 fully, with rather an elastic movement. Practice will 
 greatly increase your reach. Take care you do not lose 
 sight of the ball, as many do, and look at the ball itself, 
 not merely at the spot where you expect it to pitch. 
 Much depends on commencing at the proper moment, 
 and not being in a hurry. More useful hints on forward 
 play are found in our last pages. 
 
132 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 Forward play may be practised almost as well in a 
 room as in a cricket-field : better still with a ball in trie 
 path of a field. To force a ball back to the bowler or 
 long-field by hard forward play is commonly called 
 Driving ; and driving you may practise without any 
 bowler, and greatly improve in balance and correctness 
 of form, and thus increase the extent of your reach, and 
 habituate the eye to a correct discernment of the point 
 at which forward play ends and back play begins. By 
 practice you will attain a power of coming forward 
 with a spring, and playing hard or driving. All fine 
 players drive nearly every ball they meet forward, and 
 this driving admits of so many degrees of strength that 
 sometimes it amounts to quite a hard hit. u I once/' 
 said Clarke, " had thought there might be a school 
 opened for cricket in the winter months, for you may 
 drill a man to use a bat as well as a broadsword." 
 With driving, as with half-play, be not too eager — play 
 forward surely and steadily at first, otherwise the point 
 
CAUTION IN FORWARD PLAY. 133 
 
 of the bat will get in advance, or the hit be badly 
 timed, and give a catch to the bowler. This is one 
 error into which the finest forward players have some- 
 times gradually fallen — a vicious habit, formed from an 
 overweening confidence and success upon their own 
 ground. Comparing notes lately with an experienced 
 player, we both remembered a time in which we thought 
 we could make hard and free hits even off those balls 
 which good players play gently back to the bowler ; but 
 eventually a succession of short innings sent us back to 
 safe and sober play. 
 
 Sundry other hits are made, contrary to every rule, 
 by players accustomed to one ground, or one set of 
 bowlers. Many an Etonian has found that a game, 
 which succeeded in the shooting fields, has proved an 
 utter failure when all was new at Lord's, or in a coun- 
 try match. 
 
 Every player should practise occasionally with pro- 
 fessional bowlers, for they look to the principle of play, 
 and point out radical errors even in showy hits. 
 
 One great difficulty, we observed, consists in correct 
 discrimination of length and instantaneous decision. 
 To form correctly as the ball pitches, there is time 
 enough, but none to spare : time only to act, no time 
 to think. So also with shooting, driving, and various 
 kinds of exercises, at the. critical moment all depend 
 not on thought, but habit ; by constant practice, the 
 time requisite for deliberation becomes less and less, 
 12 
 
134 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 till at length we are unconscious of any deliberation at 
 all, — acting, as it were, by intuition or instinct, for the 
 occasion prompts the action : then, in common lan- 
 guage, we "do it naturally," or "have formed the 
 habit of doing so." 
 
 In this sense a player must form a habit of correct 
 decision in playing forward and back. Till he plays 
 by habit he is not safe : the sight of the length must 
 prompt the corresponding movement. Look at Fuller 
 Pilch, or Mr. C. Taylor, and this rule will be readily 
 understood ; for, with such players, every ball is as 
 naturally and instinctively received by its appropriate 
 movement as if the player were automaton, and the 
 ball touched a spring : so quickly does forward play, or 
 back, and the attitude for off cut or leg hit, appear to 
 coincide with, or rather to anticipate, each suitable 
 length. All this quickness, ease, and readiness marks a 
 habit of correct play ; and the question is how to form 
 such a habit. 
 
 All the calmness and composure we admire in profi- 
 cients results from a habit of playing each length in 
 one way, and in one way only. To attain this habit, 
 measure your reach before the crease as you begin to 
 practise with a bowler, and make a mark visible to the 
 bowler, but not such as will divert your own eye. 
 
 Having fixed such a mark,- let your bowler pitch, as 
 nearly as he can, sometimes on this side of the mark, 
 sometimes on that. After every ball, you have only to 
 
PRACTISE WITH A MABK. 135 
 
 ask which side ? and you will have demonstrative 
 proof whether your play has been right or wrong. 
 Constant practice, with attention to the pitch, will hab- 
 ituate your eye to lengths, and enable you to decide in 
 a moment how to play. 
 
 For my own part, I have rarely practised for years 
 without this mark. It enables me to ascertain, by 
 referring to the bowler, where any ball has pitched. 
 To know at a glance the exact length of a ball, how- 
 ever necessary, is not quite as easy to the batsman as 
 to the bowler ; and, without practising with a mark, 
 you may remain a long time in error. 
 
 After a few days' practice, you will become as certain 
 of the length of each ball, and of your ability to reach 
 it, as if you actually saw the mark, for you will carry 
 the measurement in " your mind's eye." 
 
 So far well : you have gained a perception of lengths 
 and distance ; the next thing is to apply this know- 
 ledge. Therefore bear in mind you have a habit to 
 form. No doubt many will laugh at this philosophy. 
 Pilch does not' know the " theory of moral habits," I 
 dare say ; but he knows well enough that wild prac- 
 tice spoils play ; and if to educated men I please to 
 say that wild play involves the formation of a set of 
 bad habits to hang about you, and continually interfere 
 with good intentions, where is the absurdity ? How 
 should you like to be doomed to play with some mis- 
 chievous fellow, always tickling your elbow, and mak- 
 
136 THE CHICKET FIELD. 
 
 ing you spasmodically play forward, when you ought 
 to play back, or hit round, or cut when you ought to 
 play straight ? Precisely such a mischievous sprite is 
 a bad habit. Till you have got rid of him, he is al- 
 ways liable to come across you, and tickle you out of 
 your innings : all your resolution is no good. Habit 
 is a much stronger principle than resolution. Accustom 
 the hand to obey sound judgment, otherwise it will 
 follow its old habit instead of your new principles. 
 
 To borrow an admirable illustration from Plato, 
 which Socrates' pupil remarked was rather apt than 
 elegant, — " While habit keeps up itching, man can't 
 help scratching." And what is most remarkable in 
 bad habits of play is, that long after a man thinks he 
 has overcome them, by some chance association the 
 old trick appears again, and a man feels (oh ! fine for a 
 moralist!) one law in his mind, and another law — or 
 rather, let us say, he feels a certain latent spring in 
 him ever liable to be touched, and disturb all the har- 
 mony of his cricketing economy. 
 
 Having, therefore, a habit to form, take the greatest 
 pains that you methodically play forward to the over- 
 pitched and back to the underpitched balls. My cus- 
 tom was, the moment the ball pitched, to say audibly 
 to myself, " forward," or "back." By degrees I was 
 able to calculate the length sooner and sooner before 
 the pitch, having, of course, the more time to prepare, 
 till at last no sooner was the ball out of the bowler's 
 
A HABIT TO FORM. 137 
 
 hand, than ball and bat were visibly preparing for each 
 other's reception. After some weeks' practice, forward 
 and back play became so easy that I ceased to think 
 about it, the very sight of the ball naturally suggesting 
 the appropriate movement ; in other words, I had 
 formed a habit of correct play in this particular. 
 
 "Dulci rrtari magna," says Lucretius ; that is, it is 
 delightful, from the vantage ground of science, to see 
 others floundering in a sea of error, and to feel a happy 
 sense of comparative security ; — so was it no little 
 pleasure to see the many wickets that fall, or the many 
 catches that were made, from defects I had entirely 
 overcome. 
 
 For, without the habit aforesaid, a man will often 
 shut his eyes, remove his right fingers, as if the bat 
 were too hot, and then look behind him and find his 
 wicket down. A second will advance a foot forward, 
 feel and look all abroad, and then try to seem uncon- 
 cerned, if no mischief happens. A third will play back 
 with the shortest possible sight of the ball, and hear 
 his stumps rattle before he has time to do anything. A 
 fourth will stand still, a fixture of fuss and confusion, 
 with the same result; while a fifth will go gracefully 
 forward, with straightest possible bat, and the most 
 meritorious elongation of limb, and the ball will pass 
 over the shoulder of his bat, traverse the whole length 
 of his arms, and back, and colossal legs, tipping off the 
 bails, or giving a chance to the wicket-keeper. Then, 
 12* 
 
138 THE CEICKM FIELD. 
 
 as Poins says of Falstaff, "The virtue of this jest will 
 be the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue 
 will tell us." For when a man is out by this simple 
 error in forward or backward play, it would take a 
 volume to record the variety of his excuses. 
 
 The reason so much has been said about habit is, 
 partly, that the player may understand that bad habits 
 are formed as readily as good ; that a repetition of wild 
 hits, or experimentalizing with hard hits off good 
 lengths, may disturb your quick perception of critical 
 lengths, and give you an uncontrollable habit of dan- 
 gerous hitting. 
 
 The Shooter.— This is the surest and most destruc- 
 tive ball that is bowled ; stopping shooters depends oil 
 correct position and knowledge of the game. 
 
 The great thing is decision ; to doubt is to lose time, 
 and to lose time is to lose your wicket. And this 
 decision requires a correct habit of forward and back 
 play. But, since prevention is better than cure, by 
 meeting at the pitch every ball within your reach, you 
 directly diminish the number, not only of shooters, but 
 of the most dangerous of all shooters, because those 
 which afford the shortest time to play. But supposing 
 you cannot cover the ball at the pitch, and a shooter it 
 must be, then — 
 
 The first thing is to have the bat always pointed 
 back to the bails, as in fig. 1, page 107 ; thus you will 
 drop down on the ball, and have all the time and space 
 
SHOOTING BALLS. 139 
 
 the case admits of. If the bat is not thus thrown back, 
 when the ball shoots the player has two operations, — 
 the one to put the bat back, and the other to ground 
 it, instead of one simple drop down alone. I never 
 saw any man do this better than Wenman, when play- 
 ing the North and South match at Lord's, in 1836. 
 Redgate was in his prime, and almost all his balls were 
 shooting down the hill ; and, from the good time and 
 precision with which Wenman dropped down upon 
 some dozen shooters, with all the pace and spin for 
 which Redgate was famous — the ground being hard- 
 ened into brick by the sun — -I have ever considered 
 Wenman equal to any batsman of his day. 
 
 The second thing is, to prepare for back play with 
 the first possible intimation that the ball will require 
 it. A good player descries the enemy, and drops back 
 as soon as the ball is out of the bowler's hand. 
 
 The third — a golden rule for batsmen — is: expect 
 a good length to shoot, and you will have time, if it 
 rises ; but if you expect it to rise, you are too late if it 
 shoots. 
 
 The Bail Ball. — First, the attitude is that of fig. 
 1 . The bat thrown back to the bails is indispensable 
 for quickness : if you play a bailer too late, short slip 
 is placed on purpose to catch you out ; therefore watch 
 the ball from the bowler's hand, and drop back on your 
 wicket in good time. Also, take the greatest pains in 
 tracing the ball everv inch from the hand to the bat. 
 
140 THE CBICKET FIELD. 
 
 Look hard for the twist, or a "break" will be fatal. 
 To keep .the eye steadily on the ball, and not lose it 
 at the pitch, is a hint even for experienced players : so 
 make this a subject for attentive practice. 
 
 The most difficult of all bailers are those which 
 ought not to be allowed to come in as bailers at all, 
 but be met at the pitch. Such overpitched balls give 
 neither time nor space for safe play. 
 
 Every length ball is difficult to play back just in 
 proportion to the ease with which it could be covered 
 forward. A certain space, from nine to twelve feet, 
 before the crease is, to a practised batsman, so much 
 terra firma, whereon pitching every ball is a safe stop 
 or score. - Practise with the chalk mark, and learn to 
 make this terra firma as wide as possible. 
 
 The Draw is so called, I suppose, because, when 
 perfectly made, there is no draw in it. Look at Jig. 2. 
 The bat is not drawn across the wicket, but hangs per- 
 pendicularly from the wrists ; though the wrists of a 
 good player are never idle, but bring the bat to meet 
 the ball a few inches, and the hit is the natural angle 
 formed by the opposing forces. " Say also," suggests 
 Clarke, with his usual shrewd discernment, " that the 
 ball meeting the bat, held easy in the hand, will turn 
 it a little of its own force, and the wrists feel when to 
 help it." 
 
 The Draw is the spontaneous result of straight play 
 
THE DRAW. 
 
 141 
 
 about the two leg stumps : for if you begin, as in fig. 1., 
 with point of bat thrown back true to middle stump, 
 you cannot bring the bat straight to meet a leg stump 
 ball without the line of the bat and the line of the ball 
 forming an angle in crossing each other ; and, by 
 keeping your wrists well back, and giving a clear space 
 between body and wicket, the Draw will follow of 
 itself. 
 
142 THE CRICKET FIELD. * 
 
 The bat must not be purposely presented edgeways 
 in the least degree. Draw a full bat from the line of 
 the middle stump to meet a leg-stump ball, and you 
 will have the benefit of a hit without lessening your 
 defence. " A Draw is very dangerous with a ball that 
 would hit the leg-stump," some say ; but only when 
 attempted in the wrong way ; for how can a full bat 
 increase your danger ? 
 
 This mode of play will also lead to, what is most 
 valuable, but most rare, a correct habit of passing 
 every ball the least on side of middle stump clear 
 away to the on side. This blocking between legs and 
 wickets first obviates the ball going off legs into 
 wicket ; secondly, it keeps- many awkward balls out of 
 Slip's hands ; and, thirdly, it makes single runs off the 
 best balls. 
 
 Too little, now-a days, is done with the Draw ; too 
 much is attempted by the " blind swipe," to the loss of 
 many wickets. 
 
 Every man, in a first-rate match, who loses his 
 wicket, while swiping round, ought to pay a forfeit to 
 the Reward Fund. 
 
 The only balls for the Draw are those which threaten 
 the wicket. To shuffle backwards half a yard, scrap- 
 ing the bat on the ground, or to let the ball pass one 
 side the body, with a blind swing on the other, are 
 hits which to mention is to reprove. 
 
 Our good friend, Mr. Abraham Bass, — and what 
 
OFF PLAY. 143 
 
 t 
 
 cricketer in the Midland Counties defers not to his 
 judgment, — thinks that the Draw cannot be made quite 
 so much of as we say, except by a left-handed man. 
 The short-pitched balls, which some draw, he thinks, 
 are best played back to middle On by a turn of the 
 left arm to the On side. 
 
 Here Mr. Bass mentions a very good hit— a good 
 variety — and one, too, little practised : his hit and the 
 Draw are each good in their respective places. To dis- 
 criminate every shade is impossible. " Mr. Taylor 
 had most hits I ever saw," said Caldecourt, " and was 
 a better player, even, than Lord Frederick ; though 
 Mr. Taylor's hits were not all legitimate : " so much 
 the better ; new combinations of old hits. 
 
 The old-fashioned hit under left leg, Mr. Mynn, at 
 Leicester, in 1836, gave great effect to one variety of it ; 
 a hit which Pilch makes useful, though hard to make 
 elegantly. Some say, with Caldecourt, such balls 
 ought always to be drawn ; but is it not a useful 
 variety ? 
 
 Draw or Glance from off Stump. — What is 
 true of the Leg stump is true of the Off, care being 
 taken of catch to slips. Every ball played from two off 
 stumps by free play of wrist and left shoulder well 
 over should go away among the Slips. Play hard on 
 the ball ; the ball must never hit a dead bat ; and 
 every so-called block, from off stumps, must be a hit. 
 
 Commence, as always, from Jig. 1 ; stand close up to 
 
144 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 your wicket ; weight on pivot-foot ; balance-foot ready 
 to come over as required. This is the only position 
 from which yon can command the off-stump. 
 
 Bear with me, my friends, in dwelling so much on 
 this Off-play. Many fine cutters could never in their 
 lives command off-stump with a full and upright bat. 
 Whence come the many misses of off-hits ? Observe, 
 and you will see it is because the bat is slanting, or it 
 must sweep the whole space through which the ball 
 could rise. 
 
 By standing close up, and playing well over your 
 wicket with straight bat, and throwing, by means of 
 left leg, the body forwards, over a ball rising to the off- 
 stump, you may make an effective hit from an off-bailer 
 without lessening your defence ; for how can hard 
 blocking, with a full bat, be dangerous ? All that is 
 required, is, straight play and a free wrist, though cer- 
 tainly a tall man has here a great advantage. 
 
 A free Wrist. — Without wrist-play, there can be 
 no good style of batting. Do not be puzzled about 
 " throwing your body into your hit." Absurd, except 
 with straight hits — a volley, for instance. Suspend a 
 ball, oscillating by a string from a beam, keep your 
 right foot fixed, and use the left leg to give the time 
 and command of the ball, and adjust the balance, and 
 you will soon learn the power of the wrists and arms. 
 Also, use no heavy bats ; 2 lbs. 2 oz. is heavy enough 
 for any man who plays with his wrists. The wrist 
 
OFF HIT. 145 
 
 has, anatomically, two movements ; the one up and 
 down, the other from side to side ; and to the latter 
 power, by much the least, the weight of the bat must 
 be proportioned. " My old-fashioned bat," said Mr. 
 E. H. Budd, " weighed nearly three pounds, and Mr. 
 Ward's a pound more." 
 
 The Off-hit, here intended, is made with upright 
 bat, where the horizontal cut were dangerous or uncer- 
 tain. It may be made with any off-ball, one or two 
 feet wide of the wicket. The left shoulder must be 
 well over the ball, and this can only be effected by 
 crossing, as in fig. 3, p. 147, left leg over. This, one 
 of the best players agrees, is a correct hit, provided 
 the ball be pitched well up ; otherwise he would apply 
 the Cut. But the cat serves only when a ball rises ; 
 and I am unwilling to spare one that comes in near 
 the ground. 
 
 This upright off-hit, with left leg crossed over, may 
 be practised with a bat and ball in the path of a field. 
 You may also devise some " Chamber Practice," with- 
 out any ball, or a soft ball suspended : not a bad in- 
 door exercise in cold weather. When proficient, you 
 will find that you have only to hit at the ball, and the 
 balance-foot will naturally cross over and adjust itself. 
 
 In practising with a bowler I have often fixed a 
 
 fourth stump, about six inches from off-stump, and 
 
 learnt to guard it with upright bat. Crede experto, 
 
 you may learn to sweep with almost an upright bat 
 
 13 
 
146 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 balls as much as two feet to the off. But this is a hit 
 for balls requiring back play, but 
 
 Cover-hit is the hit for over-pitched off-balls. 
 Come forward hard to meet an off-ball, and then as 
 your bat moves in one line, and the ball meets it in 
 another, the resultant will be Cover-hit. By no means 
 turn the bat : a full face is not only safe, but effective. 
 
 With all off-hits beware of the bias of the ball to 
 the off, and play well over the ball — very difficult for 
 young players. Never think about what off-hits you 
 can make, unless you keep the ball safely down. 
 
 The fine square leg-hit is similar to cover-hit, though 
 on the other side. To make cover-hit clean, and not 
 waste power against the ground, you must take full 
 advantage of your height, and play the bat well down 
 on the ball from your hip, timing nicely, eye still on 
 the ball, and inclining the bat neither too little nor too 
 much. 
 
 The Forward Cut, a name by which I would dis- 
 tinguish another off-hit, is a hit made by Butler, Guy, 
 Dakin, Parr, and especially by the Nottingham men, 
 who, Clarke thinks, " hit all round them " better 
 than men of any other county (see jig. 3). Though 
 the figures being foreshortened as seen by the bowler, 
 the artist_ unwillingly sacrifices effect to show the cor- 
 rect position of the feet. This hit may be made from 
 balls too wide and too low for the backward cut. 
 Cross the left leg over, watch the ball from its pitch, 
 
FORWARD CUT. 
 
 Fig. 3, 
 
 14? 
 
 and you may make off hits from balls low or cut balls 
 high (unless very high, and then you have time to 
 drop the bat) with more commanding power than in 
 any other position. Caldecourt does not like this cross- 
 ing of left foot ; but I know, from experience and 
 observation, that there is not a finer or more useful hit 
 in the field ; though let me here attest that Caldecourt 
 is admitted to be one of the best of instructors ; and, 
 " in my day," said Mr. E. H. Budd, " one of the best 
 fieldsmen in England." 
 
 The forward cut is peculiar in this, that, if a ball is 
 
148 THE CRICKET FIELD, 
 
 some two feet to the off, it matters not whether over* 
 pitched or short-pitched, the same position, rather for- 
 ward, equally applies. 
 
 This hit sends the ball between point and middle 
 wicket a good part of the field, and even to long-field 
 sometimes : no little advantage. Also, it admits of 
 much greater quickness. 
 
 Fix a fourth stump in the ground, one foot or more 
 wide to the off; practise carefully, keeping right foot 
 fixed, and crossing left over, and preserve the cutting 
 attitude ; and this most brilliant hit is easily acquired. 
 
 When you play a ball off, do not lose your balance 
 and stumble awkwardly one foot over the other, but 
 end in good form, well on your feet. Even good play- 
 ers commit this fault ; also in playing back they look 
 as if they would tumble over their wicket. 
 
 The Cut is generally considered the most delightful 
 hit in the game. The cut proper is made by very few. 
 Many make off-hits, but few " cut from the bails 
 between short slip and point with a late horizontal bat, 
 cutting, never by guess but always by sight, at the ball 
 itself; the cut applying to rather short-pitched balls, 
 not actually long hops ; and that not being properly 
 a cut which is in advance of the point." Such is the 
 definition of Mr. Bradshaw, whom ten years' retire- 
 ment has not prevented from being known as one of the 
 best hitters of the day. 
 
 The attitude of cutting is faintly given (because fore- 
 
THE CUT. — NO. 1. 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 149 
 
 shortened) in fig. 4. <£his represents a cut at rather a 
 wide ball ; and a comparison of Jigs. 3 and 4, will 
 show that, with rather wide off balls, the forward cut 
 is the better position ; for you more easily intercept 
 balls before they are out of play. Right leg would be 
 rather thrown back than advanced were the ball nearer 
 the wicket. Still the attitude is exceptional. Look at 
 the other figures, and the cut alone will appear with 
 right foot shifted. Compare fig. 1, with the other 
 figures, and the change is easy, as in the left foot alone ; 
 13* 
 
150 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 but compare it with the cuts {figs. 4 and 5,) and the 
 whole position is reversed : right shoulder advanced, 
 and right foot shifted. There is no ball that can be 
 cut which may not be hit by one of the other off hits 
 already mentioned, and that with far greater certainty, 
 though not with so brilliant an effect. Pilch and many 
 of the steadiest and best players never make the genu- 
 ine cut. " Mr. Felix," says Clarke, " cuts splendidly ; 
 but, in order to do so, he cuts before he sees the ball, 
 and thus misses two out of three. " ' Neither do I 
 believe that any man will reconcile the habitual straight 
 play and command of off-stump that distinguishes Pilch 
 with a cutting game. Each virtue, even in cricket, has 
 its excess : fine leg hitters are apt to endanger the leg- 
 stump ; fine cutters, the off. For the cutter must begin 
 to take up his altered position so soon, that the idea 
 must be running in his head almost while the ball is 
 being delivered ; then the first efforts bring the bat at 
 once out of all defensive ancf straight play. Right 
 shoulder involuntarily starts forward ; and if at the 
 wrong kind of ball, the wicket is exposed, and all 
 defence at an end. But with long hops there is time 
 dhough to cut : the difficulty is with good balls, and to 
 cut them, not by guess but by sight. Fig. 4 repre- 
 sents a cut at a ball nearer the wicket, the right foot 
 being drawn back to gain space. 
 
 So much for the abuse of cutting. If the ball does 
 not rise, there can be no cut, however loose the bowl- 
 
151 
 
 ing ; though, with the other off-hits, two or three might 
 be scored. The most winning game is that which plays 
 the greatest number of balls — an art in which no man 
 can surpass Mr. Baldwinson. Still a first-rate player 
 should have a command of every hit : a bowler may be 
 pitching regularly short, and the balls may be regularly 
 rising : in this case every one would like to see a good 
 cutter at the wicket. 
 
152 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 To learn the cut, suspend a ball from a string and a 
 beam, oscillating backwards and forwards — place your- 
 self as at a wicket, and experimentalize. You will 
 find:— 
 
 1. You have no power in cutting, unless you cut 
 late — " off the bails : " then only can you use the point 
 of your bat. 
 
 2. You have no power, unless you turn on the 
 basis of your feet, and front the ball, your back being 
 almost turned upon the bowler at the moment of cut- 
 ting. 
 
 3. Your muscles have little power in cutting quite 
 horizontally, but great power in cutting down on the 
 ball. 
 
 This agrees with the practice of the best players. 
 Mr. Bradshaw follows the ball and cuts very late, cut- 
 ting down. He drops his bat apparently on the top of 
 the ball. Lord Frederick used to describe the old- 
 fashioned cutting as done in the same way. Mr. Brad- 
 shaw never cuts but by sight ; and since, when the eye 
 catches the rise of a good length ball, not a moment 
 must be lost, his bat is thrown back just a little — an 
 inch or two higher than the bails (he stoops a little for 
 the purpose) — and dropped on the ball in an instant, 
 by play of the wrist alone. Thus does he obtain his 
 peculiar power of cutting by sight even fair-length 
 balls. 
 
 Harry Walker, Robinson, and Saunders were the 
 
CUTTING. 153 
 
 three great cutters ; and they all cut very late. But the 
 under-hand bowling suited cutting (proper) better than 
 round-armed; for all off-hitting is not cutting. Mr. 
 Felix gives wonderful speed to the ball, effected by 
 cutting down, adding the weight of a descending bat 
 to the free and full power of the shoulder : he would 
 hardly have time for such exertion if he hit with the 
 precision of Mr. Bradshaw, and not hitting till he saw 
 the ball. 
 
 Lord Frederick found fault with Mr. Felix's picture 
 of " the cut," saying it implied' force from the whirl of 
 the bat ; whereas a cut should proceed from wrists 
 alone, descending with bat in hand, — precisely Mr. 
 Bradshaw's hit. " Excuse me, my Lord," said Mr. 
 Felix, " that's not a cut, but only a pat." The said 
 pat, or wrist play, I believe to be the only kind of cut- 
 ting by sight for good-length balls. 
 
 To encourage elegant play, and every variety of hit, 
 we say practise each kind of cut, both Lord Frederick's 
 pat and Mr. Felix's off-hit, and the Nottingham for- 
 ward cut, with left leg over ; but beware of using either 
 in the wrong place. A man of one hit is easily 
 managed. A good off-hitter should send the ball ac- 
 cording to its pitch, not to one point only, but to three 
 or four. Old Fennex used to stand by Saunders, and 
 say no hitting could be finer — " no hitter such a fool — 
 see, sir, they have found out his hit — put a man to stop 
 his runs — still cutting, nothing but cutting — why 
 
154 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 does n't the man hit somewhere else ? " So with Jarvis 
 of Nottingham, a fine player and one of the best cut- 
 ters of his day. When a man was placed for his cut, 
 it greatly diminished his score. For off-balls we have 
 given Off-play to the slips — Cover hit — the Notting- 
 ham hit more towards middle wicket ; and the Cut 
 between slip and point — four varieties. Let each have 
 its proper place, till an old player can say, as Fennex 
 said of Beldham, " He hit quick as lightning all round 
 him. He appeared to have no hit in particular : you 
 could never place a man against him : where the ball 
 was pitched, there it was hit away." 
 
 Leg-hitting. — Besides the draw, there are two dis- 
 tinct kinds of leg-hits — one forward, the other back. 
 The forward leg-hit is made, as in jig. 6, by advancing 
 the left foot near the pitch of the ball, and then hitting 
 down upon the ball with a free arm, the bat being 
 more or less horizontal, according to the length of the 
 ball. A ball so far pitched as to require little stride of 
 left leg will be hit with nearly a straight bat : a ball as 
 short as you can stride to will require nearly a hori- 
 zontal bat. The ball you can reach with straight bat 
 will go off on the principle of the cover-hit — the more 
 square the better. But when a ball is only just within 
 reach, by using a horizontal bat, you know where to 
 find the ball just before it has risen ; for, your bat 
 covers the space about the pitch. If you reach far 
 enough, even a shooter may be picked up; and if a 
 
LEG-HITTING. 
 
 155 
 
 Fig. 6. 
 
 few inches short of the pitch, you may have all the 
 joyous spring of a half volley. The better pitched the 
 bowling, the easier is the hit, if the ball be only a 
 little to -the leg. In using a horizontal bat, if you can- 
 not reach nearer than about a foot from the pitch, 
 sweep your bat through the line in which the ball 
 should rise. Look at Jig. 7, p. 160. The bat should 
 
156 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 coincide with or sweep a fair bat's length of the dotted 
 line. But if point of bat cannot reach to within a foot 
 of the pitch, that ball must be played back. 
 
 The Short-pitched Leg Ball needs no comment, 
 save that, according as it is more or less to the wicket, 
 you may, — 1. Draw it; 2. Play it by a new hit, to be 
 explained, a Draw or glance outside your leg ; 3. You 
 may step back on your wicket to gain space, and play 
 it away to middle On, or cut it round, according to 
 your sight of it. 
 
 But in leg-hitting, beware of a "blind swipe,", or 
 that chance hit by guess of where the ball will rise, 
 made when the bat cannot properly be played at the 
 pitch. This blind hit is often made at a ball not short 
 enough to play by sight back, nor long enough to com- 
 mand forward. Parr advances left foot as far as he can, 
 and hits where the ball ought to be. But this he 
 would hardly advise , except you can nearly command 
 the pitch ; otherwise a blind swing of the bat, though 
 you sometimes see it even among good players, is not 
 to be recommended. 
 
 Reader, do you ever make this square hit On ? Or 
 do you ever drive a ball back from the leg-stump to 
 long-field On ? Probably not. Clarke complains that 
 this good old hit is gone out, and one more "man 
 thereby brought about the wicket; and, if you cannot 
 make this hit, you have a faulty style of playing leg- 
 balls. So, practise diligently with leg-balls, till balls 
 
STEPPING IN TO HIT. 157 
 
 from two leg-stumps go to long-field On, and balls a 
 little wide of leg-stump go nearly square ; and do not 
 do this by a kind of push — much too common, — but by 
 a real hit, left shoulder forward. 
 
 Also, do you ever draw out of your ground to a leg- 
 ball ? Doubly dangerous is this — danger of stumping 
 and danger of missing easy hits. If once you move 
 your pivot foot, you lose that self-command essential 
 for leg-hits. So, practise in your garden or your room 
 the stride and swing of the bat, till you have learnt to 
 keep your balance. 
 
 One of the best leg-hitters is Dakin, and his rule is : 
 keep your right foot firm on your ground ; advance the 
 left straight to the pitch, and as far as you can reach, 
 and hit as straight at the pitch as you can, just as if 
 you were hitting to long-field : the ball will fly round 
 square of itself. 
 
 My belief is, the Wykehamists introduced the art of 
 hitting leg-balls at the pitch. When, in 1833, at 
 Oxford, Messrs. F. B. Wright and Payne scored above 
 sixty each off Lillywhite 5 and Broadbridge, it was 
 remarked by the players, they had never seen their leg- 
 hit before. Clarke says he showed how to make for- 
 ward leg-hits at Nottingham. For the Nottingham 
 men used to hit after leg-balls, and miss them, till he 
 found the way of intercepting them at the rise, and 
 hitting square. 
 
 And this will be a fair occasion for qualifying certain 
 14 
 
158 THE CKICKET FIELD. 
 
 remarks which would appear to form what is aptly 
 called a " toe-in- the-hole " player. 
 
 When I spoke so strongly about using the right foot 
 as a pivot, and the left as a balance foot, insisting, 
 also, on not moving the right foot, I addressed myself 
 not to proficients, but to learners. Such is the right 
 position for almost all the hits on the ball, and this 
 fixing of the foot is the only way to keep a learner in 
 his proper form. 
 
 Experienced players — I mean those who have passed 
 through the University Clubs, and aspired to be chosen 
 in the Gentlemen's Eleven of All England — must be 
 able to move each foot on its proper occasion, especially 
 with slow bowling. Clarke says, " If I see a man fast 
 on his legs, I know he can't play my bowling." The 
 reason is, as we shall explain presently, that the accu- 
 rate hitting necessary for slow bowling requires, not 
 long reaching, but a short, quick action of the arms 
 and wrists, and activity on the legs, to shift the body 
 to suit this hitting in narrow compass. 
 
 A practised player should also be able to go in to 
 over-pitched balls to give effect to his forward play. To 
 be stumped out looks ill indeed; still, a first-rate 
 player should have confidence and coolness enough to 
 bide his time, and then go boldly and steadily in and 
 hit away. If you do go in, take care you go in far 
 enough, and to the pitch, and only go in to straight 
 balls, for to those alone can you carry a full bat. And 
 
HITTING ON THE ON-SIDE. 159 
 
 never go in to make a free swing of the bat or tremen- 
 dous swipe. Go in with a straight bat, not so much 
 to hit as to drive or block the ball hard away, or, as 
 Clarke says, " to run the ball down." Stepping in 
 only succeeds with cool and judicious hitters, with 
 some power of execution. All young players must be 
 warned that for any but a most practised player to 
 leave his ground is decidedly a losing game. 
 
 Supposing the batsman knows how to move his right 
 foot back readily, the long-hop to the leg admits of 
 various modes of play, which I feel bound to mention, 
 though not to recommend ; for a first-rate player should 
 at least know every hit : whether he will introduce it 
 much or little into his game is another question. 
 
 A leg-ball that can be played by sight is sometimes 
 played by raising the left leg. This is quite a hit of 
 the old school, — of Sparkes and Fennex, for instance. 
 Fennex's pupil, Fuller Pilch, makes the hit commonly. 
 Some first-rate judges — Caldecourt among others — 
 maintain it should never be made, but the Draw always 
 used instead. Mr. Taylor found it a useful variety ; 
 for, before he used it, Wenman used to stump him 
 from balls inside leg stump. For some lengths it has 
 certainly the advantage of placing the ball in a more 
 open part of the field. 
 
 Another way to play such balls is to step back with 
 the right foot, and thus gain time and length of hop, 
 and play the ball away with short action of arm and 
 
160 
 
 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 Fig. 7. 
 
 wrist, about middle On. This also is good, as making- 
 one hit more in your game. Another hit there is which 
 bears a name not very complimentary to two, in many 
 respects, excellent players, Marsden and Dean. Though 
 Mr. Sampson, of Sheffield, say his friends, attains in a 
 
THE DRAW OUTSIDE LEG. 161 
 
 similar manner remarkable certainty in meeting leg- 
 balls. My attention was first called to thi§ hit by 
 watching the play of Mr. E. Reeves, who makes it with 
 all the ease and elegance of the Draw, of which I con- 
 sider it one variety. Clarke says t that with a ball 
 scarcely wide of your leg, he thinks it a good hit : I 
 have, therefore, given a drawing of it in the last page. 
 When done correctly, and in its proper place, it is 
 made by an easy and elegant movement of the wrists, 
 and looks as pretty as the Draw ; but let me enter my 
 protest against the absurd and useless distortions too 
 commonly enacted by those who, carrying every novelty 
 into excess, vainly endeavor to apply this hit to balls 
 two or three feet wide. It is properly like the Draw, 
 only it is made before the left leg instead of between 
 right leg and wicket. It applies to a ball just too wide 
 to draw conveniently ; and I should be sorry to be 
 held answerable for the abuse of this or any hit. 
 
 14* 
 
162 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 HINTS AGAINST SLOW BOWLING. 
 
 While our ideas on Slow Bowling were yet in a state 
 of solution, they were, all at once, precipitated and 
 crystallized into natural order by the following remarks 
 from a valued correspondent : — 
 
 " I have said that Pilch was unequalled with the bat, 
 and his great excellence is in timing the ball. No one 
 ever mastered Lillywhite like Pilch ; because in his 
 forward play he was not very easily deceived by that 
 wary individual's repeated change of pace. He plays 
 forward with his eye, not only on the pitch, but at the 
 ball itself, being faster or slower in his advance by a 
 calm calculation of time — a point too little considered 
 by some even of the best batsmen of the day. No 
 man hits much harder than Pilch ; and, be it observed, 
 hard hitting is doubly hard in all fair comparison when 
 combined with that steady posture which does not 
 sacrifice the defence of the wicket for some one favorite 
 cut or leg-hit. Compare Pilch with good general hit- 
 ters who, at the same time, guard their wicket, and I 
 
SLOW BOWLING. 163 
 
 doubt if you can find from this select class a harder 
 hitter in England." 
 
 " But it is of slow bowling I am speaking, and Ful- 
 ler is one of the few who play Old Clarke as he should 
 be played ; playing him back all day if he bowls short, 
 and hitting him hard along the ground whenever he 
 overpitches ; and sometimes he will go in to Clarke's 
 bowling, but not to make a furious swipe, but to ' run 
 him down ' with a straight bat. This going in to 
 Clarke's bowling some persons think necessary for every 
 ball, forgetting that ' discretion is the better part of 
 cricket ; the consequence is that many wickets fall from 
 positive long hops. Almost every man who begins to 
 play against Clarke appears to think he is in honor 
 bound to hit every ball out of the field, and every one 
 who attempts it comes out, saying, ' What rubbish ! — 
 no play in it ! ' The truth being that there is a great 
 deal of play in it, for it requires real knowledge of the 
 game. You have curved lines to deal with instead of 
 straight ones. « But what difference does that make ? ' 
 1 Why, all the difference.' 
 
 " The amusing part is, that this cry of 'What rub- 
 bish ! ' has been going on for years, and still the same 
 error prevails." 
 
 Experience is not like anything hereditary : as the 
 generations of eels do not get used to being skinned, so 
 the generations of men do not get tired of doing the 
 same foolish thing. Each must suffer propria persona,, 
 
164 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 and not by proxy. So the gradual development of the 
 human mind against Clarke's bowling is for the most 
 part this: — first, a state of confidence in hitting every 
 ball ; secondly, a state of disgust and contempt at what 
 seems only too easy for a scientific player to practise ; 
 and, lastly, a slowly increasing conviction that the bats- 
 man must have as much head as the bowler, with 
 patience to play an unusual number of good lengths. 
 
 Slow bowling is most effective when there is a fast 
 bowler at the other end. It is very puzzling to alter 
 your time in forward play from fast to slow, and slow 
 to fast, every Over : so Clarke and Wisden work well 
 together. A shooter from a slow bowler is sometimes 
 found even more difficult than one from a fast bowler, 
 and this for two reasons ; first, the batsman is made up 
 for slow time, and less prepared for fast ; and, secondly, 
 a slow ball admits of being pitched further up, and, 
 therefore, if the fast shooter has more pace, the slow 
 has the shorter distance to shoot into the wicket. 
 
 Compare the several styles of bowling in the follow- 
 ing diagram. A good length ball, you see, pitches 
 nearer to the bat in proportion to the slowness of its 
 pace. Wisden is not so fast, nor is Clarke as slow, 
 practically, as they respectively appear. With Wis- 
 den' s straight lines it is far easier to calculate where 
 the ball will pitch than with the curved lines and drop- 
 ping balls of Clarke ; and when Wisden's ball has 
 pitched, though its pace is quicker, the distance it has 
 
SLOW BOWLING COMPARED WITH FAST. 
 
 165 
 
 r 
 
 ^^S^Zx 
 
 Slow Bail balls — Clarke's. 
 
 Fast Bail balls — Wisden's. 
 
 Medium pace — Lilly white's. 
 
 Slow Shooters— Clarke's. 
 
 Medium pace Shooters— Lillywhite's. 
 
 A_^ 
 
 Fast Shooters— Wisden's. 
 
 to come is so much longer, that Clarke, in effect, is not 
 so much slower, as he may appear. Lillywhite and 
 Hillyer are of a medium kind ; having partly the quick- 
 ness of Wisden's pace, and partly the advantage of 
 Clarke's curved lines and far pitch. From this diagram 
 it appears that" the slower the bowling the nearer it 
 may be pitched up, and the less is the space the bat 
 can cover forward ; also the more difficult is the ball 
 to judge ; for the curved line of a dropping ball is very 
 deceiving to the eye. 
 
168 THE CRICKET EIELD. 
 
 In speaking of Clarke's bowling, men commonly im- 
 ply that the slowness is its only difficulty. Now a ball 
 cannot be more difficult for hand or eye because it 
 moves slowly. No ; the slower the easier ; but the 
 difficulty arises from the following qualities, wholly 
 distinct from the slow pace, though certainly it is the 
 slowness that renders these qualities possible : — 
 
 1st. Clarke's lengths are more accurate. 
 
 2dly. He can vary his pace unobserved, without 
 varying his action or delivery. 
 
 3dly. More of his balls would hit the wicket. 
 
 4thly. A slow ball must be played : it will not play 
 itself. 
 
 5thly. Clarke can more readily take advantage of 
 each man's weak point. 
 
 6thly. Slow bowling admits of more bias. 
 
 7thly. The length is more difficult to judge, owing 
 to the curved lines. 
 
 8thly. It requires the greatest accuracy in hitting. 
 You must play at the ball with short, quick action 
 where it actually is, and not by calculation of its rise, 
 or where it will be. 
 
 9thly. Slow balls can be pitched nearer to the bat, 
 affording a shorter sight of the rise. 
 
 lOthly. Catches and chances of stumping are more 
 frequent, and less likely to be missed. 
 
 llthly. The curved lines and the straightness pre- 
 clude cutting, and render it dangerous to cross the ball 
 in playing to leg. 
 
DIFFICULTY OF SLOW BOWLING. 167 
 
 One artifice of Clarke, and of all good slow bowlers, 
 is this : to begin with a ball or two which may easily be 
 played back ; then, with a much higher toss and slower 
 pace, as in the diagram, he pitches a little short of the 
 usual spot. If the batsman's eye is deceived as to the 
 distance, he at once plays forward to a length which is 
 at all times dangerous ; and, as it rises higher, it makes 
 the play more dangerous still. 
 
 The difficulty of " going in " to such bowling as 
 Clarke's, depends on this : 
 
 The bat is only four inches and a quarter wide : call 
 half that width two inches of wood. Then you can 
 only have two inches to spare for the deviation of your 
 hit ; therefore, if a ball turns about two inches while 
 you are in the act of hitting, the truest hitter possible 
 must miss. 
 
 The obvious conclusion from these facts is : 
 
 1st. That you can safely go in to such balls only 
 as are straight, otherwise you cannot present a full bat ; 
 and, only when you can step right up to the pitch of 
 the ball, otherwise, by a twist, it will escape you ; and 
 slow balls twist more than fast. 2ndly. You can only 
 go in to such lengths as you can easily and steadily 
 command ; a very long step, or any unusual hurry, will 
 hardly be safe with only the said two inches of wood 
 to spare. 
 
 Now the question is, with what lengths, with such 
 bowling as Clarke's, can you steadily and safely step 
 
168 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 in, as far as the pitch, with full command of hand and 
 eye ? Remember you cannot begin your step till you 
 can judge the length ; and this, with the curved line of 
 . a slow dropping ball, you cannot judge till within 
 a little of its grounding ; so the critical time for deci- 
 sion and action is very brief, and, in that brief space, 
 how far can you step secure of all optical illusions, for 
 Clarke can deceive you by varying both the pace and 
 the curve of his ball ? — Go and try. Again, when you 
 have stepped in, where will you hit? On the ground, 
 of course, and straight. And where are the men placed ? 
 Besides, are you aware of the difficulty of interchanging 
 the steady game with right foot in your ground, with that 
 springy and spasmodic impulse that characterizes this 
 " going in? " At a match at Lord's, in 1849, I saw 
 Brockwell score some forty runs with many, hits off 
 Clarke : he said to me, when he came out, " Clarke 
 cannot bowl his best to me ; for sometimes I go in to 
 the pitch of the ball when pitched well up, and hit her 
 away ; at other times, I make a feint, and then stand 
 back, and so Clarke gets off his bowling." He added, 
 u the difficulty is to keep your temper, and not to go in 
 with a wrong ball." This, I believe, is indeed a diffi- 
 culty, — a much greater difficulty than is commonly 
 imagined. My advice to all players who have not made 
 a study of the art of going in, and have not fully sue* 
 ceeded on practising days, is by no means to attempt it 
 in a match. It is not so easy as it appears. You will 
 
STEPPING IN TO SLOW BALLS. 169 
 
 find Clarke, or any good slow bowler, too much for you. 
 " But supposing I should stand out of my ground, 
 or start before the ball is out of the bowler's hand ? " 
 Why, with an unpractised bowler, especially if in the 
 constrained attitude of the overhand delivery, this 
 manoeuvre has succeeded in producing threes and fours 
 in rapid succession. But Clarke would pitch over your 
 head, or send in a quick underhand ball a little wide, 
 and you would be stumped ; and Wisden would prob- 
 ably send a fast toss about the height of your shoulder, 
 and, being prepared to play perfectly straight at the 
 pitch, you would hardly raise your bat in time to keep 
 a swift toss out of the wicket-keeper's hands. 
 The difficulty of curvilinear bowling is this : 
 1st. In making a catch every fieldsman finds that, 
 in proportion as the ball has been hit up in the air, it 
 is difficult to judge where to place himself. By the 
 same law of sight, a fast ball that goes almost point- 
 blank to its pitch, is far easier to judge than a slow 
 ball that descends in a curve. 
 
 2dly. As the slow ball reaches the ground at a 
 greater angle, it must rise higher in a given space ; so, 
 if the batsman misjudges the pitch of a slow ball by a 
 foot, he will misjudge the rise to a greater extent than 
 with a fast ball that rises less abruptly. Hence, play- 
 ing forward is less easy with slow than with fast 
 bowling. 
 
 3dly. As to timing the ball, all the eye can discern 
 15 
 
170 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 in a body moving directly towards it, is the angle with 
 the ground : to see the curve of a dropping ball you 
 must have a side view. The man at Point can see the 
 curve clearly ; but not so the batsman. Consequently, 
 the effect of the curve is left out in the calculation, and 
 the exact time of the ball's approach is, to that extent, 
 mistaken. Every one knows the difficulty of making a 
 good half-volley hit off a slow ball, because the timing 
 is so difficult : great speed without a curve is less 
 puzzling to the eye than a curvilinear movement, how- 
 ever slow. It were odd, indeed, if it were harder to 
 hit a slow than a fast ball. No. It is the curve that 
 makes difficult what of its pace alone would be easy. 
 All forward play with slow bowling is beset with the 
 same difficulty of allowing for the curve. And what 
 style of play does this suggest? Why, precisely what 
 Clarke has himself remarked, — namely, that to fix the 
 right foot as for fast bowling, and play with long 
 teach forward, does not answer. You must be quick 
 on your feet, and, by short, quick action of the arms, 
 hit the ball actually as it is, and not as you calculate it 
 will be a second later. This is the system of men who 
 play Clarke best ; of Pilch, of Dakin, of Hunt of Shef- 
 field, and of C. Browne : though these men also dodge 
 Clarke ; and, pretending sometimes to go out, deceive 
 him into dropping short, and so play their heads 
 against his. The best bowling is sometimes hit ; but 
 I have not heard of any man who found it much easier 
 to score off Clarke than off other good bowlers. 
 
SLOW BOWLING. ■ 171 
 
 Again, as to cutting, or in any way crossing, these 
 dropping or curvilinear balls. As a slow ball rises 
 twice as much in a given space as a fast ball, of course 
 the chances are greater that the bat will not cover the 
 ball at the point at which, by anticipation, you cut. 
 If you cut at a fast ball, the height of its rise is nearly 
 uniform, and its course a straight line : so most men 
 like very fast bowling, because, if the hand is quick 
 enough, the judgment is not easily deceived, for the 
 ball moves nearly in straight lines. But, in cutting or 
 in crossing a slow ball, the height varies enough to 
 produce a mistake before the bat can meet it. 
 
 Once more, in playing at a ball after its rise, a safe 
 and forcible hit can only be made in two ways. You 
 must either meet the ball with full and straight bat, or 
 cut horizontally across it. Now, as slow balls gene- 
 rally rise too high for a hard hit with perpendicular 
 bat, you are reduced generally to the difficulties of 
 cutting or back play. Add to all this that the bias 
 from the hand and from the inequalities of the ground 
 is much greater, and also that a catch remains com- 
 monly so long in the air that every fieldsman can cover 
 double his usual quantity of ground, and then we shall 
 cease to wonder that the best players cannot score fast 
 off slow bowling. 
 
172 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 In cricket wisdom Clarke is truly " Old : " what he 
 has learnt from anybody, he learnt from Lambert. But 
 he is a man who thinks for himself, and knows men and 
 manners. " I beg your pardon, sir," he one day said 
 to a gentleman taking guard, " but ain't you Harrow ? " 
 — " Then we shan't want a man down there, '^ he said, 
 addressing a fieldsman ; " stand for the ' Harrow drive/ 
 between point and middle wicket." 
 
 The time to see Clarke is the morning of a match. 
 While others are practising, he walks round, with his 
 hands under the flaps of his coat, reconnoitering his 
 adversaries' wicket. 
 
 * Before you bowl to a man, it is worth something 
 to know what is running in his head. That gentleman," 
 he will say, " is too fast on his feet, so, as good as 
 ready money to me : if he does n't hit he can't score ; 
 if he does, I shall have him." 
 
 Going a little further, he sees a man lobbing to 
 another, who is practising stepping in. " There, # sir, is 
 
Clarice's notions of bowling. 173 
 
 6 practising to play Clarke,' that is very plain ; and a 
 nice mess, you will see, he will make of it. Ah ! my 
 friend, if you do go in at all, you must go in further 
 than that, or my twist will beat you ; and going in to 
 swipe round, eh ! Learn to run me down with a straight 
 bat, and I will say something to you. But that 
 would n't score quite fast enough for your notions. 
 Going in to hit round is a tempting of Providence." 
 
 " There, that man is pure stupid : alter the pace and 
 height with a dropping ball, and I shall have no trouble 
 with him. They think, sir, it is nothing but ' Clarke's 
 vexatious pace : ' they know nothing about the curves. 
 With fast bowling, you cannot have half my variety ; 
 and when you have found out the weak point, where 's 
 the fast bowler that can give the exact ball to hit it ? 
 There is often no more head-work in fast bowling than 
 there is in the catapult : without head-work, I should 
 be hit out of the field." 
 
 " A man is never more taken aback than when he 
 prepares for one ball, and I bowl him the contrary one : 
 there was Mr. Nameless, the first time he came to Not- 
 tingham, full of fancies about playing me. The first 
 ball he walked some yards out to meet me, and I pitched 
 over his head, so near his wicket, that, thought I, that 
 bird won't fight again. Next ball he was a little cun- 
 ning, and made a feint of coming out, meaning, as I 
 guessed, to stand back for a long hop ; so I pitched 
 15* 
 
174 THE CBICKET FIELD. 
 
 right up to him ; and he was so bent upon cutting me 
 away, that he hit his own wicket down ! " 
 
 Look at diagrams page 165. Clarke is there repre- 
 sented as bowling two balls of different lengths ; but 
 the increased height of the shorter pitched ball, by a 
 natural ocular delusion, makes it appear as far pitched 
 as the other. If the batsman is deceived in playing at 
 both balls by the same forward play, he endangers his 
 wicket. " See, there," continues Clarke, " that gentle- 
 man's is a dodge, certainly, but not a new one, either. 
 He does step in, it is true ; but, while hitting at the 
 ball, he is so anxious about getting back again, that 
 his position has all the. danger of stepping in, and none 
 of its advantages." 
 
 " Then there is Mr. ," naming a great man strug- 
 gling with adversity. " He gives a jump up off his 
 feet, and thinks he is stepping in, but comes flump 
 down just where he was before." 
 
 " Pilch plays me better than any one. But he knows 
 better than to step in to every ball, or tcu stand fast 
 every ball. He plays steadily, and discriminates, wait- 
 ing till I give him a chance, and then makes the most 
 of it." 
 
 Bowling consists of two parts : there is the mechan- 
 ical part, and the intellectual part. First, you want 
 the hand to pitch where you please, and then the head 
 to know where to pitch, according to the player. 
 
HINTS ON BOWLING. 175 
 
 The first thing is to gain full command over the 
 ball ; therefore, 
 
 1. Practise bowling quite within your strength. If 
 your strength and stature is little, your pace cannot be 
 fast. Be contented with being rather a slow bowler. 
 By commencing slowly, if any pace is in you, it will 
 not be lost ; but, by commencing fast, you will spoil all. 
 
 2. Practise, says Lillywhite, " both sides of the 
 wicket. To change sides is highly useful w 7 hen the 
 ground is worn, and it often proves puzzling to the 
 batsman." 
 
 3. Hold the ball in the fingers, not in the palm. If 
 the tips of the fingers touch the seam of the ball, some 
 bowlers find it assists in the spin. 
 
 4. The essence of a good delivery is sending the ball 
 forth rotating, or turning on its own axis. The more 
 spin you give the ball, the better the delivery ; because 
 then the ball will twist, rise quickly, or cut variously, 
 the instant it touches the ground. 
 
 5. This spin must not proceed from any conscious 
 action of the fingers, but from some mechanical action 
 of the arm and wrist. Clarke is not conscious of any 
 attempt to make his ball spin or twist : a certain action 
 has become habitual to him. He may endeavor to in- 
 crease this tendency sometimes ; but no bowling could 
 be uniform that depended so much on the nerves, or on 
 such nice feeling as this attention to the fingers would 
 involve. A bowler must acquire a certain mechanical 
 
176 THE CRICKET FIELD, 
 
 swing, with measured steps and uniform action and 
 carriage of the body. Still, at length, as with shoot- 
 ing, hand and eye naturally go together. In rowing, 
 if you look at your oar, you cut crabs. In skating, if 
 you look at the ice and think of your steps, you lose 
 the freedom and the flow of your circles. So, with bowl- 
 ing, you must, of course, try experiments till you have 
 decided on your steps and one mode of delivery, and 
 then practise no other, and think more of the wicket 
 than of your feet or your hand. 
 
 6. Commence with a very low delivery. Cobbett, 
 and others of the best bowlers, began underhand. The 
 lower the hand, the more the spin, and the quicker the 
 rise. Unfair or throwing bowlers never have a first- 
 rate delivery. See how easy to play is a throw or a 
 ball from a catapult ; and simply because the ball has 
 th£h no spin. 
 
 7. Practise a little and often. If you overfatigue the 
 muscles, you spoil their tone for a time. Bowling, as 
 we said of batting, must become a matter of habit ; and 
 habits are formed by frequent repetition. Let the 
 bowlers of Eton, Harrow, and Winchester, resolve to 
 bowl if it be but a dozen balls every day, wet or fine. 
 Intermission is very prejudicial. Also, never practise 
 carelessly : always do your best, and always in the same 
 form, lest you create a contrary habit. 
 
 8. The difficulty is to pitch far enough. Commence, 
 according to your strength, eighteen, or nineteen yards, 
 
HINTS ON BOWLING. 177 
 
 and increase to twenty-two by degrees. Most amateurs 
 bowl long hops. 
 
 9. Seek accuracy more than speed : a man of fourteen 
 stone is not to be imitated by a youth of eight stone. 
 Many players like swift bowling, and why ? Because 
 the length is easier to judge ; the lines are straighter 
 for a cut ; the ball wants little accuracy of hitting ; fast 
 bowlers very rarely pitch quite as far even as they 
 might, for this requires much extra power ; fast balls 
 twist less, and rarely increase their speed so much at 
 the rise ; fast bowling gives fewer chances that the 
 fieldsman can take advantage of, and admits generally 
 of less variety ; fewer fast balls are pitched straight, 
 and fewer even of those would hit the wicket. You 
 may find a Redgate, a Wisden, or a Mynn, who can 
 bring fast bowling under command for one or two 
 seasons ; but they are exceptions so solitary as to make 
 no precedent. Even these men were naturally of a fast 
 pace : swiftness was not their chief object. So, study 
 accurate bowling, and let speed come of itself. In 
 speaking of an amateur, who took much kind interest 
 in the play of one of the public schools, Clarke said he 
 could not bear to see so many promising young players 
 taught a wild style of bowling : it was nothing short 
 of " cruelty to animals." 
 
 So much for attaining the power of a bowler ; next 
 to apply that power : 
 
 1. Pitch as near the bat as you can without being hit 
 
178 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 away. The bowler's chance is to compel back play with 
 the shortest possible sight of the rise. 
 
 2. If three good balls have been stopped, the fourth 
 is often destructive, because the batsman's patience is 
 exhausted : so take pains with the fourth ball of the 
 over. 
 
 3. The straighter the ball, the more puzzling to 
 the eye, and the more cramping to the hand of the 
 batsman. 
 
 4. Short-pitched balls are not only easier to hit, but 
 have more scope for missing the wicket, though pitched 
 straight. 
 
 5. A free leg-hitter may often be put out by placing 
 an extra man On side, and bowling repeatedly at leg- 
 stump — only do not pitch very far up to him. Short- 
 pitched leg-balls are the most difficult to hit, and 
 produce most catches. By four or five attempts at leg- 
 hitting, a man gains a tendency to swing round, and is 
 off his straight play. 
 
 6. Besides trying every variety of length, vary your 
 pace to deceive the batsman in timing his play ; and 
 practise the same action so as not to betray the change 
 of pace. Also, try once or twice a high dropping 
 ball. 
 
 7. Learn to bowl tosses and tices. With a stiff 
 player, before his eye is in, a toss often succeeds ; but 
 especially practise high lobs — a most useful variety of 
 ball. In most Elevens there are one or two men with 
 
HINTS ON BOWLING. 179 
 
 whom good round-hand bowling is almost thrown away. 
 A first-rate player in Warwickshire was found at fault 
 with lobs : and till he learnt the secret?, all his fine play 
 was at an end. 
 
 8. Find out the furthest point to which your man can 
 play forward safely, and pitch just beyond that point 
 with every variety of pace and dropping balls. 
 
 9. A good under-hand ball of two high curves — that 
 is, a dropping ball rising high — is produced thus : — 
 Run fast to deliver the ball, and toss it six or seven feet 
 in the air : when it touches the ground, it will rise and 
 come in faster than expected, from the impetus derived 
 from the run. Such a ball, with a twist into leg- 
 stump, and a third man to On side, is very effective, 
 producing both catch and stumping. This is well worth 
 trying, with four men to the On side, if some great gun 
 is brought to win a country match. 
 
 10. Most men have a length they cannot play. The 
 fault of your.g bowlsrs is, they do not pitch far enough, 
 and thus afford too long a sight of the ball. In the 
 school matches and the university matches at Lord's, 
 this is very observable, especially with fast bowlers. 
 
 11. The old fashioned underhand lobbing, if gov- 
 erned by a good head — dropping short when a man is 
 coming out, and sometimes tossed higher and some- 
 times lower, — is a valuable change in most Elevens ; 
 but it must be high and accurately pitched, and must 
 have head-work in it. Put long-stop upon the On 
 
180 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 side, and bring long-slip nearer in ; and be sure that 
 your long-fields stand far away. 
 
 12. Lastly, the last diagram explains that curvilineal 
 bowling, the effect of a moderate pace and a spin, 
 gives the batsman a shorter sight of- the rise than is 
 possible with the straighter lines of swift bowling. A 
 man has nearly as much time to make up his mind and 
 prepare for Wisden as for Clarke, because he can judge 
 Wisden's ball much sooner, and, though the rise is 
 faster, it has further to come in. 
 
 Theory or Bowling. — What characterizes a good 
 delivery ? If two men bowl with equal force and pre- 
 cision, why does the ball come in from the pitch so 
 differently in respect of cutting, twisting, or abrupt 
 rise? 
 
 "Because one man gives the ball so much more 
 rotatory motion on its own axis, or so much more spin 
 than the other.' ' 
 
 A throw, or the catapult which strikes the ball from 
 its rest, gives no spin ; hence, the ball is regular in its 
 rise, and easy to calculate. 
 
 Cobbett gave a ball as much spin as possible : his 
 fingers appeared wrapped round the ball : his wrist 
 became horizontal : his hand thrown back at the 
 delivery, and his fingers seemingly unglued joint by 
 joint, till the ball quitted the tips of them last, just as 
 you would spin a top. Cobbett's delivery designed a 
 sp r n, and the ball at the pitch had new life in it. No 
 
THEORY OF BOWLING. 181 
 
 bowling so fair, and with so little rough play or 
 violence, ever proved more effective than Cobbett's. 
 Hillyer is entitled to the same kind of praise. 
 
 A spin is given by the fingers ; also by turning the 
 hand over in delivering the ball. 
 
 A good ball has two motions — one straight, from 
 hand to pitch, the other on its own axis. 
 
 The effect of a spin on its own axis is best exempli- 
 fied by bowling a child's hoop. Throw it from you 
 without any spin, and away it rolls ; but spin or 
 revolve it against the line of its flight with great 
 power, and the hoop no sooner touches the ground 
 than it comes back to you. So great a degree of spin 
 as this cannot possibly be given to a cricket ball ; but 
 you see the same effect in the " draw-back stroke " at 
 billiards. Revolve the hoop with less power, and it 
 will rise abruptly from the ground and then continue 
 its course — similar to that awkward and abrupt rise 
 often seen in the bowling of Clarke among others. 
 
 Thirdly, revolve the hoop as you bowl it, not against 
 but in the line of its flight, and you will have its 
 tendency to bound expended in an increased quickness 
 forward. This exemplifies a low swimming ball, 
 quickly cutting in and sometimes making a shooter. 
 This is similar to the " following stroke " at billiards, 
 made by striking tbe ball high and rotating it in the 
 line of the stroke. 
 
 Such are the effects of a ball spinning or rotating 
 
 vertically. 
 
 16 
 
182 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 Now try the effect of a spin from right to left, or left 
 to right : try a side stroke at billiards ; the apparent 
 angle of reflection is not equal to the angle of inci- 
 dence. So a cricket ball, with lateral spin, will work 
 from Leg to Off, or Off to Leg, according to the spin. 
 
 But why does not the same delivery, as it gives the 
 same kind of spin, always produce the same vertical or 
 lateral effect on a ball ? In other words, how do you 
 account for the fact that (apart from roughness of 
 ground) the same delivery produces sometimes a con- 
 trary twist ? " Because the ball may turn in the air, 
 and the vertical spin become lateral. What was the 
 under side may at the pitch be the upper, or the upper 
 become under, or any modification of either may be 
 produced in conjunction with inequality in the 
 ground." 
 
 With throwing bowling the ball comes from the ends 
 of the ringers ; why, then, does it not spin ? Because, 
 unlike Cobbett's delivery, as explained, wherein the 
 ball left the fingers by degrees, and was sent spinning 
 forth, the ball, in a throw, is held between ringers and 
 thumb, which leave their hold at the same instant, 
 without any tendency to rotate the ball. The fairer 
 and more horizontal the delivery the more the fingers 
 act, the more spin, and the more variety, after the 
 pitch. A high and unfair delivery, it is true, is diffi- 
 cult from the height of the rise ; otherwise it is too 
 regular and easy to calculate, to make first-rate 
 bowling. 
 
183 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 HINTS ON FIELDING. 
 
 The essence of good fielding is to start before the ball 
 is hit, and to pick up and return straight to the top of 
 the bails by one continuous action. This was the old 
 Wykehamist style — old, I hope not yet extinct, past 
 revival ; — for, some twenty years since, the Wykeha- 
 mist fielding was unrivalled by any school in England. 
 Fifteen years ago, Mr. Ward and, severally and sepa- 
 rately, Cobbett instanced a Winchester Eleven as the 
 first fielding they had ever seen at Lord's. And among 
 this chosen number were the yet remembered names of 
 R. Price, F. B. Wright, Knatchbull, and Meyrick. 
 These hardy Trojans — for the ball never came too fast 
 for* them-— commenced fagging out long, very long, 
 before they were indulged in batting, and were forced 
 to qualify even for fagging, by practising till they could 
 throw over a certain neighboring ban*; and were always 
 in bodily fear of the pains and penalties of the middle 
 stump if ever they missed a ball. But these days of 
 the voluntary system are far less favorable for fielding. 
 To become a good fieldsman requires persevering prac- 
 
184 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 tice, and a " big fellow " to fag for who will expect a 
 little more smartness than is always developed by pure 
 love of the game. 
 
 And now Etonians, Harrovians, Wykehamists, I 
 mention you alphabetically, a few words on training 
 your Eleven for Lord's. Choose first your bowlers and 
 wicket-keeper and long-stop ; these men you must 
 have, though not worth a run : then, if you have any 
 batsmen decidedly superior, you may choose them for 
 their batting, though they happen not to be first-rate 
 fieldsmen. But in most school Elevens, after naming 
 four or five men, it is mere chance who scores among 
 the other six or seven ; so let any great superiority 
 in fielding decide the choice. I remember playing a 
 match in which I had difficulty in carrying the election 
 of a first-rate fieldsman against a second-rate bat. Now 
 the said batsman could not certainly be worth above 
 fourteen runs ; say seven more than the fieldsman. 
 But the fieldsman, as it happened, made a most difficult 
 catch, put one runner out, and, above all, kept the 
 bowlers in good heart, during an up-hill game, by stop- 
 ping many hard hits. A bad fieldsman is a loose screw 
 in your machinery ; giving confidence to the adversary, 
 and taking the spirit out of his own party. Therefore, 
 let the captain of an Eleven proclaim that men must 
 qualify by fine fielding : and let him encourage the 
 following exercises : 
 
 Put in two batsmen, whose play is not good enough 
 
TRAINING AN ELEVEN. 185 
 
 to spoil, to tip and run. You will find what very clean 
 fielding is required to save one run with men determined 
 to try it. 
 
 Let every man practise long-stop. 
 
 Let the wicket-keeper take his place, and while some 
 one throws or hits, let him require the quickest and 
 most accurate throwing. A ball quickly thrown comes 
 in like a dart — no time being lost high in air. At 
 short distances throw at once to the hands ; at longer 
 distances with a long hop. The hop should result 
 from a low and skimming throw, or the ball will lose 
 its speed. Practise throwing, without any flourish, by 
 a single action of the arm. Any good fieldsman will 
 explain, far better than our pen, the art of picking up 
 a ball in the only position consistent with a quick 
 return. A good throw often runs a man out ; an ad- 
 vantage very rarely gained without something superior 
 in fielding. Young players should practise throwing. 
 The captain should keep an account of the best runners, 
 throwers, clean pickers-up, and especially of men who 
 can meet and anticipate the ball, and of those who 
 deserve the praise given to Chatterton — " the safest pair 
 of hands in England." 
 
 So much for quick throwing ; but for a throw up 
 from long field, Virgil had a good notion of picking up 
 and sending in a ball : 
 
 " Ille maim raptum trepida torquebat in hostem; 
 Altior assurgens, et cursu -concitus, heros." 
 
 16* JEn. xii. 901. 
 
186 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 Here we have snatching up the ball with a quiver of 
 the wrist, rising with the effort, and a quick step or two 
 to gain power. Meeting the ball requires a practice of 
 its own, and is a charming operation when you can do 
 it : for the same impetus with which you run in assists 
 the quickness of your return. Practice will reveal the 
 secret of running in ; only run with your hands near 
 the ground, so as not to have suddenly to stoop ; and 
 keep your eyes well open, not losing the ball for an 
 instant. In fielding, as in batting, you must study all 
 the varieties of balls, whether tices, half volleys, or 
 other lengths. 
 
 A fast runner nascitur non jit : still, practice does 
 much, and especially for all the purposes of a fields- 
 man near the wicket. A spring and quick start are 
 things to learn ; and that both right and left : few men 
 spring equally well with both feet. Anticipating the 
 ball, and getting the momentum on the proper side, is 
 everything in fielding ; and practice will enable a man 
 to get his proper footing, and quick shifting step. A 
 good cricketer, like a good skater, must have free use 
 of both feet, and of course a fine fieldsman must catch 
 with both hands. 
 
 Practise left-handed catching in a ring ; also picking 
 up with left: "Any one can catch with his right," says 
 the old player ; " now, my boy, let us see what you 
 can do with your left." Try, also, "slobbering" a 
 ball, to see how many arts there are of recovering it 
 
THE SHORT RUN. 187 
 
 afterwards. I need hardly say that jumping off your 
 feet for a high catch, and rushing in to a ball and 
 patting it up in the air and catching it the second 
 attempt, are all arts of first-rate practitioners. 
 
 Safe Hands. — Your hands should be on the rat-trap 
 principle, — taking anything in, and letting nothing out 
 again. Of course a ball has a peculiar feeling and spin 
 off a bat quite different from a throw ; so practise 
 accordingly. By habit hand and eye will go together : 
 what the eye sees the right part of the hand will touch 
 by a natural adjustment. There is a way of allowing 
 for the spin of the ball in the air : as to its tendency 
 at Cover, to twist especially to the left, this is too 
 obvious to require notice. 
 
 I am ashamed to be obliged to remind players, old 
 as well as young, that there is such a thing as being a 
 good judge of a short run : and I might hold up, as an 
 example, an Honorable gentleman, who, though a first- 
 rate long stop and fine style of batting, has a distinct 
 reputation for the one run. It is a tale, perhaps, 
 thrice told, but more than thrice forgotten, that the 
 partner should follow up the ball ; how many batsmen 
 destroy the very life of the game by standing still like 
 an extra umpire ! Now, in a school Eleven, running 
 matches can be practised with security, because with 
 mutual dependence ; though I would warn good 
 players that, among strangers in a country match, 
 sharp running is a dangerous game. To lose single 
 
188 THE CRICKET EIELD. 
 
 runs involves additional loss from the adversary stand- 
 ing where he pleases. I have heard of a gentleman for 
 years accounted a good long stop, till some men were 
 put in against him to try his powers, — Clarke, I think, 
 was one, — and they hurried him so much that, from 
 that hour, he abdicated. 
 
 Let old players keep up the habit of throwing and 
 active movements. For the redundant spirit and 
 buoyancy of youthful activity soon goes. Many a 
 zealous cricketer loses his once famed quickness from 
 mere disuse — Sic omnia fatis, in pejus mere. Instead 
 of always batting and practising poor Hillyer and 
 Wisden till their dodges are dodges no more, and it is 
 little credit to score from them, go to your neighbor's 
 wicket and practise fielding for an hour, or else next 
 match your throwing will be at fault. 
 
 Fielding, I fear, is retrograding : a good general 
 player, famed for that quick return that runs the adver- 
 sary out, and, at the same time, a useful change in 
 bowling, — a judge of a run, and respectable at every 
 point of the game : this is becoming a scarce character, 
 and batting is a word supposed coextensive with 
 cricket, — a sad mistake. 
 
 Spare the bow:ler. — One reason for returning the 
 ball, not to bowler, but to wicket-keeper, he should 
 advance quietly and return slowly a catch. A swift 
 throw, or any exertion in the field that hurts the 
 bowler's hand, or sets it shaking, may lose a game. If 
 
SATING THE BOWLER. 189 
 
 a bowler has half volleys returned to him, by stretch- 
 ing and stooping after them, he gets out of his swing. 
 Now this same swing is a great point with a bowler. 
 Watch him after he has got his footsteps firm for his 
 feet, and when in his regular stride, and . see the 
 increased precision of his performance. Then comes 
 the time when your great gun tumbles down his men : 
 and that is the time that some sure judgmatic batsman, 
 whose eminence is little seen amidst the loose hitting 
 of a scratch match, comes calmly and, composedly to 
 the wicket and makes a stand ; and, as he disposes of 
 maiden overs, and steals ones and twos, he breaks the 
 spell that bound his men, and makes the dead-straight 
 bowling good for cuts and leg hits. In no game or 
 sport do I ever witness half the satisfaction of the 
 bowler who can thus bowl maiden overs and defy a 
 score ; or of the batsman who takes the edge off the 
 same, runs up the telegraph to even betting, and gives 
 easier work and greater confidence to those who follow. 
 A wicket-keeper, too, may dart off and save a bowler 
 from fielding a three or four ; and, whenever he leaves 
 his wicket, slip must take wicket-keeper's place : how 
 stale ! true ; but, — instantly 's the word, — from neglect 
 of which, we have seen dreadful mistakes made even in 
 good matches. 
 
 Ay, and what beautiful things are done by quick 
 return and a low shy; no time wasted in parabolic 
 curves : ball skimming the ground and coming in a 
 
190 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 long hop, but quickest of all returns (not safest) is a 
 volley to the top of the bails into wicket-keeper's 
 hands. 
 
 Point. — Your great strength lies in anticipation: 
 witness "Ava% dcvdytiv. To that gentleman every ball 
 seems hit, because he always gets thereabouts ; yet is 
 he near-sighted withal ! 'T is the mind that sees, eyes 
 are its glasses, and he is too good a workman to want 
 excuse for his tools. With slow bowling and bad 
 batsman, Point can anticipate easily enough. Still, 
 with all bowling, fast and slow, the common fault of 
 point is, that he stands, if near, too near, and if far off, 
 yet not far enough off. Stand where you yourself can 
 catch and stop. If slow in hand and eye, stand off for 
 longer catches, else, by standing where a quick man 
 would catch sharp catches, you miss everything. With 
 fast bowling, few balls that could be caught at seven 
 yards ground short of twelve. Though, if the ground 
 is very rough, or the bowling slow, the ball may be 
 popped up near the bat, even by good players. When- 
 ever a ball is hit off, point must cross instanter, or he'll 
 be too late to back up, especially bowler's wicket. 
 
 Point is sometimes Point proper, like a wicket- 
 keeper or shortslip, to cramp the batsman, and take 
 advantage of his mistakes ; but, with fast bowling and 
 good batsmen, Point may advantageously stand off like 
 any other fieldsman. For then he will save many more 
 runs, and may make quite as many catches. If Mr. 
 
HINTS ON FIELDING. 191 
 
 King stood as Point, and Chatterton as cover in the 
 same line, with Pilch batting and Wisden bowling, 
 they would not (as I presume they are well aware) 
 work to the best advantage. When Clarke is bowling 
 to one of twenty-two, the case is different; he wants a 
 veritable Point for the catch. 
 
 SHORTLEG'is often a very hardly used personage, ex- 
 pected to save runs that seem easy, but are actual 
 impossibilities. A good ball, perhaps, is pushed for- 
 ward to middle wicket. On shortleg being square, 
 then the bowler looks black, at him. Then a draw is 
 made, when shortleg is standing sharp in forward, and 
 no man is ubiquitous. If the batsman often does not 
 know where the rise or bias may reflect the ball, how 
 should the fieldsman know ? 
 
 Covekpoint and Longseip are both difficult places ; 
 the ball comes so fast and curling, that it puzzles even 
 the best man. No place in the field but longstop has 
 the work of longslip. This used to be Pilch's place. 
 
 The chief point in these places is to stand either to 
 save one or to save two. This depends on the quick- 
 ness of the fieldsman and the judgment of the runners. 
 With such judges of a run as Hon. F. Ponsonby, 
 Pilch, or Clarke, you must stand rather near to save 
 one ; but quick return is everything. Here Caldecourt 
 was, years since, first-rate. I have seen him, when 
 past his best, at Cover, judge well, start quick, run 
 low, up and in like a shot to wicket-keeper's hands ; 
 
192 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 and what more would you have in fielding ? When E. 
 H. Budd played and won a second match for 100Z. 
 with Mr. Brande, — two fieldsmen given, — so much was 
 thought of Mr. Brande's having engaged Caldecourt, 
 that it was agreed he should field on both sides. He 
 did so, and shied Mr. Budd out at a single stump. To 
 save two, a good man may stand a very long way off 
 on hard ground, and reduce the hardest cuts to singles. 
 But a common fault is, " standing nowhere," neither 
 to save one nor to save two. Remember not to stand 
 as sharp when fast bowling is replaced by slow. Cover 
 is the place for brilliant fielding. Watch well the 
 batsman, and start in time. Half a spring in anticipa- 
 tion puts you already under weigh, and makes yards in 
 the ground you can cover. The following is curious : 
 
 " You would think," said Caldecourt, " that a ball 
 to the right hand may be returned more quickly than a 
 ball to the left." But ask him, and he will show you 
 how, if at a. long reach, he always found it otherwise. 
 The right shoulder may be even in the better position 
 to return (in spite of change of hands) when the left 
 picks up the ball than when the right picks it. 
 
 Some good Covers have been quicker with a hard 
 jerk than a throw, for the attitude of fielding is less 
 altered. Still, a jerk is less easy to the wicket-keeper. 
 A longslip with good head and heels, may assist long- 
 stop ; his triumph is to run a man out by anticipating 
 the balls that bump off longstop's wrists and shins. 
 
HINTS ON FIELDING. 193 
 
 A third man up, or a middle slip, is at times very 
 killing : this lets longslip stand back for hard hits, and 
 no catch escapes. A forward point, or middle wicket 
 close in, often snaps up a catch or two, particularly 
 when the ground is dangerous for forward play, or the 
 batsman plays hesitatingly. 
 
 Thick-soled shoes save colds in soppy weather, and 
 do not jar when the ground is hard; for the Cantabs 
 say that 
 
 Thin soles + hard ground tender feet, 
 
 is an undeniable equation. Bowlers should wear 
 worsted socks to save blisters, and mind the thread is 
 not fastened off in a knot just under the most sensitive 
 part of the heel. 
 
 Much inconvenience arises in a match, for the best 
 player may be out by spectators standing in the eye of 
 the ball ; so stretch strips of white canvas on poles five 
 feet high, for, while it keeps the stupid away, it pro- 
 vides a white back ground for each wicket. 
 
 This is good also in a park, where the deep shade of 
 trees increases the confessed uncertainty of the game. 
 Some such plan is much wanted on all public grounds 
 where the sixpenny freeholders stand and hug their 
 portly corporations in, and give the ball all the shades 
 of green coat, light waistcoat, and drop-smalls, by 
 standing in the line of the wicket. Still, batsmen must 
 try to rise superior to such annoyances ; for if the 
 17 
 
194 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 bowler changes his side of the wicket, the umpire often 
 is in the light of the ball. 
 
 Oh ! that ring at Lord's ; for, as in olden time, — 
 
 " si quid fricti ciceris probat et nucis emptor;" 
 
 thai is, if the swillers of half-and-half and smokers of 
 pigtail, — a preponderating influence and large majority 
 of voices, — applaud a hit, it does not follow that it is a 
 good one : nor, if they cry " Butterfingers ! " need the 
 miss be a bad one. No credit for good intentions ! — 
 no allowance for a twisting catch and the sun enough 
 to singe your eyelids! — the hit that wins the "half- 
 and-half" is the finest hit for that select assemblage, 
 whose "sweet voices" quite drown the nicer judgment 
 of the pavilion, even as vote by ballot would swamp 
 the House of Lords. 
 
 Longstof. — If you would estimate the value of a 
 practised longstop, only try to play a match without 
 one. Still, patient merit is rarely appreciated, for 
 what is done very well looks so easy. Longstopping 
 requires the cleanest handling and quickest return. 
 The best in form I ever saw was an Oxonian about 
 1838, — a Mr. Napier. One of the worst in form, how- 
 ever, is the best of his day in practice, — Good ; for he 
 takes the ball sideways. A left-handed man, like 
 Good, has a great advantage in stopping slips under- 
 leg. Old Beagley, among the ancients, was the man. 
 But there is many a man whose praise is yet unsung ; 
 
HINTS FOR LONGSTOP. 195 
 
 for when Mr. E. H. Budd saw Mr. R. Stodhert at 
 Lansdown, Bath, stop right and left to Mr. Kirwan's 
 bowling, he mentioned Beagley's doings, and said 
 Beagley never came up to R. Stodhert. The gentle- 
 man who opposed the firmest front, however, for years 
 to Messrs. Kir wan and Fellowes,- — bowlers, who have 
 broken studs into the breast-bone of a longstop, and 
 then, to make amends, taken fourpenny-bits of skin off 
 his shins, — is Mr. Hartopp, pronounced by Mr. Charles 
 Burt, — himself undeniable at that point, — to be the 
 best for a continuance he has ever seen. Vigeat vireat- 
 que ! His form is good ; works with great ease and 
 cool attention. Among the most celebrated at present 
 are Mr. C. Ridding, Nat. Pilch, and Guy. 
 
 One of the most practised longstops writes : " No 
 place requires so much patient perseverance : the work 
 is so mechanical. I have seen many a brilliant fields- 
 man there for a short innings 'while the bowling is 
 straight and rarely passes ; but let him have to hum- 
 drum through 150 or 200 runs, and they get bored, 
 tired, and careless, and runs come apace. Patience is 
 much wanted if a sharp runner is in, for he will often 
 try a longstop's temper by stealing runs ; then I have 
 always found it the best plan to prepare the wicket- 
 keeper for a hard throw to his, the nearer, wicket ; for 
 if you do not run the man out, you frighten him down 
 to steadier running. Throwing over does sometimes 
 answer ; but a cunning runner will get in your way, or 
 
196 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 beat a ball thrown over his head. Longstop's distance 
 must often be as much as four or five yards less for a 
 good runner than a bad. Short distance does not 
 make stopping more difficult because it gives fewer 
 hops and twists to the ball ; but a longer distance 
 enables you to cover more tips and draws, and saves 
 legbyes. Good runners ought to cross if the ball is in 
 the least fumbled; but clean fielding, with quick 
 underhand return, would beat the Regent Street Pet 
 himself did he attempt it. Longstop is wholly at fault 
 if he requires the wicket-keeper to favor him : this 
 would spoil the stumping. As to gloves and pads, let 
 every one please himself; he must choose between 
 gloves and sore hands ; but wrist gauntlets are of great 
 use, and no hindrance to catches, which are usually 
 spinning, and otherwise difficult. 
 
 As to form, dropping on one knee is a bad position 
 for any fielding : you are fixed and left behind by any 
 sudden turn of the ball. The best rule is to watch the 
 ball from the bowler's hand and move accordingly, and 
 you will soon find how much bias to allow ; and beware 
 of a slope like Lord's : it causes a greater deviation 
 than you would imagine in thirty yards. Just as the 
 ball comes, draw yourself up heels together (thus many 
 a shooter have I stopped), and, picking as neatly as 
 you can, pitch it back to wicket-keeper as if it were red 
 hot. Quick return saves many byes, and keeps up an 
 appearance which prevents the attempt. The same 
 
HINTS FOR LONGSTOP. 197 
 
 discrimination of lengths is required with hands as with 
 bat. Long hops are easy : a tice is as hard almost as a 
 shooter ; half-volley is a teaser. Such balls as pitch 
 up to you should be " played forward " by pushing or 
 sweeping your hands out to meet them ; if you do not 
 field them clean you will often save a run by forcing 
 the ball up towards the wicket-keeper, or having it 
 before you. 
 
 A long stop wants much command of attention, — eye 
 never off the ball ; and this, so little thought of, is the 
 great secret of all fielding : also to play your hardest 
 and your very best ; a habit which few men have 
 energy to sustain. If you miss a ball, rattle away after 
 it ; do not stand, as many do, to apologize by dumb 
 show. If the ball bumps up at the moment of handling, 
 throw your chin up and let it hit your chest as full as it 
 may : this is Horace's advice. 
 
 " Fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus" 
 
 Longstop should always back up on the On side, 
 and must start at once to be in time. The attention he 
 has to sustain is very trying to the eyes, especially in 
 windy weather. 
 
 Wicket-keeper. — If not born with better ocular 
 nerves than the average, I doubt whether any degree of 
 practice would make a first-rate wicket-keeper. To 
 place the hands, right or left, accurately, according to 
 the pitch of the ball, and to take that ball, however fast, 
 17* 
 
198 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 unbaulked by the bat or body of the player, is really 
 very difficult. But what, if we add, how few, very few, 
 can accomplish it ! — taking the ball in spite of an unex- 
 pected bias or turn from the bat. Still, practice will do 
 much where nature has done a little ; but with modern 
 bowling you want a man both " rough and ready." 
 Mr. Jenner was the latter ; so also are Messrs. Anson, 
 Nicholson, and Ridding and Box ; but Wenman was 
 ready and rough too. He had fine working qualities, 
 and could stand a deal of pounding, day after day : 
 others have had a short life and a merry one, and more 
 transient popularity. Chatterton fears no pace in bowl- 
 ing. Lockyer's name, also, stands very high, and the 
 All England Eleven experienced in one match the merit 
 of Tinling as wicket-keeper as well as bowler. We 
 leave these three to emulate Wenman, especially in 
 his everyday lasting and working qualities against fast 
 bowling, for that is the difficulty. Wenman did not 
 stand too near, so was better placed for catches. More- 
 over, Wenman had weight and power : a decided 
 advantage, as, by fast bowling, you are shaken off your 
 equilibrium. By the way, Burt an old wicket-keeper, 
 was twenty stone, and Mr. Winterton, of Cambridge, 
 not much less. This gives a great advantage over a 
 player of the weight of Mr. Bidding: albeit, in the 
 Players' Match, he stumped Hillyer off Mr. Followes's 
 bowling, and that by a leg ball ! Hammond was the 
 great wicket-keeper of former days : but then the 
 
WICKET-KEEPERS. 199 
 
 bowling was often Clarke's pace. Browne, of Brighton, 
 ■and Osbaldestone put wicket-keepers to flight ; but the 
 race re-appeared in the finest ever seen for moderate 
 pace — Mr. Jenner, famed not only for the neatest stump- 
 ing, but the marvellous quantity of ground he could 
 cover, serving, as a near point, leg and slip, as well as 
 wicket-keeper. Box's powers — -though he has always 
 been a first-rate man — are rather limited to pace. 
 " Have me to bowl," Lillywhite used to say, i4 Box to 
 keep wicket, and Pilch to hit, and then you '11 see 
 Cricket ; " for Box is best with Lillywhite. As to 
 making mistakes as wicket-keeper, what mortal com- 
 bination of flesh and blood can help it ? One of the 
 most experienced long stops, after many years at Lord's 
 and in the country, says, ih his experience to take one 
 chance even out of three has proved good average 
 wicket-keeping ; for think of leg-shooters, though Mr. 
 Ridding takes even them wonderfully well. 
 
 " I have seen," writes Mr. E. S. E. H., " Mr. C. 
 Taylor — who was capital at running in, and rarely 
 stumped out, having an excellent eye, and if the twist 
 of the ball beat him, it was enough to beat the wicket- 
 keeper also — I have seen him, after missing a ball, walk 
 quietly back to his ground, poor wicket-keeper looking 
 foolish and vexed at not stumping him, and the ring, 
 of course, calling him a muff." Really wicket-keepers 
 are hardly used ; the spectators little know that a 
 twist that misses the bat may as easily escape the 
 hand. 
 
200 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 Again, " the best piece of stumping I ever saw was 
 done by Mr. Anson, in the Players' Match, in 1845. 
 Butler, one of the finest of the Nottingham batsmen, in 
 drawing one of Mr. Mynn's leg shooters, just lifted, 
 for an instant, his right foot ; Mr. Anson timed the feat 
 beautifully, and swept the ball with his left hand into 
 the wicket. I fancy a feat so difficult was never done 
 so easily." " I also saw Mr. Anson, in a match against 
 the Etonians, stump a man with his right, catch the fly- 
 ing bail with his left, and replace it so quickly that the 
 man's surprise and puzzle made all the fun : stumped 
 out, though wicket seemingly never down ! Mr. Jen- 
 ner was very clever in these things, skimming off one 
 bail with his little finger, ball in hand, and not troub- 
 ling the umpire. Once his friend, Mr. R. K., had an 
 awkward trick of pulling up his trousers, which lifted 
 his leg every time he had missed a ball : Mr. Jenner 
 waited for his accustomed habit, caught him in the act, 
 and stumped him. A similar piece of fun happened in 
 Gentlemen of England v. Gentlemen of Kent, in 1844." 
 " A Kent player sat down to get wind after a run, his 
 bat in his ground, but his seat of honor out, and for a 
 moment let go the handle, and wicket-keeper stumped 
 him out. He was very angry, and said he never would 
 play again : however, he did play the return match at 
 Canterbury, where he was put out in precisely the same 
 manner. Since which, like Monsieur Tonson, he has 
 never been heard of more." 
 
WICKET-KEEPEKS. 201 
 
 That a fieldsman wants wits to his fingers' ends, 
 was shown by Martingell one day : being just too far 
 to command a ball, he gave it a touch to keep up, and 
 cried, " Catch it, Slip." Slip, so assisted, reached the 
 ball. 
 
 The great thing in wicket-keeping is, for hand and 
 eye to go together, just as with batting, and what is 
 exercise for the former, assists the latter. Any exer- 
 cise, in which the hand habitually tries to obey the eye, 
 is useful for cricket ; fielding acts on batting, and bat- 
 ting on fielding. A batsman had better practise wicket- 
 keeping, or long-stopping, alternately with batting, 
 than batting alone. 
 
 " How do you explain, sir," said Cobbett, one day, 
 standing with other professionals at Lord's, " that the 
 player's batting keeps pace with the gentleman's, when 
 we never take a bat except in a game? " Ci Because 
 you are constantly following the ball with hand and eye 
 together, which forms a valuable practice for judging 
 pace, and time, and distance : not enough, certainly, to 
 teach batting, but enough to keep it up. Besides, if 
 you practise too little, — most gentlemen practise too 
 much, ending in a kind of experimenting and specula- 
 tive play, — that proves, like gentleman's farming, more 
 scientific than profitable. They often try at too much, 
 mix different styles, and, worse than all, form conflict- 
 ing habits. The game, for an average, is the player's 
 game, because less ambitious, with less excitement 
 
202 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 about favorite hits, simple style, with fewer things to 
 think of, and a game in which, though limited, they are 
 better grounded. 
 
 Amateurs are apt to try a bigger game than they 
 could safely play with twice their practice. Many a 
 man, for instance, whose talent lies in defence, tries 
 free hitting, and between the two proves good for noth- 
 ing. Others, perhaps, can play straight and fairly off; 
 and should not they learn to hit on, also ? Certainly : 
 but, while in a transition state, they are not fit for the 
 players' match : and some men are always in a transi- 
 tion state. There is more orthodoxy — -that is, more of 
 " Father's doxy " — in a young Caldecourt than in a 
 young Etonian, and low-cricket notions of " private 
 judgment " " lead many all abroad. " Horace had good 
 cricket ideas, for, said he, 
 
 " Autfamam sequere aut sibi convenientia jinge" 
 
 either play for shew off, or adopt a style you can put 
 well together — and sumite materiam — cequam viribus. 
 You won't win by a hitting game if there is no hit in 
 you. But cui lecta potenter erit res ; try at no more 
 than you can do, — nee deserit hunc, — and that 's the 
 game to carry you through. 
 
 A mistake, said an experienced bowler, in giving a 
 leg ball or two, is not all dead loss ; for a swing round 
 to the leg often takes a man off his straight play. To 
 ring the changes on cutting with horizontal bat, for- 
 
GENERAL ADVICE. ' 203 
 
 * 
 
 ward play with a straight bat, and leg hitting, which 
 takes a different bat again, requires far more steady 
 practice than mosrwho attempt it have either time or 
 perseverance to learn so thoroughly as to prevent one 
 movement from taking the place of the other. 
 
204 
 
 CHAP. XL 
 
 CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS. MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Let any man of common judgment see the velocity 
 with which the ball flies from the bats of first-rate 
 players, and how near the fieldsmen stand to the hitter ; 
 and then let him feel and weigh a ball in his hand, and 
 he would naturally expect to hear that every public 
 cricket ground was in near connection with some cas- 
 ualty hospital, so deceptive is a priori reasoning. 
 William Beldham saw as much of cricket as any other 
 man in England, from the year 1780 to about 1820. 
 Mr. E. H. Budd and Caldecourt are the best of chroni- 
 clers from the days of Beldham down to George Parr. 
 Yet neither of these worthies could remember any 
 injury at cricket, that would at all compare with the 
 " moving accidents of flood and field " that have thinned 
 the ranks of Nimrod, Hawker, or Isaac Walton. Fatal 
 accidents in any legitimate game of cricket there have 
 been none. There is a rumor of a boy at school, about 
 fifteen years since, and another boy about twenty-five 
 years ago, being severally killed by a blow on the head 
 
CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS. 205 
 
 with a ball : a dirty bo) r , also, of Salisbury town, in 
 1826, having a bad habit of pocketing the balls of the 
 pupils of Dr. RatclifFe's school, was hit rather hard on 
 the head with a brass-tipped middle stump, and, by a 
 strange coincidence, died of " excess of passion," as the 
 jury found a few hours after. A man fell over the 
 stumps but a short time since, and died of the injury 
 sustained in the leg. But all this proves little as to 
 the danger of the game. 
 
 The most likely source of serious injury, and one 
 which has caused alarm and shaken the nerves of not a 
 few, is when a hitter, which is most rare, returns the 
 ball, with all his force, straight back to the bowler. 
 Caldecourt and the Rev. C. Wordsworth, than whom a 
 more free and forcible hitter to every point of the field 
 was never bred at Harrow, nor played at Winchester, 
 severally and separately remarked in my hearing that 
 they had shuddered at cricket once, each in the same 
 position, and each from the same hitter. Each had a 
 ball hit back to him by that powerful hitter, Colonel 
 Kingscote, which whizzed, in defiance of hand or eye, 
 most dangerously by. A similar hit we described from 
 Hammond stepping in at the pitch, just missed Lord 
 F. Beauclerk's head, and spoiled his nerve for bowling 
 ever after. But what if these several balls had really 
 hit ? who knows whether the skull might not have 
 stood the shock, as in a case which I witnessed in Ox- 
 ford, in 1835 ; when one Richard Blucher, a Cowley 
 18 
 
206 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 bowler, was hit on the head by a clean half volley^ from 
 the bat of Henry Daubeney — than whom few Wyke- 
 hamists used (fuit! ) to hit with better eye or stronger 
 arm. Still " Eichard was himself again, " for we saw 
 a man, with his head tied up, bowling at shillings the 
 very next day. Some skulls stand a great deal. Wit- 
 ness the sprigs of Shillelah in Donybrooke fair ; still 
 most indubitably tender is the face : as also — which 
 horresco referens ; but here let me tell wicket-keepers, 
 and longstops especially, _ that a cricket-jacket, made 
 long and full, with pockets to hold a handkerchief suffi- 
 ciently in front, is a precaution not to be despised, 
 though " the race of inventive men " have also devised 
 a cross-bar India rubber guard, aptly described in 
 Achilles' threat to Thersites, in the first Iliad ; though 
 I can truly say, like Bob Acres, at the sight of the 
 doctor's implements, the sight of them " takes away my 
 fighting stomach." 
 
 The most alarming accident I ever saw occurred in 
 one of the many matches played by the Lansdown Club 
 against Mr. E. H. Budd's Eleven, at Purton, in 1835. 
 Two of the Lansdown players were running between 
 wickets ; and good Mr. Prout — immani corpore — was 
 standing mid way, and hiding each from the other. 
 Both rushing the same side of him, and one with his 
 bat most dangerously extended, the point of which met 
 his partner under the chin, forced back his head as if 
 his neck were broken, and dashed him senseless to the 
 
A WYKEHAMIST RECOLLECTION. 207 
 
 ground. Never shall I forget the shudder and the chill 
 of every heart, till poor Price — for he it was — was lifted 
 up — gradually evinced returning consciousness ; and, at 
 length, when all was explained, he smiled, amidst his 
 bewilderment, with his usual good-nature, on his 
 unlucky friend. A surgeon, who witnessed the collis- 
 ion, feared he was dead, and said, afterwards, that with 
 less powerful muscles (for he had a neck like a bull- 
 dog) he never could have stood the shock. Price told 
 me next day that he felt as if a little more, and he 
 never should have raised his head again. 
 
 And what Wykehamist of 1820-30 does not remem- 
 ber R Price ? or what Fellow of New College 
 
 down to 1847 2 when 
 
 " Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit" 
 
 has not enjoyed his merriment in the Common Room, 
 or his play on Bullingdon and Cowley Marsh ? His 
 were the safest hands and most effective fielding ever 
 seen. To attempt the one run from a cover hit when 
 Price was there, or to give the sight of one stump to 
 shy at, was a wicket lost. When his friend, F. B. 
 Wright, or any one he could trust, was at the wicket, 
 well backed up, the ball by the fine old Wykehamist 
 action was up and in with such speed and precision as I 
 have hardly seen equalled, and never exceded. When 
 he came to Lord's, in 1825, with that Wykehamist 
 Eleven which Mr. Ward so long remembered with 
 
208 THE CHICKET FIELD. 
 
 delight, their play was unknown, and the bets on their 
 opponents ; hut when once Price was seen practising at 
 a single stump, his Eleven became the favorites immedi- 
 ately ; for he was one of the straightest of all fast 
 bowlers ; and I have heard experienced batsmen say, 
 6 We don't care for his underhand bowling, only it is so 
 straight we could take no liberties, and the first we 
 missed was Out.' I never envied any man his sight 
 and nerve like Price — the coolest practitioner you ever 
 saw ; he always looked bright, though others blue : you 
 had only to look at his sharp gray eyes, and you could 
 at once account for the fact that one stump to shy at, a 
 rook for a single bullet, or the ripple of a trout in a 
 bushy stream, was so, much fun for R. Price. 
 
 Some of the most painful accidents have been of the 
 same kind — from collision ; therefore I never blame a 
 man who, as the ball soars high in air, and the captain 
 of his side does not (as he ought if he can) call out 
 " Johnson has it ! " stops short, for fear of three spikes 
 in his instep, or the buttons of his neighbor's jacket 
 forcibly coinciding with his own. Still these are hardly 
 the dangers of cricket : men may run their heads 
 together in the street. 
 
 The principal injuries sustained are in the fingers; 
 though I did once know a gentleman who played in 
 spectacles ; and seeing two balls in the air, caught at 
 the shadow, and nearly had the substance in his 
 face. The old players, in the days of under-hand 
 
CHANCES OF WAR. 209 
 
 bowling, played without gloves ; and Bennett assured 
 me lie had seen Tom Walker, before advancing civiliza- 
 tion made man tender, rub his bleeding fingers in the 
 dust. The old players could show finger- joints of most 
 ungenteel dimensions ; and no wonder, for a finger has 
 been broken even through tubular India rubber. Still, 
 with a good pair of cricket gloves no man need think 
 much about his fingers ; albeit flesh will blacken, joints 
 will grow too large for the accustomed ring, and finger- 
 nails will come off. A spinning ball is the most 
 mischievous ; and when there is spin and space too, 
 as with a ball from Mr. Fellows, which you can hear 
 humming like a top, the danger is too great for mere 
 amusement; for when, as in the Players' Match of 
 1849, Hilly er plays a bowler a foot away from his 
 stumps, and Pilch cannot face him, which is true when 
 Mr. Fellows bowls on any but the smoothest ground, 
 why then we will not say that any thing that hardest 
 of hitters and thorough cricketers does is not cricket, 
 but certainly it 's anything but play. 
 
 Some of the worst injuries of the hands occur rather • 
 in fielding than in batting. A fine player of the Kent 
 Eleven, about three years ago, so far injured his thumb 
 that the middle joint was removed, and he has rarely 
 played since. Another of the best players of his day 
 broke a bone in his hand in putting down a wicket : 
 but, strangest of all, I saw a Christchurch man at Oxford 
 fielding Cover split up his hand an inch in length 
 18* 
 
210 THE CRICKET FIELD* 
 
 between his second and third fingers ; but a celebrated 
 university doctor of that day — yclept " Mercurialium 
 custos virorum " — made all well in a few weeks, and in 
 the same season a fine young fellow had a finger nail 
 completely taken off in catching a ball. 
 
 Add to all these chances of war, the many balls that 
 are flying at the same time at Lord's and the Univer- 
 versity, and other much frequented grounds, on a 
 practising day. At Oxford, you may see, any day in 
 the summer, on Cowley Marsh, two rows of six wickets 
 each, facing each other, with a space of about sixty 
 yards between each row, and ten between each wicket. 
 Then you have twelve bowlers, clos a dos, and as 
 many hitters— making twelve balls and twenty-four 
 men, all in danger's way at once, besides bystanders. 
 The most any one of these bowlers can do is to look 
 out for the balls of his own set ; whether hit or not by 
 a ball from behind is very much a matter of chance. 
 A ball from the opposite row once touched my hair. 
 The wonder is, that twelve balls should be flying in a 
 small space for nearly every day ; yet I never heard of 
 any man being hit in the face — a fact the more remark- 
 able because there was usually free hitting and loose 
 bowling. One day, at Lord's, just before the match 
 bell rung after dinner, I saw one of the hardest hitters 
 in the M. 0. C. actually trying how hard he could drive 
 among the various clusters of sixpenny amateurs, every 
 man thinking it fun, and no one dangerous. Certainly, 
 
HARD HITS. 211 
 
 body-blows from a ball no man regards ; and as to legs, 
 the calves, as an Irishman remarked, save the shins 
 behind, and the hands before. An elderly gentleman 
 cannot stand a bruise so well — -matter forms or bone 
 exfoliates. But then, an elderly gentleman, bearing an 
 inverse ratio in all things to him who calls him ' gov- 
 ernor,' is the most careful thing in nature ; while young 
 blood circulates too fast to be overtaken by half the ills 
 that flesh is heir to. 
 
 A well known Wykehamist player of ft. Price's 
 standing, was lately playing as wicket-keeper, and 
 seeing the batsman going to hit off, ran almost to the 
 place of a near Point ; the hit, tremendously hard, 
 glanced off from his forehead — he called out " Catch 
 it," and it was caught by bowler ! He was not hurt — 
 not even marked by the ball. 
 
 Four was scored at Beckenham, 1850, by a hit that 
 bounded off point's head ; but the player suffered 
 much in this instance. 
 
 A spot nnder the window of the tavern at Lord's 
 was marked as the evidence of a famous hit by Mr. 
 Budd, and when I played, Oxford v. Cambridge, in 
 1836, a son of Lord F. Beauclerk, hitting above that 
 spot, elicited the observation from the old players. 
 Beagley hit a ball from his Lordship over a bank 120 
 yards. Freemantle's famous hit was 130 yards in the 
 air. Freemantle's bail was once hit up and fell back 
 on the stump : Not out. A similar thing was wit- 
 
212 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 nessed by a friend on the Westminster Ground. " One 
 hot day," said Bailey, " I saw a new stump bowled out 
 of the perpendicular, but the bail stuck in the groove 
 from the melting of the varnish in the sun, and the 
 batsman continued his innings." I have seen Mr. 
 Kir wan hit a bail thirty yards. A bail has flown forty 
 yards. 
 
 I once chopped hard down upon a shooter, and the 
 ball went a foot away from my bat straight forward 
 towards the bowler, and then, by its rotary motion, 
 returned in the same straight line exactly, like the 
 " draw-back stroke" at billiards, and shook the bail 
 off. 
 
 At a match played at Cambridge, a lost ball was 
 found so firmly fixed on the point of a broken glass 
 bottle in an ivied wall, that a new ball was necessary 
 to continue the game. 
 
 Among remarkable games of cricket, are games on 
 the ice — as on Christchurch meadow, Oxford, in 1849, 
 and other places. The one-armed and one-legged pen- 
 sioners of Greenwich and Chelsea is an oft-repeated 
 match. 
 
 Mr. Trumper and his dog challenged and beat two 
 players at single wicket in 1825, on Harefield common, 
 near Rickmansworth. 
 
 Matches of much interest have been played between 
 members of the same family and some other club. 
 Besides " the Twelve Cycsars," the three Messrs. 
 
SPIKES SAWDUST. 213 
 
 Walker and the Messrs. Ridding have proved how 
 cricket may run in a family, not to forget three of the 
 House of Verulam, one of whom, especially, plays in 
 as fine a style as any of the present day ; and, as to 
 hard hitting, a second has, I am informed, hit over the 
 Tennis Court. 
 
 Pugilists have rarely been cricket players. " We 
 used to see the fighting men," said Beldham, " playing 
 skittles about the ground, but there were no players 
 among them." Ned O'Neal was a pretty good player, 
 and we did hear that Bendigo challenged George Parr ; 
 but no one imputed it to any distrust in his own play 
 that Parr declined that honor. Certainly, no man was 
 ever famous both in the ring and at Lord's. 
 
 In the famous Nottingham match, 1817, Bentley, on 
 the All England side, was playing well, when he was 
 given " run out," having run round his ground. 
 "Why," said Beldham, "he had been home long 
 enough to take a pinch of -snuff." They changed the 
 umpire ; but the blunder lost the match. 
 
 " Spiked shoes," said Beldham, " were not in use in 
 my country. Never saw them till I went to Hamble- 
 don." " Robinson began with spikes of a monstrous 
 length," said old Mr. Moreton, the dramatist, on one 
 foot. " The first notion of a leg guard I ever saw," said 
 an old player, " was Robinson's : he put together two 
 thin boards, angle-wise, on his right shin : the ball 
 would go off it as clean as off the bat, but made a 
 
214 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 
 precious deal more noise : but it was laughed at — did 
 not last long. Robinson burnt some of his fingers off 
 when a child, and had the handle of his bat cut to suit 
 the stumps. Still, he was a fine hitter. 
 
 Barton mentioned to me a one-armed man who used 
 a short bat in his right hand so well as to make a fair 
 average score. 
 
 Sawdust. — Beldham, Robinson, and Lambert, 
 played Bennett, Fennex, and Lord F. Beauclerk, a 
 notable single wicket match at Lord's, 27th June, 
 1806. Lord Frederick's last innings was winning the 
 game, and no chance of getting him out. His Lord- 
 ship had then lately introduced sawdust when the 
 ground was wet. Beldham, unseen, took up a lump of 
 wet dirt and sawdust, and stuck it on the ball, which, 
 pitching favorably, made an extraordinary twist, and 
 took the wicket. This I heard separately from Beld- 
 ham, Bennett, and also Fennex, who used to mention 
 it as among the wonders of his long life. 
 
 As to long scores, above one hundred in an 
 innings rather lessens than adds to the interest of a 
 game. 
 
 The greatest number recorded, with overhand bowl- 
 ing, was in M. C. C. v. Sussex, at Brighton, about 
 1842; the four innings averaged 207 each. In 1815, 
 Epsom v. Middlesex, at Lord's, scored first innings, 
 476. Sussex v. Epsom, in 1817, scored 445 in one 
 innings. Mr. Ward's great innings was 278, in M. C. 
 
HABD HITTING. 215 
 
 C. v. Norfolk, 24th July, 1820, but with underhand 
 bowling. Mr. Mynn's great innings at Leicester was 
 in North v. South in 1836, South winning by 218 
 runs. Mr. Mynn 21 (not out) and 125 (not out) and 
 against Redgate's bowling. Wisden, Parr, and Pilch, 
 have scored above 100 runs in one innings against 
 good bowling. "Wisden once bowled ten wickets in 
 one innings : Mr. Kirwan has done the same thing. 
 
 Mr. Marcon, at Beckenham, 1850, bowled four men 
 in four successive balls. The Lansdown Club, in 
 1850, put the West Gloucestershire Club out for six 
 runs, and of these only two were scored by hits — so 
 ten ciphers! Eleven men last year (1850) were out 
 for a run each, Mr. Felix being one. Mr. G. Yonge, 
 playing against the Etonians, put a whole side out for 
 six runs. A friend, playing the Shepton Mallet Club, 
 put his adversaries in second innings for seven runs to 
 tie, and got all out for five ! In a famous Wykehamist 
 match all depended on an outsider's making two runs : 
 he made a hard hit. When in the moment of exulta- 
 tion, " Cut away, you young sinner," said a big 
 fellow ; when lo ! down he laid his bat, and cut away 
 to the tent ; while the other side, amidst screams of 
 laughter at the mistake, put down the wicket and won 
 the match. 
 
 In a match at Oxford, in 1835, I* saw the two last 
 wickets score 110 runs ; and in an I. Z. match at Leam- 
 ington, the last wickets scored 80. 
 
216 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 As to HiKD hitting. " One of the longest hits in 
 air of modern days," writes a friend, " was made at 
 Slimley about three years since by Mr. Fellows, 
 confessedly one of the hardest of all hitters. The same 
 gentleman, in practice on the Leicester ground, hit, 
 clean over the poplars, one hundred long paces from 
 the wicket : the distance from bat to pitch of ball may 
 be fairly stated as 140 yards. This was a longer hit, I 
 think, than that at Slimley, which every one wondered 
 at, though the former was off slow lobs in practice ; the 
 latter in a match: Mr. Fellows also made so high a hit 
 over the bowler's (Wisden's) head, that the second run 
 was finished as the ball returned to earth ! He was 
 afterwards caught by Armitage, Long-field On, when 
 half through the second run. I have also seen, I think, 
 Mr. G. Barker, of Trinity, hit a nine on Parker's Piece. 
 It took three average throwers to throw it up. Mr. 
 Bastard, of Trinity, hit a ten on the same ground. Sir 
 F. Heygate, this year, hit an eight at Leicester." When 
 Mr. Budd hit a nine at Woolwich, it proved a tie 
 match : an eighth would have lost the game. Practise 
 clean hitting, correct position, and judgment of lengths 
 with free arm, and the ball is sure to go far enough. 
 The habit of hitting at a ball oscillating from a slanting 
 pole will greatly improve any unpractised hitter. The 
 drummer boys practise the use of the cat on a dummy. 
 The use of the bat, by a kind of " chamber practice " 
 mentioned, may furnish us an exercise as good as 
 
CHOOSING AN ELEVEN. 217 
 
 dumb bells, and, and far more interesting. A soft ball 
 will answer the purpose, pierced and threaded on a 
 string. % 
 
 The most vexatious of all stupid things was done by 
 James Broadbridge, in Sussex v. England, at Brighton, 
 in 1827, one of the trial matches which excited such 
 interest in the early days of overhand bowling. " We 
 went in for 120 to win," said our good friend, Captain 
 Cheslyn. " Now," I said, " my boys, let every man 
 resolve on a steady game and the match is ours ; when, 
 almost at the first set off, that stupid fellow Jim threw 
 his bat a couple of yards at a ball too wide to reach, 
 and Mr. Ward caught him at point ! The loss of this 
 one man's innings was not all, for the men went in dis- 
 gusted ; the quicksilver was up with the other side, and 
 down with us, and the match was lost by twenty-four 
 runs." But, though stupid in this instance, Broad- 
 bridge was one of the most artful dodgers that ever 
 handled a ball. And once he practised for some match 
 till he appeared to all the bowlers about Lord's to have 
 reduced batting to a certainty : but when the time came, 
 amidst the most sanguine expectations of his friends, he 
 made no runs. 
 
 Mr. A. Bass reminds me that I have said little about 
 generalship, a point in which I well might profit by his 
 long experience. 
 
 I agree with Mr. Bass that his old preceptor George 
 19 
 
218 THE CKICKET FIELD. 
 
 Owston's aim is of the greatest importance, — namely, 
 to keep his man in good humor and good spirits. 
 
 The first thing the manager has to do is to choose his 
 Eleven ; and we have already hinted that fielding rather 
 than batting is the qualification. A good field is sure 
 to save runs, though the best batsman may not make 
 any. When all are agreed on the bowlers, I would 
 leave the bowlers to select such men as they can trust- 
 Then in their secret conclave you will hear such principles 
 of selection as these :— " King must be point, Chatterton 
 we cannot afford to put cover unless you can ensure 
 Wenman to keep wicket ; Good must be longstop : his 
 left hand saves so many draws ; and I have not nerve to 
 attack the leg stump as I ought to with any other man. 
 We shall have three men at least against us whom we 
 cannot reckon on bowling out ; so if at the short slip 
 we have a Hillyer, and at leg such a man as Coates of 
 Sheffield, we may pick these men up pretty easily." 
 " But as to Sir Wormwood Scrubbs, old Sloley vows he 
 shall never get any more pine apples and champagne for 
 the ladies' days if we don't have him, and he is about 
 our sixth bat." " Can 't be helped, for, what with his 
 cigar and his bad temper, he will put us all wrong ; 
 besides, we must have John Gingerley, whose only fault 
 is chaffing, and these two men will never do together : 
 then for middle wicket we have Young George." 
 " Why, Edwards is quite as safe." " Yes, but not 
 half as tractable. I would never bowl without George 
 
CHOOSING AN ELEVEN. 219 
 
 if I could have him; his eye is always on me, and 
 he will shift his place for every ball in the over, if I 
 wish it. A handy man to put about in a moment 
 just where you want him, is worth a great deal to a 
 bowler. " 
 
 " Then you leave out Kingsmill, Barker, and Cotes- 
 worth ? Why, they can score better than most of the 
 tail of the Eleven ! " 
 
 " Yes ; on practising days, with loose play, but, with 
 good men against them, what difference can there be 
 between two men, when the first ripping ball levels both 
 alike ?" 
 
 When taking the field, good humor and confidence, 
 is the thing. A general who expects everything 
 smooth, in dealing with ten fallible fellow creatures, 
 should be at once dismissed the service : he must 
 always have some man he had rather change, as Virgil 
 says of the bees — 
 
 Semper erunt quarum mutari corpora malts ; 
 
 but if you can have some four safe players, — 
 
 Quatuor eximios prcestanti corpore — 
 
 join your influence with theirs, ani lead them while 
 you seem to consult them, and so keep up an appear- 
 ance of working harmoniously together. Obviously 
 two bowlers of different pace, like Clarke and Wisden, 
 work well together, as also a left-handed and right- 
 
220 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 handed batsman, like Felix and Pilch, whom we have 
 seen run up a hundred runs faster than ever before 
 or since. 
 
 Nunc dextrd ingeminans ictus , nunc ille sinistra* 
 
 Never put in all your best men at first, and leave " a 
 tail " to follow : many a game has been lost in this 
 manner, for men lose confidence when all the best are 
 out : add to this most men play better for the encour- 
 agement that a good player often gives. And take care 
 that you put good judges of a run in together. A good 
 runner starts intuitively and by habit, where a bad 
 judge, seeing no chance, hesitates and runs him out. 
 If a good off hitter and a good leg hitter are in 
 together, the same field that checks the one will give 
 an opening to the other. 
 
 Frequent change of bowlers, where two men are 
 making runs, is good : but do not change good bowling 
 for inferior, till it is hit, unless you know your bats- 
 man is a dangerous man, only waiting till his eyes are 
 open. 
 
 With a fine forward player, a near middle wicket or 
 forward point often snaps up a catch, and is worth try- 
 ing as the man comes in ; otherwise, a third slip up can 
 hardly be spared. 
 
 If your wicket-keeper is not likely to stump any one, 
 make a slip of him, provided you play a short leg ; 
 otherwise he is wanted at the wicket for the single 
 runs. 
 
COMMENTS ON LAWS. 221 
 
 And if Point is no good as Point for a sharp catch, 
 make a field of him. A bad Point will make more 
 catches, and save more runs some yards back. Many 
 a time have I seen both Point and wicket-keeper stand- 
 ing where they were by use. The general must place 
 his men not on any plan or theory, but where each par- 
 ticular man's powers can be turned to the best account. 
 We have already mentioned the common error of men 
 standing too far to save one, and not as far as is com- 
 patible with saving two. 
 
 Bowlers are not always good judges of play : the 
 general should observe how near the ball may be pitched 
 to the batsmen respectively. Though, of course, it is 
 a fatal error to worry the bowler by too many direc- 
 tions. 
 
 With a free hitter, a man who does not pitch very far 
 up answers best : short leg balls are not easily hit. A 
 lobbing bowler, with the longstop, and four men in all 
 on the On side, will shorten the innings of many a 
 reputed fine hitter. 
 
 If a man will not play forward, pitch well up to him, 
 and depend upon your slips. 
 
 A good arrangement of your men, according to these 
 principles, will make eleven men do the work of thir- 
 teen. Some men play nervously at first they come in, 
 so it is so much waste of your forces to lay your men 
 far out, and equally a waste not to open your field as 
 they begin to hit. 
 19* 
 
222 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 We must conclude with comments on the Laws of the 
 Game. 
 
 I. The ball must weigh not less than five ounces and 
 a half, nor exceed Rye ounces and three-quarters. It 
 must measure not less than nine inches in circumfer- 
 ence, nor more than nine inches and one quarter. 
 Either party may call for a new ball at the beginning 
 of each innings. — 
 
 The secretaries of country clubs should order balls 
 and cricket implements from the makers. Our friends 
 may safely address Mr. Barton, Lord's, or 7 Connaught 
 Terrace : he will judiciously select from the stores of 
 Caldecourt, Dark, Lilly white, and others, and send 
 choice articles of every kind. A bad ball will spoil 
 any bats, and puzzle the bowler with its false weight. 
 We once were playing a match with Mr. Budd, when, 
 at the first feel of the ball, he called out, " we cannot 
 play with this — a stone ball bought at a toy-shop." 
 Shortly after, such a ball cut a new bat like a lump of 
 lead, and damaged hands in the same proportion. 
 Before the days of John Small, a ball would not last a 
 match, through the stitches giving way. To " call for 
 a new ball at the beginning of each innings " is not 
 customary now. 
 
 II. The bat must not be wider than four inches and 
 a quarter in the widest part ; nor more than thirty-eight 
 inches in length. — 
 
 Here the length of the blade of the bat may be any- 
 
THE XAWS EXPLAINED. 223 
 
 thing the player likes short of thirty-eight inches. As 
 to the width, an iron frame was used in the old Ham- 
 bledon Club as a gauge, in those primitive days when 
 the Hampshire yeomen shaped out their own bats. 
 This measure, we have said, was applied in the case of 
 Robinson. As to the weight of the bat, 2 lb. 2 oz. is 
 wood enough for a cutting and quick hitter ; only, very 
 light bats rarely last long ; so, a good player must 
 remember that it is the nature of bats to wear out. 
 
 III. The stumps must be three in number ; twenty- 
 seven inches above the ground ; the bails eight inches 
 in length ; the stumps of equal and sufficient thickness 
 to prevent the ball from passing through. 
 
 The wicket has been of different sizes at different 
 times, as represented in the following woodcut. In the 
 year 1700, the runner was made out, not by striking 
 off the transverse stump — we can hardly call it a bail — 
 but by popping the ball in the hole herein represented. 
 
 The measurement of the year 1817 is that now 
 observed : at that time one inch was added to the 
 height of the stumps, and two inches to the width 
 between the creases. 
 
 IV. The bowling crease must be in a line with the 
 stumps; six feet eight inches long; the stumps in the 
 centre ; with a return crease at each end at right angles 
 towards the bowler. 
 
 V. The popping crease must be four feet from the 
 wicket, and parallel to it : unlimited in length, but not 
 shorter than the bowling crease, — 
 
224 
 
 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 1817 
 1814 
 
 1700 
 
 I FT HIGH 
 
 27 INCHES BY 8 
 26 
 
 FT BY 6 INCHES 
 
 " Unlimited in length, but not shorter than the 
 bowling crease." These words imply that the crease 
 actually chalked out should be not shorter than the 
 bowling crease, and unlimited in this sense, that it 
 shall not be said the runner is out because he ran 
 round his ground, for the popping crease is supposed 
 to extend to the end of the field. 
 
THE LAWS EXPLAINED. 225 
 
 The reason the bowling crease is limited, is because, 
 otherwise, the batsman never could take guard ; and 
 umpires should be very careful to call " No Ball," if 
 the bowler bowls outside the return crease ; otherwise 
 the best of batsmen might, undeservedly, lose his 
 innings. 
 
 The reason the return crease is not limited by law is, 
 that it is against a batsman's own interest to run wide 
 of his wicket : besides, a little latitude is requisite to 
 prevent dangerous collision with the wicket-keeper. 
 
 VI. The wickets must be pitched opposite to each 
 other, by the umpires, at the distance of twenty-two 
 yards. 
 
 Secretaries should provide a rule or frame, consist- 
 ing of two wooden measures, six feet eight inches long, 
 and four feet apart, and perfectly parallel to each other. 
 Then, if the chain of twenty-two yards be stretched 
 from the extreme end of one bowling crease to the 
 extreme end of the other, the wickets may easily be 
 placed " opposite each other." 
 
 VII. It is not lawful for either party, during a match, 
 without consent, to alter the ground by rolling, water- 
 ing, mowing, or beating. This rule is not meant to 
 prevent the striker from beating the ground with his 
 bat near the spot where he stands during the innings ; 
 nor to prevent the bowler from filling up holes with 
 sawdust, &c, when the ground is wet. 
 
 VIII. After rain, the wickets may be changed with 
 the consent of both parties. 
 
: 
 
 226 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 IX. The bowler shall deliver the ball with one foot 
 on the ground behind the bowling crease, and within 
 the return crease, and shall bowl four balls before he 
 change wickets, which he shall be permitted to do once 
 only in the same innings. 
 
 " One foot on the ground behind the return crease. " 
 Sometimes a dispute arises as to whether the foot, 
 though admitted " behind," was actually " on the 
 ground." This is a nice point for the eye to decide, 
 because you cannot look at the foot and the hand at th 
 same moment. But Clarke observed to us, that no 
 man can deliver a ball with the foot not touching the 
 ground in the full swing of bowling : and, from experi- 
 ment, we believe he is right. So, if the foot is over 
 the crease, there is no doubt of its being on the 
 ground. 
 
 " Shall bowl four balls." When time is limited, it 
 is not uncommon to agree on playing " six balls and 
 over." Cobbett used to say, he could not take such 
 pains for six balls as for four : it is usually found too 
 fatiguing for fast bowlers. 
 
 X. The ball must be bowled, not thrown or jerked, 
 and the hand must not be above the shoulder in deliv- 
 ery ; and whenever the bowler shall so closely infringe 
 on this rule in either of the above particulars as to 
 make it difficult for the umpire at the bowler's wicket 
 to judge whether the ball has been delivered within the 
 true intent and meaning of this rule or not, the umpire 
 shall call, " no ball." 
 
COMMENTARY ON THE LAWS. 227 
 
 " Not thrown or jerked : " here there is not a word 
 about " touching the side with the arm," too commonly 
 quoted as the criterion of a jerk. It is left to the 
 umpire to decide what is a jerk. We once heard an 
 umpire asked, how could you make out that to be a 
 jerk ? "I say it is a jerk because it is a jerk," was 
 the sensible reply. " I know a jerk when I see one, 
 and I have a right to believe my eyes, though I cannot 
 define wherein a jerk consists." 
 
 In a jerk, there is a certain mechanical precision and 
 curl of the ball wholly unlike fair bowling. 
 
 A throw may be made in two ways ; one way with 
 an arm nearly straight from first to last : this throw 
 with straight arm requires the hand to be raised as 
 high as the head, and brought down in a whirl or 
 circle, the contrary foot being used as the pivot on 
 which the body moves in the delivery. But the more 
 common throw, under pretence of bowling, results 
 from the hand being first bent on the fore-arm, and 
 then power of delivery being gained by the sudden 
 lash out and straightening of the elbow. It is a mis- 
 take to say that the action of the wrist makes a throw. 
 
 " The hand must not be above the shoulder in deliv- 
 ery." David Harris used, before starting to bowl, to 
 hold the ball high over his head, as if to gain freedom 
 of arm. This the rule is not designed to prevent : but 
 to plead that the hand that had gained its power above 
 the shoulder is not " above the shoulder in delivery," 
 
228 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 because it had descended below the shoulder by the 
 time the ball left the hand, this does appear too nice a 
 distinction to be allowed. 
 
 " In delivery " means some action so called : if the 
 mere opening of the hand is delivery of the ball, then 
 the only question is the height of the hand the moment 
 it opens. But if, as we think, " delivery " compre- 
 hends the last action of the arm that gives such open- 
 ing of the hand effect, then in no part of that action 
 may the hand be above the shoulder. 
 
 Further, in case of doubt as to fair bowling, the 
 umpire is to decide against the bowler ; so the hand 
 must be clearly not above the shoulder, and the ball as 
 clearly not thrown, nor jerked. 
 
 Now, as to high delivery as a source of danger, we 
 never yet witnessed that kind of high bowling that 
 admitted of a dangerous increase of speed in an angry 
 moment. The only bowling ever deemed dangerous, 
 has been clearly below the shoulder, and savoring more 
 of a jerk, or of an underhand sling, or throw, than of 
 the round-armed or high delivery. Such bowlers were 
 Mr. Osbaldestone, Browne, of Brighton, Mr. Kirwan, 
 Mr. Fellowes, and Mr. Marcon, neither of whom, 
 except on smooth ground, should we wish to encounter 
 under the name of play. 
 
 Still a high delivery, though not conducing to a 
 dangerous pace and unlimited power, is plainly contrary 
 to the law as now explained. 
 
COMMENTARY ON THE LAWS. 229 
 
 But, we have often been asked, do the law and the 
 practice coincide ? Is it not a fact that few round- 
 armed bowlers are clearly below the shoulder ? Un- 
 doubtedly this is the fact. The better the bowler, as 
 we have already explained, the more horizontal and 
 the fairer his delivery. Cobbett and Hillyer have 
 eminently exemplified this principle ; but amongst 
 amateurs and all but the most practised bowlers, 
 allowing, of course, for some exceptions, the law is 
 habitually infringed. In a country match a strict 
 umpire would cry " no ball " to the bowlers on both 
 sides, cramp their action, produce wide balls and loose 
 bowling, and eventually, not to spoil the day's sport, 
 the two parties would come to a compromise. And do 
 such things ever happen ? Not often. Because the 
 umpires exercise a degre of discretion, and the law in 
 the country is often a dead letter. Practically, the 
 10th law enables a fair umpire to prevent an undis- 
 guised and dangerous throw ; but, at the same time, it 
 enables an unfair umpire to put aside some promising 
 player who is as fair as his neighbor's, but has not the 
 same clique to support him. 
 
 What, then, would we suggest? The difficulty is in 
 the nature of the case. To leave all to the umpire's 
 discretion would, as to fair bowling, increase those evils 
 of partiality, and, instead of an uncertain standard, we 
 should have no standard at all. With fair umpires the 
 law does as well as many other laws as it is ; with 
 20 
 
230 THE CBICKET FIELD. 
 
 unfair umpires no form of words would mend the 
 matter. I can never forget a remark of the late Mr. 
 Ward : — " Cricketers. are a very peaceably disposed set 
 of men. We play for the love of play ; the fairer the play 
 the better we like it. Otherwise, so indefinite is the 
 nature of round-arm bowling, that I never yet saw a 
 match about which the discontented might not find a 
 pretext for a wrangle." 
 
 XI. He may require the striker at the wicket from 
 which he is bowling to stand on that side of it which 
 he may direct. 
 
 Query. Can a bowler give guard for one side of 
 the wicket and bowl the other? No law (though 
 law XXXVI. may apply) plainly forbids it ; still, no 
 gentleman would ever play with such a bowler another 
 time. 
 
 XII. If the bowler shall toss the ball over the 
 striker's head, or bowl it so wide that, in the opinion 
 of the umpire, it shall not be fairly within the reach of 
 the batsman, he shall adjudge one run to the parties 
 receiving the innings, either with or without an appeal, 
 which shall be put down to the score of wide balls : 
 such ball shall not be reckoned as one of the four 
 balls ; but, if the batsman shall by any means bring 
 himself within the reach of the ball, the run shall not 
 be adjudged. 
 
 As to wide balls, some think there should be a mark 
 making the same ball wider to a man of six feet and to 
 
COMMENTARY ON THE LAWS. 231 
 
 a man of five. With good umpires, the law is better 
 as it is. Still, any parties can agree on a mark for 
 wide balls, if they please, before they begin the game. 
 " Bowl it so wide." These words say nothing about 
 the ball pitching more or less straight and turning off 
 afterwards : the distance of the ball when it passes the 
 batsman is the point at issue. 
 
 XIII. If the bowler deliver a no ball or a wide ball, 
 the striker shall be allowed as many runs as he can 
 get, and he shall not be put out except by running 
 out. In the event of no run being obtained by any 
 other means, then one run shall be added to the score 
 of no balls or wide balls, as the case may be. All runs 
 obtained for wide balls to be scored to wide balls. The 
 names of the bowlers who bowl wide balls or no balls 
 in future to be placed on the score, to show the parties 
 of whose bowling either score is made. 
 
 XIV. At the beginning of each innings the umpire 
 shall call " play ; " from that time to the end of each 
 innings no trial ball shall be allowed to any bowler. 
 
 XV. The striker is out if either of the bails be 
 bowled off, or if a stump be bowled out of the ground. 
 
 XVI. Or, if the ball from the stroke of the bat, or 
 hand, but not the wrist, be held before it touch the 
 ground, although it be hugged to the body of the 
 catcher. 
 
 " Be held before it touch the ground." Query, is a 
 ball caught rolling back off the tent out ? If the ball 
 
232 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 striking the tent is, by agreement, so many runs, then 
 the ball is dead, and a man cannot therefore be out. 
 Otherwise, I should reason that the tent, being on the 
 ground, is as part of the ground. By the spirit of the 
 law it is not out, by the letter out. But, to avoid the 
 question, the better plan would be not to catch the 
 ball, and disdain to win a match except by good play. 
 
 XVII. Or, if in striking, or at any other time while 
 the ball shall be in play, both his feet shall be over the 
 popping crease, and his wicket put down, except his 
 bat be grounded within it. 
 
 XVIII. Or, if in striking at the ball, he hit down his 
 wicket. — 
 
 '" In striking," not in running a notch, however awk- 
 wardly. 
 
 XIX. Or, if under pretence of running, or other- 
 wise, either of the strikers prevent a ball from being 
 caught, the striker of the ball is out, — 
 
 " Or otherwise ; " as, for instance, by calling out 
 purposely to baulk the catcher. 
 
 XX. Or, if the ball be struck, and he wilfully strike 
 it again. — 
 
 " Wilfully strike it again." This obviously means, 
 when a man blocks a ball, and afterwards hits it away 
 to make runs. A man may hit a ball out of his 
 wicket, or block it hard. The umpire is sole judge of 
 the striker's intention, whether to score or to guard. 
 
 This law was, in one memorable instance, applied to 
 
COMMENTARY ON THE LAWS. 233 
 
 the case of one Smith, a fine Nottingham player, who, 
 in the match mentioned in page 88, as he was running 
 a notch, hit the ball, to prevent it coming home to the 
 wicket-keeper's hands. Clarke, who was then playing, 
 thinks the player was properly given out. Certainly he 
 deserved to be out ; but old laws do not always fit new 
 offences, however flagrant. 
 
 XXL Or, if in running, the wicket be struck down 
 by a throw, or by the hand or arm (with ball in hand), 
 before his bat (in hand) or some part of his person be 
 grounded over the popping-crease. But if both the 
 bails be off, a stump must be struck out of the ground." 
 
 " With ball in hand." The same hand. 
 
 " Bat (in hand) ; " that is, not thrown. 
 
 XXIII. Or, if the striker touch, or take up the ball 
 while in play, unless at the request of the opposite 
 party. 
 
 " If the striker touch." This applies to the Not- 
 tingham case better than Law XX. ; but neither of 
 these laws contemplated the exact offence. Lsst season 
 a ball ran up a man's bat, and spun into the pocket of 
 his jacket ; and, as he " touched " the ball to get it out 
 of his pocket, was given out. The reply of Mr. Bell 
 on the subject was, the player was out for touching 
 the ball — he might have shaken it out of his pocket. 
 This we mention for the curiosity of the occurrence. 
 
 XXIV. Or, if with any part of his person he stop the 
 ball, which, in the opinion of the umpire at the 
 
 20* 
 
234 THE CRICKET EIELD. 
 
 bowler's wicket, shall have been pitched in a straight 
 line from it to the striker's wicket, and would have 
 hit it. 
 
 " With any part of his person." A man has been 
 properly given out by stopping a ball with his arm 
 below the elbow. Also a short man, who stooped to 
 let the ball pass over his head, and was hit in the face, 
 was once given out, as before wicket. 
 
 " From it ; " that is, the ball must pitch in a line, 
 not from the hand, but from wicket to wicket. 
 
 Much has been said on this law. 
 
 Clarke and others say that a round arm bowler can 
 rarely hit the wicket at all with a ball not over-pitched, 
 unless it pitch out of the line of the wickets. If this 
 is true, a ball that has been pitched straight " would 
 not have hit it ; " and a ball that " would have hit 
 it," could not have been " pitched straight ; " and 
 therefore it is argued the condition " in a straight line 
 from it (the wicket)" should be altered to "in a 
 straight line from the bowler's hand." In support of 
 this theory, others have drawn a line from a round 
 arm bowler's hand to off-stump ; and, observe, that 
 the point in which that line enters into the line from 
 wicket to wicket is too near for the pitch of a good 
 ball. . . 
 
 On the other hand, some scientific observers having 
 their attention specially directed to this very question, 
 say that it is a matter of positive experience, that a 
 
FAIR DELIVERY. 235 
 
 round-arm bowler may pitch in the line of the wicket 
 good length balls, and hit the wicket ; and infer that, 
 therefore, the law is sound. 
 
 The objection to adopting the line of the bowler's 
 hand instead of the line of the wicket, is, that the 
 umpire can actually see in the latter case, but in the 
 former must guess. 
 
 And what do we say ? 
 
 Bring the matter to an issue thus : stretch a thin 
 white string from leg-stump of striker's to off-stump of 
 the bowler's wicket ; and let the facts carefully ob- 
 served be the basis of future theories. The fact should 
 be placed beyond all doubt ; some umpires give glaring 
 cases of leg before wicket Not Out, in support of a 
 theory that has been promulgated, that the two condi- 
 tions of the law (" straight pitch," and " would have 
 hit") cannot possibly be fulfilled. That they are some- 
 times fulfilled we have no doubt : whether they are 
 fulfilled as the rule, or only as the exception (as by a 
 "break"), an experiment must decide. 
 
 The following points have suggested many a refer- 
 ence to Mr. Bell : 
 
 1. Whether a man is out when his partner strikes a 
 ball through his wicket, he being out of the ground ? — 
 Not unless the ball touched the hand of one of the 
 opposite party. 
 
 2. Whether a ball hitting a tent or building, and 
 bounding back into a player's hand, is a fair catch ? — 
 
236 THE CRICKET FIELD. 
 
 Supposing a hit to the tent is allowed to be a certain 
 score, without running, the ball touching it is dead, 
 and cannot make a man out. Otherwise, me judice, 
 touching the ground, or anything on the ground, is the 
 same thing. The better plan is not to catch the ball, 
 nor raise the question, but win by play instead of 
 chance. 
 
 Nothing is so unlike a good or fair player as to be 
 continually asking questions of the umpire. 
 
 One of the fairest retorts I ever heard was this : 
 
 " How 's that, umpire ? " 
 
 " Sir ! you know it is not out : so why ask me, if 
 you mean fair play ? " 
 
 "A LITTLE LEARNING IS A DANGEROUS THING " IN 
 CRICKET. 
 
 The only piece of science I ever hear on a cricket 
 field is this : " Sir, how can that be ? The angle of 
 reflection must always be equal to the angle of 
 incidence." 
 
 That a cricketer should have only one bit of science, 
 and that, as he applies it, a blunder, is indeed a pity. 
 
 I have already shown that, in bowling, the apparent 
 angle of reflection is rendered unequal to the angle of 
 incidence by the rotatory motion or spin of the ball, 
 and also by the roughness of the ground. 
 
 I have now to explain that this law is equally dis- 
 
A LITTLE LEARNING DANGEROUS. 237 
 
 turbed in batting also ; and by attention to the follow- 
 ing observations, many a forward player may learn so 
 to adapt his force to the inclination of his bat as not to 
 be caught out, even although (as often happens to a 
 man's great surprise) he plays over the ball ! 
 
 Ask, my friends, some Cantab to tell you a little 
 about the composition and resolution of forces. Any 
 senior opt. (within a year after he has taken his 
 degree) will inform you that the effect of a moving 
 body meeting another body moving, and that same 
 body quiescent, is rather different. So — 
 
 Fix a bat immovably perpendicular in the ground, 
 and suppose a ball rises to it from the ground in an 
 angle of 45° as the angle of incidence ; then supposing 
 the ball to have no rotatory motion, it will be reflected 
 at an equal angle. 
 
 But supposing the bat is not fixed, but brought 
 forcibly forward to meet the ball, then, according to 
 the weight and force of the bat, the natural direction 
 of the ball will be annihilated, and the ball returned, 
 perhaps nearly point-blank, not in the line of reflection 
 but in some other line more nearly resembling the line 
 in which the bat is moved. 
 
 If the bat were at rest, or only played very gently 
 forward, the angles of reflection would not be mate- 
 rially disturbed, but the ball would return to the 
 ground in proportion nearly as it rose from it ; but by 
 playing very hard forward, the batsman annihilates the 
 
238 THE CRICKET EIELD. 
 
 natural downward tendency of the ball, and drives it 
 forward, perhaps, into the bowler's hands ; and then, 
 fancying the laws of gravitation have been suspended 
 to spite him, he walks back disgusted to the pavilion, 
 and says, " No man in England could help being out 
 then. I was as clean over the ball as I could be, and 
 yet it went away as a catch !" 
 
 Lastly, as to " being out by luck," always consider 
 whether, with the same adversaries, Pilch or Parr 
 would have been so put out. Our opinion is, that 
 could you combine the experience and science of Pilch 
 with the hand and eye of Parr, luck would be reduced 
 to an infinitesimal quantity. 
 
 That cricket is partly a game of chance there can be 
 no doubt ; but that all is chance that men call such, we 
 strenuously deny. Young players should not think of 
 being out by chance : there is a certain intuitive 
 adaptation of play to circumstances, that, however 
 seemingly impossible, will result from observation and 
 experience, unless the idea of chance closes the eyes to 
 instruction. 
 
 With these hints, we bid our brother cricketers 
 adieu ; assuring them that we are ourselves by no 
 means too old to learn ; that all information will be 
 thankfully received ; and requesting, in the words of 
 Horace, — 
 
 " si quid novisti rectius istis 
 
 Candidus imperti ; si non, his utere mecum." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 31+77-2 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 020 237 026 3 
 
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