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 losing your balance, misplacing your bat, or drawing
your foot out of your ground, that ball should be considered 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 forward 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 forward, 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 which pitches 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.
[Illustration]
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
gracefully, 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. Especially avoid any catch or flourish. Come
forward, foot and bat together, most evenly and most quietly.
Forward play may be practised almost as well in a room as in a
cricket-field: better still with a ball in the 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. “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 broad-sword.” With driving, as with half-play, be not too
eager--play forward surely and steadily at first, otherwise the point
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 sometimes 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
when 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 country match.
Every player should practise occasionally with professional bowlers;
for, they look to the principle of play, and point out radical errors
even in showy hits. Even Pilch will request a friend to stand by him
in practice to detect any shifting of the foot or other bad habit,
into which experience teaches that the best men unconsciously fall. I
would advise every good player to take one or two such lessons at the
beginning of the season. A man cannot see himself, and will hardly
believe that he is taking up his bat across wicket, sawing across at a
draw, tottering over instead of steady, moving off his ground at leg
balls, or very often playing forward with a flourish instead of full on
the ball, and making often most childish mistakes which need only be
mentioned to be avoided.
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 depends not on thought, but
habit: by constant practice, the time requisite for deliberation
becomes less and less, 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 language, we “do it
naturally,” or, have formed that habit which is “a second nature.”
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 an 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 or composure we admire in proficients 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 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 habituate 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, however
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 knowledge. 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 practice 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 mischievous fellow, always tickling your elbow, and
making 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 always 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 harmony 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
under-pitched, balls. My custom 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 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 cease 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.
“_Suave mari magno_,” 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 fell, or the many
catches which were made, from defects I had entirely overcome.
For, without the habit aforesaid, a man will often shut his eyes, and
remove his right fingers, as if the bat were 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 unconcerned, 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, 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 experimentalising with hard hits off
good lengths, may disturb your quick perception of critical lengths,
and give you an uncontrollable habit of dangerous hitting.
THE SHOOTER.--This is the surest and most destructive ball that is
bowled. Stopping shooters depends on correct position, on a habit of
playing at the ball and not losing it after the pitch, and on a quick
discernment of lengths.
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 of 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 wicket,
as in _fig. 1._ page 115; thus you will drop down on the ball, and have
all the time and space the case admits of. If the bat is not previously
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 playing 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 hardened 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 every inch
from the hand to the bat. 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 the subject
of attentive practice.
The most difficult of all bailers are those which ought not to be
allowed to come in as bailers at all, those which should be met at the
pitch. Such over-pitched balls give neither time nor space, if you
attempt to play them back.
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 at all. Look at _fig. 2._ The bat is not drawn across the
wicket, but hangs perpendicularly 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, “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.” This old rule hardly consists with the
principle of meeting the ball.
The Draw is the spontaneous result of straight play 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.
[Illustration: _Fig. 2._]
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, as the line of the ball must make a very acute angle, 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 to the Near 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, scraping 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 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 discriminate 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.
As to the old-fashioned hit under 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 elegant. 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 _fig. 1._; stand close up to your wicket;
weight on pivot-foot; balance-foot ready to come over as required. This
is the only position from which you 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 certainly 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--half-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 to
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 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 uncertain. 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. 159, 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 cut 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,” without any ball, or with 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.
_Experto crede_, you may learn to sweep with almost an upright bat
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.
[Illustration: _Fig. 3._]
THE FORWARD CUT, a name by which I would distinguish another off-hit
is a hit made by Butler, Guy, Dakin, Parr, and indeed especially by
the Nottingham men, who, Clarke thinks, “hit all round them” better
than men of any other county (see _fig. 3._). The figures being
foreshortened as seen by the bowler, the artist unwillingly sacrifices
effect to show the correct 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, 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.
Some good players do not like this crossing of left foot, preferring
the cutting attitude of _fig. 3._; but I know from experience and
observation, that there is not a finer or more useful hit in the field;
for, if a ball is some two feet to the Off, it matters not whether
over-pitched or short-pitched, the same position, rather forward,
equally applies.
The Forward Cut sends the ball between Point and Middle-wicket, an
open part of the field, and even to Long-field sometimes: no little
advantage. Also, it admits of much greater quickness. You may thus
intercept forward, what you would be too late to cut back.
To learn it, 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 players commit this fault; also, in playing back some
players 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 a ten years’ retirement
has not prevented from being known as one of the best hitters of the
day.
[Illustration: _Fig. 4._]
The attitude of cutting is faintly given (because foreshortened) in
_fig. 4._ This represents a cut at rather a wide ball; and a comparison
of _figs. 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 thrown back
rather than advanced, were the ball nearer the wicket. Still, the
attitude is exceptional. Look at the other figures, and the cutter
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; 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 genuine 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,
which 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 impulse
brings the bat at once out of all defensive and straight play. Right
shoulder involuntarily starts back; 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 enough to cut; the difficulty is with good balls: and, to
cut them, not by guess but, by sight. _Fig. 5._ represents 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 bowling; 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 Baldwinson of Yorkshire. Still a first-rate player should have
a command of every hit: a bowler may be pitching uniformly short, and
the balls may be rising regularly: in this case, every one would like
to see a good Cutter at the wicket.
To learn the Cut, suspend a ball from a string and a beam, oscillating
backwards and forwards--place yourself as at a wicket, and
experimentalise. 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.
[Illustration: _Fig. 5._]
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 cutting.
3. Your muscles have very little power in Cutting quite horizontally,
but very 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, cutting 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. Bradshaw 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 even
fair-length balls by sight.
Harry Walker, Robinson, and Saunders were the three great Cutters;
and they all Cut very late. But the underhand 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 cutting 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 forward 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 according 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 doesn’t the man hit somewhere else?”
So with Jarvis of Nottingham, a fine player and one of the best cutters
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 Nottingham 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.”
[Illustration: _Fig. 6._]
LEG-HITTING.--Besides the draw, there are two distinct kinds of
leg-hits--one forward, the other back. The forward leg-hit is made, as
in _fig. 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 horizontal 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 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 cannot reach
nearer than about a foot from the pitch, sweep your bat through the
line in which the ball should rise. Look at _fig. 7._ p. 173. The bat
should coincide with or sweep a fair bat’s length of that dotted line.
But if the point of the 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, which some make when the bat cannot
properly command the pitch. This blind hit is often made at a ball
not short enough to play by sight back, nor long enough to command
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, although
the best players are sometimes betrayed into it, is by no means to be
recommended.
Reader, do you ever make the 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 that one more man
is thereby brought about the wicket. If you cannot make this hit, you
have evidently a faulty style of play. So, practise diligently with
leg-balls, till balls 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 in a leg-hit? 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 preserve 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: as the lines of bat and ball
form an angle, the ball will fly away 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 and Broadbridge, it was
remarked by the players, they had never seen their leg-hit before.
Clarke says he showed how to make forward 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 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 aspire 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 set fast on
his legs, I know he can’t play my bowling.” The reason is, as we shall
explain presently, that the accurate 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 far enough, and as far as the
pitch; and, only go in to straight balls, for to those alone can you
carry a full bat. And, never go in to make a free swing of the bat or
tremendous 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, who
have 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,
then, a 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, commonly makes
this hit. 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.
[Illustration: _Fig. 7._]
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 the arm and 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 Mr. James Dean; though Sampson, of
Sheffield, attains in a similar manner remarkable certainty in meeting
leg-balls, and not inelegantly. My attention was first called to this
hit by watching the play of Mr. E. Reeves, who makes it with all the
ease and elegance of the Draw, of which I consider it one variety.
Clarke says, 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
this kind of forward play, which takes an awkward ball at its rise and
places it on the On-side, however useful to Sampson of Sheffield and
the very few who introduce it in its proper place,--this is a hit which
_nascitur non fit_, must come naturally, as a variety of forward play.
To study it, makes a poking game, and spoils the play of hundreds. So,
beware how you practise the poke.
“The best way to score from short-pitched leg-balls,” writes a very
good hitter, “is to make a sort of sweep with the left foot, almost
balancing yourself by the toe of the said left foot, and resting
chiefly on the right foot,--at the same time drawing yourself upright
and retiring towards the wicket. This of course is all one movement.
In this position you make the heel of your right the pivot on which
you turn, and move your left (but in a greater circle), so that both
preserve the same parallel as at starting, and come round together; and
this I regard as the great secret of a batsman’s movement in this hit.
This gives you the power of simply playing the ball down, if it rises
much, and likewise of hitting hard if it keep within a foot of the
ground. Both Sampson and Parr score very much in this style.”
However, with fast bowling, there are almost as many mistakes as runs
made by hitting at these short-pitched leg-balls. Pilch, in his later
days, would hardly meddle with them.
Lastly, as to leg-balls, remember that almost any one can learn to hit
clean up (square, especially); the art is to play them down. Also,
leg-hitting alone is very easy; but, to be a good Off-player, and an
upright and straight player, and yet hit to leg freely, is very rare.
We know a fine leg-hitter who lost his leg-hit entirely when he learnt
to play better to the off.