“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 the case of T.
Warsop, a fine Nottingham player, who, in a match at Sheffield in 1822,
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.