As regards hitters I should by no means consider them as the most useful class of batsmen; they are not to be compared with the careful batsman who never changes his cautious style even when the coveted three figures are on the board to his credit. Yet there are days when the embryo Warwickshire W. G." retires into oblivion beside the fierce hard hitting of the foreing batsman, who, in perhaps the short space of half an hour, has placed victory within the grasp of his side or staved off a certain defeat. Lean think of nothing more discomfiting and demoralising to a bowler, who, on the day, knows he is bowling well, and perhaps has been meeting with well-merited success, than, upon a hitter appearing on the scene, to have to watch his good length balls being unceremoniously " carted" in the direction of the boundary; it is by doing this that the value of the hitter is shown, enabling the tail end to wag with unexpected vivacity.
The tendency of cricket now-a-days Jeans on the side of what has been called the Nottingham style, which is playing with an unnecessary amount of caution, conducing to drawn games. The last season record of Notts. of thirteen drawn games out of sixteen matches, shows how sorely they are in need of some batsmen who ure not afraid to occasionally run some risks. With the exception of A. O. Jones, brilliant example of forcing cricket hoppy go-lucky slogger of no particular Ottewell, a hard hitter; and Gutteridge, a
method, I have never seen anyone attempt to take a liberty with the bowling.
Now-a-days too much restriction is placed on young players who show any tendency to hit; and instead of being encouraged to hit, and being coached in that most difficult of matters for a hitter, "picking the right one," the young pilyer is seientiically coached in the usual orthodox style which, it may be, is entirely foreign to his nature, and consequently develops into mediocrity as.an ordinary batsman. The coaching of oung players is a vexed question in far the greater number of cases instead of obtaining an old experienced cricketer—he need not necessarily be an extraordinary performer, but one who understands the game—he is handed over to the tender mercies of some young professional, who may be of more than ordinary ability as a bowler, but whose knowledge of coaching is strictly limited.
of that noble indoor yame—whist, " when Following that useful hint to, beginners in doubt play trumps," many cricketers will tell you when in doubt play back; but it is by no means a bad plan when that particularly nasty length ball comes down which causes a doubt to arise in your mind as to how to play it, to go one step and hit, and that in no half-hearted way. Iam well aware- that this is not the strictly orthodox game, but I have seldom found it ineffective.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.