“ Bowling is, indeed, scarcely less scientific than batting. It is not, however, so systematically taught to young amateurs, and it may be partly in consequence of this neglect that amateur bowling is exceedingly weak in England as Bowling. compared with that of professionals. The evolution of the art of bowling, for it has been an evolution, is an interesting chapter in the history of cricket which can only be briefly outlined here. The fundamental law as to the proper mode of the bowler’s delivering the ball is that the ball must be bowled, not thrown or jerked. ”

“ Whatever the pace of bowling, accuracy is the essential point, or, more correctly, the power of accurately varying pace, pitch and direction, so that the batsman is never at peace. If the bowler is a mere machine, the batsman soon becomes his master ”

“ But the evolution of the wicket has been very gradual, and the history of it is very obscure, since different types of wickets seem to have existed simultaneously. If early pictures are to be trusted, no wicket was required in primitive times: the striker was either caught out, or run out, the fieldsman having to put the ball into a hole scooped in the ground, before the batsman could put his bat into it. A single stump, it is supposed, was sometimes substituted for the hole to save collision between the bat and the fieldsman’s fingers. ”

“ The bowler is therefore continually trying to pitch balls just too short for safe forward play, while the batsman defends his wicket by playing forward or back as his judgment directs so long as the bowling is straight and of approximately good length, and is ready the instant he receives a bad-length ball, or one safely wide of the wicket, to hit it along the ground clear of the fieldsmen so as to make as many runs as he and his partner can accomplish before the ball is returned to the wicket-keeper or the bowler. ”

“ Batting and bowling have in fact developed together, a new form of attack requiring a new form of defence. One of the first principles a young batsman has to learn is to play with a “a straight bat” when defending his wicket against straight balls. This means that the whole blade of the bat should be equally opposite to the line on which the ball is travelling towards him, in order that the ball, to whatever height it may bound from the ground, may meet the bat unless it rises altogether over the batsman’s hands ”

“ Cricket has never flourished vigorously in Scotland, Ireland or Wales, a fact that may partly be accounted for by the comparative difficulty of obtaining good grounds in those parts of the kingdom, and by the inferiority, for the purpose of cricket, of their climate. In the south of Scotland, and especially in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, there are clubs which keep the game alive; and Scotland, though it has produced no great cricketers, either amateur or professional, has sent a few players to the English university elevens who have found places in English county teams. ”

“ In England cricket is invariably played on turf wickets, but in the Colonies matting wickets are often employed, and sometimes matches have taken place on sand, earth and other substances. The oldest form of the game is probably single wicket, which consists of one batsman defending one wicket, but this has become obsolete, though it was very popular in the time when matches were played for money with only one or two, or perhaps four or five, players on a side. ”

“ When, owing to the good length of the ball, the batsman is unable to play it in either of these two ways, but is compelled to play at it in the middle of its rise from the ground, he is almost certain, if he does not miss it altogether, to send it up in the air with the danger of being caught out. If through miscalculation the batsman plays forward to a short-pitched ball, he will probably give a catch to the bowler or “mid off,” if he plays back to a well-pitched-up ball, he will probably miss it and be bowled out. ”

“ Since the first half of the 19th century the sort of cricket to engage public attention has very greatly changed, and the change has become emphasized since the exchange of visits between Australian and English teams has become an established feature of first-class cricket. First-class cricket has become more formal, more serious and more spectacular. The contest for the county championship has introduced an annual competition, closely followed by the public, between standing rivals familiar with each other’s play and record ”

“ The best stand that has been made for the last wicket in a first-class match is 230 runs, which was run up by R. W. Nicholls and Roche playing for Middlesex v. Kent at Lord’s in 1899.
The “averages” of individual players for batting and bowling annually excite a good deal of interest, and there is a danger that some players may think too much of their averages and too little of the sporting side of the game. Any comparison of the highest averages during a series of years would be misleading, owing to improvements in grounds, difference of weather, and the variations in the number of innings. ”

“ One will make most of his runs by “cuts” past “point,” or by wrist strokes behind the wicket, while others, like the famous Middlesex Etonian C. I. Thornton, and the Australian C. J. Bonnor, depend mainly on powerful “drives” into the deep field behind the bowler’s wicket. Some again, though proficient in all-round play, develop exceptional skill in some one stroke which other first-class players seldom attempt. ”

“ The batsman may, however, hit a “no-ball” and make runs off it, the runs so made being scored to the striker’s credit instead of the “no-ball” being entered among the “extras.” The batsman may be “run out” in attempting a run off a “no-ball,” but cannot be put out off it in any other way. “Byes” are runs made off a ball which touches neither the bat nor the person of the batsman, “leg-byes” off a ball which, without touching the bat or hand, touches any other part of his person. With the exception of these “extras” the score consists entirely of runs made off the bat. ”

“ School and Club Cricket.—Cricket is the standing summer game at every English private and public school, where it is taught as carefully and systematically as either classics or mathematics. There are also numbers of amateur clubs which possess no grounds of their own and are connected with no particular locality, but which are in fact mere associations of cricketers who play matches against the universities, schools or local teams, or against each other. ”

“ It was in bowling that the Australians were thought to be least strong; but Laver’s analysis in the Manchester test match, when he took 8 wickets for 31 runs in England’s first innings, was the most notable feature of the match; and although his record at the head of the bowling averages for the tour, 70 wickets at an average cost of 14.9 runs, had frequently been beaten in earlier Australian tours in England, it proved him a worthy successor of Spofforth, Boyle and Turner. ”

“ Proficiency in it, as in golf and tennis, depends in the first instance to a great extent on the player assuming a correct attitude for making his stroke, the position of leg, shoulder and Batting. elbow being a matter of importance; and although a quick and accurate eye may occasionally be sufficient by itself to make a tolerably successful run-getter, good style can never be acquired, and a consistently high level of achievement can seldom be gained, by a batsman who has neglected these rudiments. ”

“ But even those balls off which runs are scored are not to be hit recklessly or without scientific method. A different stroke is brought into requisition according to the length of the ball and its distance wide of the wicket to the “off” or “on” as the case may be; and the greatest batsmen are those who with an almost impregnable defence combine the greatest variety of strokes, which as occasion demands they can make with confidence and certainty. There are, however, comparatively few cricketers who do not excel in some particular strokes more than in others. ”

“ All the players are monks (not female figures, as Strutt misinterprets their dress in his Sports and Pastimes) , and on the extreme left of the picture, the bowler, with his cowl up, poises the ball in the right hand with the arm nearly horizontal. The batsman comes next with his cowl down, a little way only to the right, standing sideways to the bowler with a long roughly-hewn and slightly-curved bat, held upright, handle downwards in the left hand. On the extreme right come four figures—with cowls alternately down and up, and all having their hands raised in an attitude to catch the ball. ”

“ League cricket has of late become exceedingly popular, especially in the North of England, a number of clubs—about twelve to sixteen—combining to form a "League" and playing home-and-home matches, each one with each of the others in turn; points are scored according as each club wins, loses, or draws matches, the championship of the "League" being thus decided.
English County Cricket.—The first English inter-county match which is recorded was played on Richmond Green in 1730 between Surrey and Middlesex ”

“ The result has been that in fine weather, when wickets are true and fast, bowlers have become increasingly powerless to defeat the batsmen. In other words the defence has been strengthened out of proportion to the attack. Bowlers have consequently to a great extent abandoned all attempt to bowl the wicket down, aiming instead at effecting their purpose by bowling close to but clear of the wicket, with the design of getting the batsman to give catches. ”

“ The immense amount of labour and expense devoted to the preparation and care of cricket grounds has produced during the past quarter of a century a perfection of smoothness in the turf which has materially altered the character of the game. ”

“ These critics see no reason why half of a summer’s day should be allowed to elapse before cricket begins, and they comment with some scorn on the interval for tea, and the fastidiousness with which play is frequently interrupted on account of imperfect light or for other unimperative reasons. Various suggestions have been made, including proposals for enlarging the wicket, for enabling the attack to hold its own against the increasing strength of the defence. ”

“ Duff saved the colonials by a great innings in the fifth test match; Trumper was less certain than formerly, and Clement Hill more reckless; whilst J. J. Kelly (b. 1867) on his fifth tour was better than ever before with the gloves.
The Australians who visited England under the leadership of M. A. Noble in 1909 were generally held to be a weaker team than most of their predecessors, but they greatly improved as the season advanced, proving that the side included several cricketers of the highest merit, and as a captain Noble has seldom been surpassed in consummate generalship. ”

“ All great cricketers in fact, while observing certain general principles, display some individuality of style, and a bowler who is familiar with a batsman’s play is often aware of some idiosyncrasy of which he can take advantage in his attack. ”

“ Middlesex, like Kent, has been better served by amateurs than professionals. Indeed, with the notable exceptions of J. T. Hearne, who headed the bowling averages in 1891, 1896 and 1898, and of the imported Australian A. E. Trott, few professionals of high merit are conspicuously associated with the history of the county cricket. Trott, in 1899 and again in 1900, performed the previously unprecedented feat of taking over two hundred wickets and scoring over one thousand runs in the same season. ”

“ In Holland, chiefly at the Hague and Haarlem, cricket is played to a limited extent on matting wickets. Dutch elevens have visited England, and English elevens have crossed to Holland, the most important visit being that of the gentlemen of the M.C.C. in 1902, the Englishmen winning all the matches.
Professionalism.—The remuneration of the first-class English professionals is £6 per match, out of which expenses have to be paid; a man engaged on a ground to bowl receives from £2, 10s. ”

“ When an “over” has been bowled from one end a different bowler then bowls an “over” from the opposite end, the alternation being continued without interruption throughout the innings, and the bowlers being selected and changed from time to time by the captain of their side at his discretion. At the end of every over the fielders “change over” or otherwise rearrange their places to meet the batting from the other end. An over from which no runs are made off the bat is called a “maiden.” ”

“ A professional player generally receives extra reward for good batting or bowling, the amount being sometimes a fixed sum of £1 for every fifty runs, more frequently a sum awarded by the committee on the recommendation of the captain. Some counties give their men winter pay, others try to provide them with suitable work when cricket is over. A few get cricket in other countries during the English winter. For international matches professional players and “reserves” receive £20 each, though before 1896 the fee was only £10 ”

“ Kent had been a home of cricket since the first half of the 18th century, but it was Lord Harris more than any other individual who made it a first-class county, celebrated for the number of distinguished amateurs who have taken part in its matches. ”

“ Matches between an unequal number of players are still sometimes arranged, but mainly in the case of local sides against touring teams, or “colts” playing against eleven experienced cricketers. In any case two umpires are always appointed, and for English first-class county cricket these are now annually chosen beforehand by the county captains. Two scorers are officially recognized. All the arrangements as to scoreboards, and accommodation for players, members of the club and general spectators, vary considerably according to local requirements. ”