Alms bowl

“ In theory the game of bowls is very simple, the aim of the player being to roll his bowl so as to cause it to rest nearer to the jack than his opponent’s, or to protect a well-placed bowl, or to dislodge a better bowl than his own. But in practice there is every opportunity for skill. On all good greens the game is played in rinks of four a side, there being, however, on the part of many English clubs still an adherence to the old-fashioned method of two and three a side rinks. Ordinarily a match team consists of four rinks of four players each, or sixteen men in all. ”

“ In the score, the strike counts ten for the player and in addition also whatever he gets on the next two balls. Likewise he will count ten for a spare, but only what he gets on one ball for a bonus. As a consequence the maximum or perfect score in bowling is 300, which is a series of ten strikes and two more attempts in which he knocks down all the pins. In lawn bowling the scores are very low as compared with the indoor game, where good players will often average close to 200 on alleys where they are accustomed to bowl. ”

“ The two newcomers began making runs just like their predecessors, and completely mastered the bowling.
Every member of the club had now been tried with the ball, besides the three visitors, who certainly bowled fairly well, but nothing hysterically brilliant. Even Charley Bates had a turn, although I don’t believe he had ever hit the wicket in his life; and on his surrendering the ball, after presenting our opponents with three wides and any number of byes, our captain was at his wits’ end. He didn’t know who he could set on to bowl. ”

“ Bowling practice is generally starved, while batting practice is crammed, like the unhappy geese of Strasburg; and to this fact the dearth of amateur bowling may be largely attributed, though an important and not-to-be-forgotten fact is, that any boy who really can bowl is nearly always over-bowled from lack of coadjutors. If boys are to be trained to bowl, they must bowl at the nets as they would bowl in a match—i.e., in overs—instead of sending up a random ball according as it is returned to them by the batsman or the fags. ”

“ To-day our large schools, as a rule, boast perhaps three or four professional bowlers; the boys who have the privilege of being coached by them daily get their half-hour's batting practice from their straight accurate bowling, and then usually their lesson is finished. Perhaps a boy may take a ball and bowl for a short time to a companion at the same net as the professional, but it is generally done, if done at all, in a careless, haphazard sort of fashion, there not being the same inducement to bowl straight and well as there used to be when professional bowlers were more scarce. ”

“ The player to his right holds eight, the player to his left has only six—the right side wins, the left side loses. In an instant the croupier, with his huge paper-knife, sweeps up the cards, and, with the rapidity of a conjuring trick, he casts them into a wooden bowl in the middle of the table; then he rapidly sweeps off all the stakes on one side of the table; [Pg 110] with equal celerity he places each man's winnings before the players on the other side. There are no quarrels, and no mistakes. Everybody is terribly polite. ”

“ Mid-off must back up behind the bowler when the ball is thrown in from long-leg, short-leg, mid on and long-stop. Mid-on backs up the bowler when it is thrown from mid-off, cover-point, point, and third man. Modern tactics and modern slow bowling have invented an extra field in the shape of an extra mid-off, who stands between cover-point and mid-off, and his duties, when the fashion is to bowl mainly on the off side for catches, are most onerous. ”

“ Lob bowlers cannot break both ways. This, I think, is quite true, and, roughly speaking, they may be divided into two classes—those who, like Ridley, bowl chiefly on the off stump, and break away, and have seven or eight fields on the off side; and those who, like Humphreys, keep on the on side. It may be asked. Why not combine the two styles? The answer is. You can, but if you do you want more than eleven fields: you do not try and bowl men out, but tempt them to hit, and if you bowl off balls, the batsmen has to get the ball away from eight men—not an easy thing to do ”

“ Anyhow, when one dark rainy morning the sharp need came for something of this kind, it was I who thought of the bowl, which, after all, could contain almost as much Jordan water as could the freestone font in St. Barnabas's, and was twenty times more beautiful. ”

“ There is no greater or more successful trap for wild young players than these widish off balls. But it is indeed a trying time for the bowler when he keeps pitching just outside the off stump, and is not even played at by the batsman. Bowlers should, in these circumstances, bowl ball after ball on the off stump and just outside it. It is by no means an uncommon occurrence to see these punishing batsmen taken in by a ball that comes in a little with the arm, and removes the bail while they are striking an attitude, bat over shoulder. ”

“ The player, instead of rolling the bowl, throws it in such a manner, that it rests in the place where it first touches the ground; and if that be a fortunate situation, the next player pitches his bowl directly on his adversary’s, so as to make that spring away, while his own fixes itself in the spot from which the other has been dislodged.—Some of the citizens are astonishingly dexterous at this game, which is more complicated and interesting than the English manner of playing. ”

“ When your party takes the field, let your bowlers take full time between their balls; keeping a close field till your opponents begin to hit freely, when you must extend your men as occasion may require.
If the opposite party hold in, and are getting runs too fast, change your worst bowler, being careful at the same time to bring forward one as opposite to him as possible, both in speed and delivery. If you bring forward a fast bowler as a change, contrive, if fortune so favour you that he shall bowl his first ball when a cloud is passing over ”

“ They played the game as never before. Quick starts, hard interfering, sure tackling, a spirit of "do or die," and just the right amount of confidence in themselves; their Captain and their coach carried them through the season, and earned, as a reward, the custody of the silver bowl. The team was excellently managed, nothing being left undone that could help the team to victory, and the support the boys received from the school and the graduates was very flattering.
Boston Latin, who came so near defeating the winners, deserve the greatest amount of praise for the season's work. ”

“ In overhand bowling the hand moves up and down in a straight line between hand and wicket; in round-arm bowling this is not the case, as anybody can see who takes a ball and makes the attempt. It requires more practice to bowl the ball where you want it to go if you bowl round-arm than it does if you bowl overhand, and the fact that bowling with the hand over the shoulder was not allowed before 1864 makes it obvious that the old bowling—that is, the round-arm bowling between 1830 and 1860—was more off the wicket than now. ”

“ A bowl alley is the place where there are three things thrown away besides bowls—to wit, time, money, and curses, and the last ten for one. The best sport in it is the gamesters, and he enjoys 193 it that looks on and bets not. It is the school of wrangling, and worse than the schools, for men will cavil here for a hair's breadth, and make a stir where a straw would end the controversy. No antic screws men's bodies into such strange flexures, and you would think them here senseless, to speak sense to their bowl, and put their trust in entreaties for a good cast. ”

“ This ball, therefore, should only be bowled at intervals, and when according to the bowler's judgment it may have a fair prospect of success. Usually this happens on two occasions. The first is when a batsman has just begun his innings, and is playing nervously and without confidence; a twisting ball then from the leg side is extremely apt to fluster and annoy him, and a catch in the slips or at point, or a catch and bowl, is not infrequently the result. The second is when a hitter is in, and is hitting to all parts of the field. ”

“ On the European continent the game can scarcely be said to be played on scientific principles. It has existed in France since the 17th century. When John Evelyn was in Paris in 1644 he saw it played in the gardens of the Luxembourg Palace. In the south of France it is rather popular with artisans, who, however, are content to pursue it on any flat surface and use round instead of biased bowls, the bowler, moreover, indulging in a preliminary run before delivering the bowl, after the fashion of a bowler in cricket. ”

“ Sometimes it will happen, that of all the boys who have bowled at the shy, not one has thrown it down; the King then looks sharply at each one who tries to take up his stone, to touch him. It generally happens, that whilst the King is pursuing one, who has taken up his stone, to touch him, all the rest take to their stones, and make off home. But it should have been said, that by the place from which they bowl, a string is stretched for a leap, over which a player running from the King is obliged to jump before he is considered home. ”

“ On Scottish greens the game of points is frequently played, but it is rarely seen on English greens. Its main object is to perfect the proficiency of players in certain departments of bowls proper. There are four sections in the game, namely, drawing, guarding, trailing and driving. In drawing (fig. 1) , the object is to draw as near as possible to the jack, the player’s bowl passing outside of two other bowls placed 5 ft. apart in a horizontal line 15 ft. from the jack, without touching either of them. Three points are scored if the bowl come to rest within 1 ft. ”

“ He is a cautious player, the man at this end, and the bowling is straight and well pitched.
After five balls, a man who has been standing by the bowler with his coat on, and seeming to take no interest in the game, turns his back on the bowler and batsman, and strolls off as if tired of looking on. Then the fielders seem to be playing at "pussy wants a corner," for they walk about and change places, and then another man begins to bowl from the other wicket. ”

“ Good bowling is so vitally essential to good cricket, that I wonder that more pains are not taken in the practice of it. The annual defeat of the Gentlemen by the Players, which is becoming every year, it seems, more sure in its recurrence, I attribute in chief measure to the fact that as a rule the Gentlemen bowl badly, because they never practise it. ”

“ The Interscholastic Baseball Championship Cup, which has been played for for seven years, has finally been awarded to the Cambridge High and Latin School, their team having won it the greatest number of times. This cup is of solid silver, nearly nine inches high, in the form of a loving-cup with handles. In design the bowl rests upon a circular wreath of holly, and the bulge of the bowl itself is decorated with wreaths of wild roses. ”

“ As there was a period of about thirty years when round-arm bowling held the field, so now, after the lapse of another thirty years, overhand bowling has taken its place. Of course in the thirties there were plenty of bowlers who, like J. H. Kirwan, bowled with a very low arm, so in the sixties and seventies there were plenty of round-arm bowlers. But in 1899 hardly any bowler exists who does not bowl right above his head. ”

“ Any kind of ball or bean bag may be used for this game. If there be few players, one Indian club is set up for each player, all clubs being widely separated and on a given line. At from ten to thirty feet from this club line a second line is drawn, on which the players must stand to play. The players all slide the bag over the floor or roll the ball, at once, each player scoring one when he knocks over his Indian club. The clubs are then replaced, the balls or bags gathered up, and the players return to the starting line and bowl again. ”

“ The only outside activities my father participated in were pitching horseshoes and bowling and he was good at both of them. He was especially good when bowling for money. He and four other bowlers would travel around the area to bowl in pot games and he always made a little money. He also bowled in one nationals tournament in Chicago. After his death I bowled for about ten years on a team with Leon, Clarence and, sometimes, Ken Montanye. ”

“ By the way, what sort of stuff do you bowl?"
"Ordinary sort of stuff," I said, "with one or two bounces in it. Do you see that Surrey—"
"Fast or slow?"
"Slow—that is, you know, when I do bowl at all. I'm not quite sure this season whether I hadn't better—"
"Slow," said Dick thoughtfully; "that's really what I want. I want lots of that."
"You must get Phyllis to bowl to you," I said with detachment. "You know,
I shouldn't be surprised if Lancashire—"
"My dear man, girls can't bowl. ”

“ The dice being put in, they are thrown up a few inches by striking the bottom of the bowl on the ground, so that each counter makes several revolutions. It is altogether a game of chance and no advantage can be taken by anyone in making the throws. The counters or dice never leave the bowl but are counted as the value turns up. One person having shaken it and the amount of his throw having been ascertained a requisite number of small sticks are placed before him, each stick counting 1. ”