weight resting chiefly on the right, both knees straightened up, the body as upright as the position of the bat will allow, the left elbow well up, the left shoulder turned towards the bowler, the head erect and looking over the left shoulder watching for the ball. This is called the first position. It ensures an upright bat-the great desideratum of safe play-and gives the striker a command over any awkward twistings or shootings of the ball unattainable by any other means. It does not, however, put him into a position to strike with any effect: some change has to be made. As the ball is delivered, the striker throws back the point of his bat to the bails, shifting his left hand from front to rear of the handle as above described, using the right wrist as a pivot: in this position the striker is ready for anything. Should the ball rise or twist, there the bat is waiting for it; should it give an opening for a hit, the hit will be made with all

the more force and effect; or should it shoot along the ground-most deadly of possibilities-the bat's own weight will almost alone bring it back to the safe position of "guard." This position is called "make ready" (see Fig. 3). As it is the bowler's first object to knock down the wickets, so it must be the batsman's first object to keep them up: the integrity of his wickets is the prime necessity of the striker's existence; defence, therefore, before defiance, must be the learner's motto.

Many balls, if they do not possess any further element of danger than their straightness, may be safely met and played in the form of Fig. 3; but a good bowler will take care to pitch the ball in such a manner as to make this defence, if not impracticable, at least extremely hazardous. A ball that pitches from a yard and a half to two yards from the bat, according to the speed of

FIG 3.

the bowling, is called a "length ball," because it pitches just the right length to be most puzzling to the batsman; and it can only be met with reasonable safety in one of two ways-either by playing forward and stopping it at the pitch, or by playing back, and thus gaining time to judge its flight after it takes the ground.

It should be remembered that the only puzzling part of a ball's flight is after it takes the ground, not only because, having less distance to travel, it gives the striker less time to judge it, but because any bias or spin imparted to it by the bowler can only take effect when it comes into contact with the ground.

By forward play, the batsman is enabled to smother the ball before this bias has time to produce much effect; and by back play he gains time to prepare for, and meet, any unexpected eccentricity in its line of flight.

Forward play is only of service when the pitch is so near that the batsman can, by reaching forward, get so well over it as to render it next to impossible

for the ball, however much it may twist or shoot, to evade the bat; if he cannot safely reckon upon this, he had better have recourse to back play.

Every ball may be met by back play, and now-a-days it is the more favoured method; but, none the less, forward play, where it is applicable, is not only the safest, but the most effective play."

By reaching forward, it will often be possible to make a good hit off a ball that it might otherwise be difficult to keep from the wickets; whereas, in playing back, it is hardly possible to do more than pat the ball away for one run. FORWARD PLAY (see Fig. 4) is managed thus: The striker being in the attitude of "make ready," keeping his right foot, of course, on the ground inside the popping-crease, strides out with his left, and, leaning well forward, thrusts his bat in front of him in the path of the ball.

In doing this the bat must be kept rigidly in line with the middle stump, the handle inclined neither to the right or the left, or it may leave an unguarded spot for the ball to get past; the handle must, however, be inclined well forward towards the bowler, that, in case the ball should rise a little too quickly, it may be beaten back again to the ground, lest flying off the bat it fall a prey to some ready fieldsman.

In this attitude both hands will be behind the bat, and both, more especially the right, should hold it in a firm grip; the left shoulder must be thrust forward, and the left elbow be well up.

The learner should practise this and, indeed, all the other positions by himself, without a bowler, until he can assume them mechanically, and so be free to concentrate all his thoughts upon the bowling.

BACK PLAY (see Fig. 5) is, as its name implies, the opposite in every way of the preceding. The left foot stands fast; the right is thrown back almost

up to the wicket; the upper part of the body leans over the right knee; and the bat hangs suspended perpendicularly from the wrists, its shoulder level with the bails, the hands grasping the handle as in Fig. 1. Thus posed, the batsman waits for the ball: if it shoot, he can be down on it; if it rise, he meets it by a slight movemant of his wrist at the moment of contact (the bat, by the way, in this and all other cases, must never be allowed to hang a dead weight in the hands), plays the ball down if it be perfectly straight, or away into the field if it be not.

The young player must learn to make these changes of position with unwavering smoothness and certainty. The least unsteadiness of hand or foot will almost inevitably prove fatal.

He must, above all things, keep constantly before his mind the golden rule, that the only safety to his wicket lies in rigidly straight play, that is, in meeting the ball with a bat always, as far as inclination to one side or another is concerned, accurately perpendicular.

HITTING. The next thing for the beginner, after learning the method of handling his bat, and the most advantageous method of standing and preparing for the ball, is to learn how to hit. This is not so simple a matter as might be supposed. Anybody, it is true, can, the first time he handles a bat, strike the ball with it with more or less force, according to his muscular strength and natural aptitude; but this is not hitting in the cricketer's sense of the word.

In the first place, a hit, to be "clean," requires that the ball should leave the bat at a distance of from five to eight inches from its point; and the bat itself must by no means be made to swing round in a huge circle like a sack or a one-armed windmill, but must be wielded with a short, vigorous, combined action of the wrists, arms, and shoulders.

In hitting, there are four leading principles to be always kept in mind: hit hard, hit late, hit low, and hit by sight, not by guess. Every hit should be made with all the force you can bring to bear upon it, since every yard that the ball is driven adds to the chances of a run, and every run lost or gained is so much gain or loss to the fortunes of the innings side.

The young batsman should especially cultivate the knack of dropping down heavily upon "shooters," i.e., balls that, after they pitch, run or shoot along the ground, instead of rising. Most players are content merely to "block" such balls, that is, to bring the bat down to meet them, with only sufficient force to stop them or drive them back a short distance, content with merely rendering them innocuous. But, with a quick hand, a good eye, and a little practice, the young player may learn to do better than this; he may learn not only to play these, the most deadly of all balls, with confident security, but even to drive them away with such force as to make runs from them.

To do this, he must follow the ball carefully with his eye every inch of the way from the bowler's hand to his bat, and, waiting till it is just on the point of passing him, bring his bat forcibly to meet it, giving a kind of push or shove forward at the moment of impact. It is astonishing how far a ball, blocked in this manner, can be driven by a skilful player.

Hitting should be always as late as possible, that is, the ball should in most cases be allowed to be level with the body at the moment the bat meets it, because in that way alone the full force of the stroke is expended in propelling the ball; whereas, if the hit be made a little earlier, as is mostly the case with ordinary players, or too late, much of the strength is wasted in the air.

Hitting should be low, that is, the ball should be rather sent skimming along the ground than soaring in th air, partly, as may be well understood, for safety, that the striker may not be caught out, and, partly, because in that way, on good ground, the same expenditure of force drives the ball farther than by "sky-hitting."

Sky-hitting is more attractive to the novice, and far more applauded by the uninitiated outsiders, than low ground hitting; but the latter is the safer and the more effective, and therefore indisputably the correct method. A dashing, slashing sky-hitter may occasionally, with good fortune, make a good score; but the low hitter is the safe man, and, cæteris paribus, will in the long run make better scores.

And, above all things, hitting should be by sight, not by guess. Too many players, some even among the very best, habitually hit, not at the spot where

ww, Wickets; b, Bowler; s, Slip; S., Snick; c, Cut; C.h., Cover-hit; O.d., Drive to the off; L.f., Lng-off; F.d., Forward-drive; L.n., Long-on; M.w., Mid-wicket; S., Square-leg; L, Leg hit; D, Draw.

N.B.-The dotted lines only indicate the general direction of each hit.

they see the ball is, but where they think it will be. It is true that, if their calculation be correct, they are thus enabled, by being beforehand with the ball, to hit well away many that would be otherwise highly difficult to get away at all. A good eye and good judgment may enable a man to pursue this course with considerable impunity, or, indeed, with some success for a time; but it does not pay in the long run: he is sure, in the end, to have his share of "luck," in the shape of "shooters," and against them he is powerless, for he can only hit on the chance of the ball rising.

The ball, too, will constantly, after it pitches, change its direction, or unexpectedly rise higher than ordinary. Fortunate, in these cases, must the guess-hitter be who does not "put up a catch" for the expectant fieldsmen. Every ball, according to its greater or less accuracy to the distance of the

point where it first pitches from the batsman, and to the manner in which it comes in from the pitch-whether, that is, it rise, twist, or shoot-requires a totally distinct method of treatment, a different action of the bat, and a different attitude of the body.

As it would be impossible, as I said above, to figure and describe here in detail every hit upon the ball, the leading and representative hits only have been delineated and described, while the less marked variations have received only a passing, but perhaps amply sufficient, notice.

HITS.-The accompanying Diagram C will show, without need of further explanation, all the hits that are on the ball.

The hit is said to be made on or off as the ball is driven into the field on the left or right side of the batsman as he faces the bowler.

SLIP.- Properly speaking, slip is not a hit at all, inasmuch as the ball acquires no additional impulse from the bat; it is only from fast bowling that it can in any way be of much effect in obtaining runs. In order to make it,

the batsman has only, in case of a rising ball, to let a ball passing a little wide of the off stump (ie., the stump farthest from the batsman, the others being called "middle" and "leg" (glance from his bat, and, if it have any speed, it will do the rest for itself. He must however, be very careful, in doing this to a rising ball, to slant the

handle of his bat well over the ball, so as to play it on to the ground before it reaches the ready fingers of "short-slip," who else may bring his innings to an untimely close.

If the ball be along the ground, the bat should be brought down hard upon it, and more of a hit attempted. This will, in all probability, drive it between "slip proper" and "cut," where the field is generally somewhat unguarded.

If a low or ground ball be some six inches or so wide of the wicket, a modification of the "slip" may be advantageously employed. The striker must wait until the ball is well up, and then, stepping back with his right foot, and facing in the direction of "cut," bring the bat down upon it with a sharp, quick action of the wrists; the ball will fly off in the same direction as the preceding. If well timed and skilfully executed, this hit is most effective. Its technical name, somewhat expressive, but far from graceful, is "snicking."

CUT.-The cut proper (Fig. 6) is not employed so freely now, in these days

FIG. 6.

of round-arm bowling, as it used to be in the olden days of underhand, not because the requisite skill is wanting, but because the present style of bowling does not favour its use; none the less, it is a useful variation to know and to practise, for there are some balls, especially if the bowling be in any de