Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/256

 a spot that will cause it to kick and rise quickly off the pitch. Not to find that out before the match begins means that the bowler has failed to do his duty to his side, and lacks one of the characteristics of a first-class player.

Old Nyren says in his treatise of the game: "Contrive, if fortune so favour you, that your bowler shall bowl his first ball when a cloud is passing over." I have never been able to have the cloud passing when I bowled my first ball—indeed, I have rarely noticed the cloud passing at all—but on more than one occasion I have observed a distracting glare or leafy tree behind one of the wickets, and I always took particular care to put my most deadly bowler on at that end. Now, if a captain can notice these amongst the multitude of things he has to consider, surely a bowler ought to. Then there are some grounds on which the ball bounds higher than others, and a short-pitched one cannot be pulled very easily. That is something to know when you put in a faster one occasionally and cannot be so sure of your length. Lord's ground was of that nature not so many years ago, and Wootton and Grundy, who knew every foot of it, never hesitated to bowl a little bit short. There are many other points of detail which a bowler ought to know, but I need not enumerate them. I have said sufficient to make the bowler think for himself, if he possess the thinking faculties; if he does not, he may as well give up the hope of ever becoming first-class.

And that brings me to my last point—seek for the weak spot in the batsman's defence. There are very few batsmen without one, and the sooner you find it out the better for your side and yourself. No one plays the first over or two with the same confidence he shows after he has been batting for a quarter of an hour, and if you can only spot his weakness and lay siege to it,