Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/325

 coolness are quite equal to Scotton's, and his scoring pace not much faster. From 10 to 15 runs an hour is a fair average for him. But he can hit when he makes up his mind to; these occurrences, however, are few and far between.

I remember one of them. It was some years ago, when the United South played Eighteen of Batley. I was bowling to him, and had tried to tempt him to hit out for some overs, but failed. Suddenly he woke up, and, to my surprise, hit me to square-leg clean out of the ground: and he kept it up for some time.

In the same match I had rather a peculiar experience. I was fairly well set, when a bowler whom I had never seen before was commissioned to have a try at me. The very first ball was a deliberate throw, and it hit my wicket, and I had to go out, every one of the opposite side alleging that as the umpire had not "no-balled" him, the ball must be considered to have been fairly delivered. The joke of the thing lay in the fact that the bowler had been engaged to play entirely owing to his throwing powers, and was only to be allowed to bowl one over at me. They still tell that story against me in the North.

Hall can drive fairly well, and is good on the leg-side; but it is his unwearied patience and strong defence which make him so valuable a bat. He is a good field close in, and can bowl lobs or slow round. He has scored over 100 runs in an innings on several occasions, and has represented the Players against the Gentlemen for, many years. He captained the Yorkshire eleven for some time. Hall is a strict teetotaller. His best batting years have been:


 * 1883 || 35 || 1180 || 127 || 33.25
 * 1887 || 32 || 1240 || 160 || 38.24
 * }
 * 1887 || 32 || 1240 || 160 || 38.24
 * }