Page:Cricket (Lyttelton, 1898).djvu/15

Rh a very fast bowler on at one end and a medium pace at the other. Now some bats have what to others is an extraordinary knack of playing back on fast wickets to fast bowling; and all Nottingham was probably talking; in 1897, of Gunn's great innings in the Notts and Surrey match. It was reported that the feature of that innings was Gunn's back play to Richardson. Back play by most bats to Richardson on a fast wicket would simply result in a waste of strength by a fruitless movement of the bat, a noise among the stumps, and a walk to the pavilion. But Gunn has in these days, and Carpenter had in the sixties, the power, given to few, of playing back to fast bowlers; and this power must be found out for the batsman by the batsman himself, and, if found to answer, persevered in. Hardly a coach and teacher exists who would teach a boy to play back to fast bowling unless the ball is very short; it is far easier for the general run of bats to play forward, for the great pace of the ball makes it a gift to be