Page:Cricket (Steel, Lyttelton).djvu/122

100 cricketer becoming more or less of a bowler, and many boys from constant practice grew fairly proficient who otherwise would never have been heard of, and consequently would never have been able to take part in the most fascinating part of the game. 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.

What a pity it is that even a tenth part of the care and attention devoted to teaching batting is not expended on bowling! A few words of instruction or encouragement to a beginner might have the effect of awakening in him the interest and keenness about bowling which would eventually cause his development into agood bowler, or at any rate afairish one. Who has not seen over and over again a boy come up to a net where a companion is practising, and picking up a ball, which as likely as not is about half as large again as a match ball, proceed to hammer away at the batsman for about ten minutes or more in all directions, with all pitches, and, what is worse than everything, with different lengths of run? Then, perhaps, getting a little tired, as any bowler will who bowls for long without a rest (which he would get in a match at the end of each over), he exclaims, 'Now I'll give you some of Spofforth's patents!' and then, with a long run and a kangaroo-like bound (but, probably, altogether unlike the famous Australian bowler), he proceeds to hurl the ball wider and in a more erratic style than ever. Then, perhaps, he will say, 'Would you like some of W. G.'s?' and immediately assuming the well-known and somewhat inartistic pose of the English champion, proceed to toss the ball lifeless up in the air. Now this is not the way to learn how to bowl.