Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/156

Rh lost. To bang down long hops for the purpose of terrifying batsmen and in the hope of getting the ball to bump and the batsmen to be caught behind the wicket, is not bowling in the true sense. Yet who can deny, when Jones the Australian, Jessop, and Kortright are bowling that this expedient is frequently, perhaps generally, adopted. The bowler cannot be blamed. You cannot expect them to bowl for hours together for the batsmen. If bumping long hops are the balls most likely to get wickets, bowlers must deliver them: they are no£ to be blamed, but the rules of the game that has produced such a state of things. Similarly, slow bowlers, though they last twice as long as fast, get tired of bowling for hours at Quaife and Noble with no result; so they fall into bad habits, try for impossible leg breaks with a total sacrifice of length and science, and this is not bowling any more than fast long hops. When the skill and science of batting are considered, though nobody wants to run down real scientific correct batting, still it must be remembered that to play in such a way is far easier when every ball comes straight and true half-stump high. The real great innings