Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/285

238 question. Is it, however, quite certain that to bend the arm at the moment of delivery is sufficient to make a throw? It is on this point that much difference of opinion exists.

One critic says that there must be a jerk of the elbow, a second that an indefinable something is brought into being by the wrist, a third that the thrower always checks his run before delivering the ball. Everybody attempts a definition, but nobody has succeeded; because to define a throw is impossible. We have all seen bowlers at Lord's whose delivery looks quite above suspicion when viewed from the pavilion behind the bowler's arm, but which looks altogether different when seen from the grand stand; and it is this fact, I suppose, that caused the M.C.C. to empower either umpire to call "no ball." Some critics say that neither umpire is in a position to judge if a ball is thrown or bowled; that this can only be known by the wicket-keeper or batsman, or by somebody, at any rate, who has no voice in the matter. My own opinion is that, though the batsman and wicket-keeper may be in a better position to judge than the umpires, they