Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/33

18 to work, and kick that ball between and through the posts, and if anybody gets in your way just knock him over and go on." This sounds far more attractive to the Britisher: "knock him over!"—this is real joy, and so simple. Golf, however, in the first place, is a game like billiards, you must mind your own play, you can only to a limited extent, and that indirectly, interfere with your opponent's play. There is no "knocking him over" at golf, nor is there at billiards. All you do is to play your best in the hope that your opponent's best may not be as good as yours. If your opponent at football is running the ball down, you can go for him, not with your fists, but with your body. At cricket, if you are getting runs, your rivals are trying to bowl you out, or get you out somehow. But, except that you give safety misses at billiards, and thereby impede your rival's progress, golf and billiards stand alone among games in that they require you to concentrate your efforts on your own game and ignore your opponent's; he must go his way and you must go yours. At billiards you can do absolutely nothing while your enemy is playing; you have to look on and