Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/72

Rh have to be provided for, roughish wickets to be found, but there is much improvement. It may appear strange, when we think how a ball bumps on hard, rough wickets, that bad accidents did not occur by the ball hitting boys on the head, and to me I confess it is surprising still. I think, however, that, taking the bowling generally, it was by no means so high as it is now. Round-arm bowling was the rule, and this explains the comparative immunity from knocks and blows of a serious nature. Knocks and blows of a milder form, however, we had in plenty, and we endured them in a way I venture to think the modern schoolboy has no idea of. The common fault of boy-batting was just what was natural when bumpy wickets were so common; the right foot was not kept still. No fault is so easy to acquire; no fault is so difficult to get out of.

Youth is the time to learn and to be taught, in cricket as in everything else—how and what to teach is in every case entirely dependent on the boy. Some will never be taught; there is something wrong; hand and eye never can be made to agree. On the other hand there are