Page:The Cricket Field (1854).djvu/257

Rh play straight and fairly Off;—and, should not they learn to hit On also? Certainly: but while in a transition state, they are not fit for a county match: and some men are always in this transition state. Horace had good cricket ideas, for, said he,

Either play for show off, and "that's villanous," says Hamlet, "and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it;" or, adopt a style you can put well together—and sumite materiam—æquam viribus, adopt a style that suits your capabilities; cui lecta potenter erit res; try at no more than you can do—nec deseret hunc,—and that's the game to carry you through.

"A mistake," said an experienced bowler, "in giving a leg ball or two, is not all clear loss; for, a swing round to the leg often takes a man off his straight play. To ring the changes on Cutting with horizontal bat, and forward play with a straight bat, and leg-hitting, which takes a different bat again, this requires more steady practice than most amateurs have either time or perseverance to learn thoroughly. So, one movement is continually interfering with the other."