Page:The Cricket Field (1854).djvu/49

Rh The pest of the hunting-field is the man always thinking of his own horse and own riding, galloping against and not after. The pest of the cricket-field is the man who bores you about his average—his wickets—his catches; and looks blue even at the success of his own party. If unsuccessful in batting or fielding, he gives up all—"the wretch concentred all in self." No! Give me the man who forgets himself in the game, and, missing a ball, does not stop to exculpate himself by dumb show, but rattles away after it—who does not blame his partner when he is run out—who plays like play and not like a painful operation. Such a chilly, bleak, northwest aspect some men do put on—it is absurd to say they are enjoying themselves. We all know it is trying to be out first ball. Oh! that first look back at rattling stumps—"why, I could'nt have had right guard!"—that conviction that the ball turned, or but for some unaccountable suspension of the laws of motion (the earth perhaps coming to a hitch upon its ungreased axis) it had not happened! Then there's the spoiling of your average, (though some begin again and reckon anew!) and a sad consciousness that every critic in the three tiers of the Pavilion, as he coolly speculates "quis cuique dolor vict0, quæ gloria palmæ," knows your mortification. Oh! that sad walk back, a "returned convict;" we must all pace it,