4thly. All stand at guard as upright as is easy to them. We say easy, not to forbid a slight stoop,—the attitude of extreme caution. Height is a great advantage, “and a big man,” says Dakin, “is foolish to make himself into a little man.” If the eye is low, you cannot have the commanding sight, nor, as players say, “see as much of the game,” as if you hold up your head, and look well at the bowler.
5thly. All stand easy, and hold the bat lightly, yet firmly, in their hands. However rigid your muscles, you must relax them, as already observed, before you can start into action. Rossi, the sculptor, made a beautiful marble statue of a batsman at guard, for the late Mr. William Ward, who said, “You are no cricketer, Mr. Sculptor; the wrists are too rigid, and hands too much clenched.”
After standing at guard in the attitude of Pilch, fig. 1. shows the bat taken up ready for action. But, at what moment are you to raise your bat? Caldecourt teaches, and some very good players observe, the habit of not raising the bat till they have seen the pitch of the ball. This is said to tend both to safety and system in play; but a first-rate player, who has already attained to a right system, should aspire to more power and freedom, and rise into the attitude of fig. 1. as soon as the ball is out of the bowler’s hand. Good players often begin an innings with their bat down, and raise it as they gain confidence.
Fig. 1.
Preparing for Action. The toes are too much before Wicket, and foot hardly within the crease. Foreshortening suits our illustration better than artistic effect.
Meet the ball with as full a bat as the case admits. Consider the full force of this rule.
1st. Meet the ball. The bat must strike the ball, not the ball the bat. Even if you block, you can block hard, and the wrists may do a little; so, with a good player this rule admits of no exception. Young players must not think I recommend a flourish, but an exact movement of the bat at the latest possible instant. In playing back to a bail ball, a good player meets the ball, and plays it with a resolute movement of arm and wrist. Pilch is not caught in the attitude of what some call Hanging guard, letting the ball hit his bat dead, once in a season.
2dly. With a full bat. A good player has never less wood than 21 inches by 4¼ inches before his wicket as he plays the ball, a bad player has rarely more than a bat’s width alone. Remember the old rule, to keep the left shoulder over the ball, and left elbow well up. Good players must avoid doing this in excess; for, some play from leg to off, across the line of the ball, in their over care to keep the shoulder over it. Fix a bat by pegs in the ground, and try to bowl the wicket down, and you will perceive what an unpromising antagonist this simple rule creates. I like to see a bat, as the ball is coming, hang perpendicular as a pendulum from the player’s wrists. The best compliment ever paid me was this:—“Whether you play forward or back, hitting or stopping, the wicket is always covered to the full measure of your bat.” So said a friend well known in North Devon, whose effective bowling, combined with his name, has so often provoked the pun of “the falls of the Clyde.”