and who have to look after the pitch themselves. Let me impress on them the great need of doing so. I have said elsewhere that I cannot remember when we had not a good pitch at home; but let me say also that its condition was entirely owing to our own efforts. Many an hour we spent rolling it; and we had our reward. Once you have played on a good wicket, you will never be satisfied with an indifferent one.
You will be singularly fortunate if you have a piece of ground of any size at your home; but it is not absolutely necessary that it should be very large. Thirty to forty yards long, by fifteen to twenty broad, with stop-nets, will serve your purpose; and it will not be a disadvantage at that stage of your progress to be told that, for other than cricket reasons, you must keep the ball down when you hit. And you need not worry if the whole of the ground is not turfed over. As long as you have ten yards in good condition, carefully rolled in front of the wicket you are batting at, you have all that is needed for satisfactory practice.
Always play with a bat suited to your strength and height. Every boy longs for a full-sized bat, and thinks it a reproach to practise with anything else. I can assure you that you are going the wrong way to acquire a correct style if your wish be gratified, and may get into faulty habits that will stick to you all your life. Youth is the impressionable time for both mental and physical training, and in the majority of cases it is more difficult to unlearn than learn.
You may not always be able to get a bat the weight you desire, and very little mischief may result from playing with one two or three ounces too heavy, for weight does not affect your playing straight or driving properly; but it is better to err on the side of having one too light, for with a heavy one you cannot cut or time the ball correctly. A full-sized bat in the hands of
