Page:The Cricket Field (1854).djvu/274

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THE CRICKET FIELD.

fellow Jim threw his bat a couple of yards at a ball too wide to reach, and Mr. Ward caught him at Point! The loss of this one man's innings was not all, for the men went in disgusted; the quicksilver was up with the other side, and down with us, and the match was lost by twenty-four runs." But, though stupid in this instance, Broadbridge was one of the most artful dodgers that ever handled a ball. And once he practised for some match till he appeared to all the bowlers about Lord's to have reduced batting to a certainty: but when the time came, amidst the most sanguine expectations of his friends, he made no runs.

Now for Generalship: A manager had better not be a bowler, least of all a slow bowler, for he wants some impartial observer to tell him when to go on and when to change,—a modest man will leave off too soon; a conceited man too late. To say nothing of the effect of a change, so well known to gun, not only wickets, but catches (because the timing is different), it is too little considered that different bowlers are difficult to different men,—a very forward player, and one eager for a Cut, may respectively be non-suited, each by the bowling easiest to the other. A manager requires the greatest equanimity and temper, especially in managing his bowlers, on whom all depends. He should lead while he