Page:Lacrosse- The National Game of Canada (New Edition).djvu/263

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GOAL-KEEPING.

so sooner, as a rule, than a man ho has not had his hand and eye educated by swift halls; but there is a wide difference between batting and goal-keeping. In Cricket the batsman knows that the bowler aims solely at the wickets—that to tumble the bails is his object. In Lacrosse, goal-keeper has a space six feet high and six feet wide to defend; and, while one ball into the wickets only puts one man out, generally, one ball into goal is a lost game, invariably. The bat covers the wickets, and the batsman’s body is scarcely exposed to accident, except by his own carelessness. The crosse and you, together, cannot cover the goal, and you are a target for swift shots that have no compunction whether they hit your crosse or your face. The difference of pace and curve in bowling is not as puzzling as the many kinds of shots to goal, and the various distances from which they are flung and tipped. The Cricket ball is always delivered within the bowling-crease, and you always have the orthodox distance from it to judge; but in goal-keeping you can neither foresee the distance of the next ball, nor whether it will come high or low, swift or slow. We consider it easier to block the same paced ball, at wickets, than