187
CHAP. IX.
BOWLING.—AN HOUR WITH "OLD CLARKE."
In cricket wisdom Clarke is truly "Old:" what he has learnt from anybody, he learnt from Lambert. But he is a man who thinks for himself, and knows men and manners, and has many wily devices, "splendidè mendax." "I beg your pardon, sir," he one day said to a gentleman taking guard, "but ain't you Harrow?"—"Then we shan't want a man down there," he said, addressing a fieldsman;" stand for the 'Harrow drive,' between point and middle wicket."
The time to see Clarke is on the morning of a match. While others are practising, he walks round with his hands under the flaps of his coat, reconnoitring his adversaries' wicket.
"Before you bowl to a man, it is worth something to know what is running in his head. That gentleman," he will say, "is too fast on his feet, so, as good as ready money to me: if he doesn't hit he can't score; if he does I shall have him directly."
Going a little further, he sees a man lobbing to
