Page:Cricket (Lyttelton, 1898).djvu/29

in such a way that it is difficult to judge the length, and spectators may see this for themselves. Lohmann, for instance, as you sit in the ring, seems to bowl what look like half-volleys and yorkers, but when the batsmen play them you see that before the ball gets to their distance it drops straight down. This sort of ball is very difficult indeed to judge, and was one of the many qualities that made Lohmann the great bowler that he was. W. G. Grace has a long arm, which is extended at full length, and such bowling round the wicket often deceives batsmen in the direction of the ball, which looks as if it was good to hit to leg; the ball, however, being on the leg stump, l.b.w. is the result. Wright, of Kent, has a natural curl in the air, a characteristic very rarely found; and Mr. King, one of the Philadelphian Eleven, has the same; but this much is clear in these days of beautiful smooth wickets—that mere mechanical accuracy of length is not sufficient to get a first-class eleven out, and on this point it