Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/266

to me. Whenever Kortright bowled on the leg-stump or even the middle and leg-stumps, Abel might have been seen drawing his right foot away from the wicket and yet stopping the ball. Perrin, on the other hand, for Essex, in an innings of over ninety, played sound, scholar-like cricket, both timing the ball and hitting the loose ones in a manner which showed him to be a real cricketer. Hayward, on fast, true wickets, perhaps the best bat in England, showed himself to be a perfect child when playing Mead on a difficult, soft wicket. There was nobody in fact in the whole match, except Perrin, whom a stranger who understood the game would have described as a first-rate bat. There was another match played between Essex and Yorkshire on a soft, difficult wicket, where the same phenomenon might have been observed; in this match it was the oldest player on either side who showed to an experienced looker-on what real scientific batsmen can do. A. P. Lucas, in each innings, played absolutely perfect cricket; he scored runs and was not out in his second innings, and I have no hesitation in saying there was more sound scientific play displayed by Lucas in this