Ye bowlers, take heed, to my precepts attend,
On you the whole fate of the game must depend.
Spare your vigour at first, now exert all your strength,
But measure each step, and be sure pitch a length.
The best method of holding the ball to bowl, is between the thumb and fingers, firmly enough to steady it, yet that it may leave the hand with ease.
When practising, let the bowler always use, if possible, a ball of the required weight, and measure the exact distance that is settled from one wicket to the other; viz. two-and-twenty yards. If his pace be moderately fast, he should endeavour to pitch the ball about four yards and a half before the wicket: if it be slow, somewhat nearer, and in swift bowling not farther off than five yards. The young practitioner cannot do better than to place a mark upon the ground at the stated distance from the wicket, according to the speed at which he intends to bowl, and to aim at that mark.
In a match, when running to bowl, he should fix his eye upon a certain spot where he is desirous the ball should pitch: there will be no difficulty in selecting an object for the purpose of a guide; either a difference in the colour of the grass, or a slight unevenness in the ground, will answer his purpose. This is a rule from which he should not deviate—all the finest bowlers I have known have pursued this plan; for, if the length be correct according to his rate of bowling, he can do no better than adhere to that distance.
He should also habituate himself to bowl with equal ease on either side of the wicket; he will experience the advantage of such practice; for he will frequently notice that the ground on one side
