RHODES ON BATTING.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 427, 15 July 1913, Page 7

RHODES ON BATTING.

HIS ADVICE TO YOUNG CRICKETERS.

Wilfred Rhodes, the popular Yorkshire cricketer, is writing a series of articles m 'The Boy's Own Paper/ entitled "Do you want to play for your county?" This month he treats of " Your bat, and how to use it."

Telling you what movements vyou should make with arms, legs, and feet for each different "shot", will, he remarks, assuredly result m cramping your methods tor quite a long time, at the end of which you will probably be as bad a batsman as ever you were. So let me, for a start, say that there are three ways of playing straight balls; and leave the crooked ones out of the question for the time. These three ways of negotiating straight balls are by playing back, forward, and by driving, and you can be guided by very simple rules as to which stroke you can use. First of all, the back play is Eerhaps the strongest of all m defence, ecause with its aid you will be able to defy the bowler who is sending down the ?;ood-length ball which is nearly always atal to the bad batsman. You will naturally ask " What is a good-length ball?" And my answer is, the ball which pitches on a spot just out of your reach if you try to get to it with left leg well stretched out, making it difficult to negotiate with a forward shot. So we may take it that when you can easily reach the actual pitch of a ball you can drive it for all you are worth; when you can only reach the pitch of it with difficulty, play forward; and when it is almost impossible, play back. But you will want many hours of practice before you will be able properly to distinguish one from another. However, m playing forward and m driving, the "first two essentials are to make the bat meet the ball as soon as possible after the latter has pitched, and to move the left foot up close to the point of the bat when the latter meets the ball. If this 'foot-work is done properly, so that it gets to the right spot at the same time as the ball and bat meet, the maximum of power will be got out of the stroke 1 , and so long as the left foot is kept up close to the bat it is physically impossible to play m any other way but straight. In playing the forward stroke, keep the right tos well within the crease, and let all the weight of the body go on to the left foot and, consequently, into the shot; but when driving a straight ball, immediately you can see that you can reach the pitch of it quite easily you can jump to it, using all your strength and equilibrium m smiting, care being taken to. get well to the ball and not to hit too soon, a common mistake with youngsters. As I said before, when it is well-nigh impossible to get to the pitch of a straight ball, the batsman should play back. This can be done correctly by keeping the eye "glued" upon the ball, drawing back the right foot m the direction of the leg stump — not towards the square-leg umpire — the left foot also following, and by keeping a perfectly upright bat for the ball to encounter.

You must not confuse the ball which is just short of a good length, and which requires back play, with the long hop. This latter is very short, and, no matter how straight it is, should be hit with all your strength. However, as my space is at an end, I shall have to deal with that stroke, as well as other scoring shots off balls that are not straight, m my next article. In the meantime, remember what I say about keeping the left foot close up to the bat when playing "straight stuff, and don't be afraid to hit the hall which pitches well within your reach.