42 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF POLO. [Chap. 11. 



ball, unless one of his own side behind him shouts 

 out " Leave it ! " On hearing this order, which means 

 that the man behind has the best chance at the ball, 

 No. I must at once devote his energies to riding Back 

 off and must on no account trv to hit the ball. 



For two reasons he should if possible come up 

 on his adversary's stick side. Firstly, because if he 

 succeeds in this, the Back will be forced to hit on 

 the near side, and it is much harder to place a near 

 side back-hander where one w^ants to, than an off side 

 one. Secondly, if he rides his opponent over the ball, 

 his No. 2, who ought to be backing him up, can hit 

 the ball to No. I's right hand, and very likely give him 

 a good opening (Fig. 21). But if No. i was on the 

 other side, he would have to make his own hitting on 

 the near side, which is much more difficult. 



When the ball is hit out from behind his own goal 

 line, he should be as close as possible to the Back, and 

 ready to interfere with him if necessary (Fig. 23). 

 If the ball, on being hit forward, does not quite reach 

 the opposing Back, who may be afraid to dash in. No. i 

 must go for the ball, if no one else of his side can 

 get it. He should, however, if he has the opportunity, 

 delay hitting his back-hander, and should shout to one 

 of his own side to gallop past him. He will thus 

 be able to place the ball for him If, on the other 

 hand, he hits a back-hander at once, the opposing 

 Back would be sure to get the ball without any 

 difficulty. It is quite an exploded idea that it is 

 not necessary for No. i to be a fine hitter. If he 

 has good ponies, he will have as many openings as 

 any other member of the team, and will probably get 

 more chances of hitting goals than any of them. In 



