VILLAGE CRICKET 175 



" guard " (or " block " as it is sometimes en- 

 titled), and secondly the duty of calling 

 " Over !" when five (or in some cases six) fair 

 balls have been delivered by any one bowler. 

 The task of giving " guard" requires no special 

 aptitude. As soon as the batsman holds his bat 

 in front of the wicket and clears his throat loudly 

 enough to attract the umpire's attention, the 

 latter should respond by gazing earnestly do^vn 

 the pitch, holding his right hand in the air and 

 waggling it gently from right to left. In answer 

 to these signals the batsman will at once move 

 his bat in the direction indicated. The umpire 

 should then waggle his hand from left to right, 

 and when the batsman has replaced his bat in 

 its original position he can remark, " Two leg !" 

 return to his place beside the wdcket, and allow 

 the bowler to commence his deadly work. 



The duty of counting the balls in any " over " 

 is not always so easy as it sounds. The umpire's 

 thoughts may wander, or his attention may be 

 temporarily diverted by extraneous incidents, 

 such as the straying of a cow upon the pitch, the 

 sight of his offspring tumbling down the Jubilee 

 Well, or the still more harrowing spectacle 

 supplied by those members of the batting team 

 whose innings are happily over and who are 

 tracing their eager footsteps towards the "Bull 

 and Kingfisher." Again, when a bowler has 



