VILLAGE CRICKET 185 



for example, a ball strikes one's bat and bounds 

 into the wicket-keeper's hands, it is not con- 

 sidered good form to rub one's elbow as though 

 suffering acute pain, nor will such action deceive 

 anybody. Again, nothing is so criminal as for 

 a wicket-keeper to pretend to throw the ball 

 back to the bowler, and then, when the batsman, 

 assuming that he is immune from attack, walks 

 out into the pitch to inspect a worm-cast, to 

 seize the opportunity of stumping him. Last 

 of all, let me say that the bowler who draws a 

 batsman's notice to an imaginary aeroplane in 

 the sky, and then slings down a fast " yorker " 

 that takes his wicket, is only one degree less base 

 than the deep field who pretends he has lost the 

 ball in the long grass and then, when the umpire 

 and both batsman cpme to help him to find it, 

 picks it suddenly from his pocket and tries to 

 throw down the untenanted Avicket. These 

 things, I need hardly say, are not done on any 

 of those village cricket grounds where English- 

 men consort together to engage in the best of 

 all games, and incidentally to acquire those 

 sterling qualities that help to make England 

 what she is. 



Much of our national greatness, believe me, 

 depends upon the lessons our fellow-countrymen 

 have learnt from time immemorial upon many 

 an obscure village green. Never was truer word 



