h2 



NA TURE 



[November 23, 1905 



SCIENCE AND ART OF CRICKET. 



THE golfing- world already owes a debt of grati- 

 tude to Mr. Beldam for his "Great Golfers." 

 This companion volume, setting forth on the same 

 lines the styles of play of our greatest cricketers, 

 (anno! fail to appeal strongly to all lovers of the 

 most English of our national games. The method 

 adopted here is identical with that 

 of the earlier book. Each of the 

 many batsmen pictured has been 

 photographed in one or more 

 characteristic attitudes before, dur- 

 ing, or after tin- striking of the 

 ball, and after a careful study of 

 every picture Mr. Fry has set 

 down his own interpretation for 

 the guidance of the reader. No 

 bettei guide could have been got, 

 for among the great cricketers of 

 our day Mr. Fry stands conspicu- 

 ous as one who has studied the 

 art of cricket with phenomenal 

 success. 



The book is divided into two 

 parts. In part i. (individualities) 

 close on 300 photographs are given 

 of eighteen of our best known 

 batsmen, including Grace, Ranjit- 

 sinhji, Trumper, Fry, Hill, Jack- 

 son, Dull, MacLaren, and s ;l on. 

 In part ii. (strokes illustrated) the 

 various kinds of recognised strokes 

 are systematically discussed and 

 illustrated by photographs of other 

 great batsmen. There is, of 

 course, a good deal of repetition 

 of the same ideas in the letterpress 

 of these two parts, but each has 

 its own value. In the one case it 

 is the individual batsman whose 

 pose and actions are being- 

 studied; in the other it is the kind 

 of stroke which is the object of 

 discussion, and this is helped out 

 by an appeal to the example of 

 a number of different cricketers. 

 The volume ends with a short but 

 very practical and interesting 

 chapter upon the art of timing 

 with the camera. We learn that 

 the operator sometimes used .1 

 finger release of the shutter and 

 sometimes an electric. The latter 

 method enabled Mr. Beldam to 

 act, in same eases, both as bowler 

 and photographer. The requisites 

 for good work of this kind are 

 complete knowledge of the me- 

 chanism and capabilities of the 

 camera, thorough acquaintance 

 with the game itself, and a deli- 

 cacy of judgment which must be 

 parih inborn and strongly de- 

 veloped by practice. We are not 

 told what proportion of photo- 

 graphs taken were failures, but the beauty and 

 clearness of the 600 here shown prove that Mr. 

 Beldam is a master hand in the art of taking action- 

 photographs. 



Where almost every picture is admirable, and illus- 



1 '• Ore.,, Batsmen, their Methods a< a Glance.' 1 By G. W. Beldam and 

 C 1.. rry. Pp x,v+„6: illustrated by 600 Action-photographs. (London: 

 luacnnllan and Co., Ltd., 1905 ) Price ?n. nel. 



NO. I 882, VOL "J2>\ 



trates some essential part of a particular stroke, it 

 is not possible to choose for reproduction any that 

 might be regarded as representative. \Y. G. Grace, 

 for example, is shown in twenty-six different atti- 

 tudes, and all have some lesson to tell. In the 

 photograph reproduced we have the finish of an on- 

 drive, in which the turn of the bodv has aided power- 

 fully in giving full effect to tile stroke. The eves are 



still looking at the spot where the ball was when it 

 was struck. The whole series of photographs proves 

 that all great batsmen follow the ball with their eve 

 right up to the moment of striking. It is this which 

 gives precision, just as in golf. 



Ranjitsinhji is figured in twentv photographs, and 

 it is in the comparison of these with the attitudes of 

 other cricketers that the limitations of the method of 



