November 23, 1905] 



NA TURE 



instantaneous photography appear. Except in a few 

 lasts there is no appreciable difference between his 

 attitudes and those of others; the characteristic style 

 of Ranjitsinhji depends upon the rapidity of the 

 successive movements which go to make the complete 

 stroke, and this is necessarily lost in the momentary 

 picture. One verv characteristic poise of body is 

 given in the eighteenth of the series of pictures of 

 the Indian cricketer. Here we have the finish of the 

 will known leg-glance. To quote from Mr. Fry's 



description : — " the unique part of the stroke is the 

 foot work . . . the left foot is moved across right in 

 front of the wicket, passing immediately across the 

 right. The body from the hips upwards is twisted 

 round towards the leg-side. The bat, at the instant 

 it meets the ball, is perfectly upright just in front of 

 the left knee. Playing this stroke in this way would 

 be impossible for anyone less supple and less quick 

 than Ranjitsinhji." 



This is not the place for discussing in any detail 



NO. 1882. VOL. 73] 



the many different kinds of strokes recognised in 

 cricket, though a good deal might be spoken regard- 

 ing the dynamical principles underlying some of the 

 methods indicated. For example, the lowering of the 

 grip of the right hand in defensive strokes, as when 

 the player plays back, is the obvious way of getting 

 a more powerful couple to act on the bat and prevent 

 it being rotated by the impulse of the ball. The 

 plaver probably does not think of it in that way, but 

 by experience he has found it to be the most effective 

 method. The important distinction 

 between wrist plav and arm play is 

 referred to again and again, and 

 the value of wrist play insisted upon 

 with greal incisiveness. It seems to 

 us, however, thai Mr. fry occasion- 

 ally directs attention to evidence of 

 powerful wrist play in certain atti- 

 tudes where, strictly speaking, it 

 does not to any marked degree 

 exist. To bring out our meaning 

 more preciseh , let us suppose the 

 batsman is taking his stand at the 

 wicket. His first position with the 

 bat resting in the block hole and his 

 eyes looking towards the bowler 

 gives him such a stance that when 

 he rises upright with the bat droop- 

 ing easilv in front of him the face 

 of the bat is directed straight to- 

 wards tin- bowler. This is the zero 

 position through which the bat will 

 swing with its face always properly 

 oriented. If he lifts both arms at 

 the same rate by a rotation about a 

 horizontal axis parallel to a line 

 through the shoulders, the face of 

 the bat will still look in the same 

 direction ; but if he moves the arms 

 in any other way the conditions of 

 the geometrical constraint imposed 

 1>\ the grip of the hands on the 

 handle will necessitate a combined 

 rotational and translational motion. 

 Let anvone with bat in hand try to 

 shape for a drive or a cut and en- 

 deavour at the same time to prevent 

 the bat rotating round its own axis 

 of figure, and he will find himself 

 forced into the most awkward and 

 constrained of attitudes. In the de- 

 scription of plate xxii., showing 

 Grace preparing for the on-drive 

 the finish of which we have repro- 

 duced, the last sentence reads thus : 

 " If vou study the turn of his bat 

 you will see that in order to bring 

 "the face of the bat against the ball 

 he must put in a pronounced turn 

 of the wrist." The truth is that if 

 the right elbow is kept down the 

 bat must take the position shown, 

 and the accompanying turn of the 

 wrists is slight, involuntary, and 

 natural, and mainly in the left wrist. In plate 

 xxiii., reproduced above, the geometrical conditions 

 of constraint compel a rotation of the bat round its 

 axis in the opposite direction. Let anvone go through 

 the motions slowlv with the initial and final atti- 

 tudes as shown in these two plates, and he will find 

 the bat take the positions pictured passing through 

 the zero position with face looking front, and through 

 the whole motion he will not be sensible of any wrist 

 action at all. The coordinated but geometrically 



