Diary of Samuel Pepys/1665/July

The almost definitely supply of serious injury, is when a hitter returns the ball with all his force, straight back to the bowler. A well-known Wykehamist participant of R. Price's standing, was recently taking part in as wicket-keeper, and seeing the batsman going to hit Off, ran almost to the place of a close to Point; the hit, a tremendously laborious one, glanced off from his forehead-he known as out "Catch it," and it was caught by bowler! Four was scored at Beckenham, 1850, by a success that glanced off Point's head; but the participant suffered a lot on this occasion. A superb player of the Kent Eleven, about three years in the past, to this point injured his thumb that one of the joints was eliminated, and he has not often performed since. Seven seats had been spaced evenly before it, three of them in use, occupied by three young males, apparently about my own age. He explained that three things have been completed in the few seconds. There I met with Sir W. Coventry, and by and by was heard by my Lord Chancellor and Treasurer about our Tangier cash, and my Lord Treasurer had ordered me to forbear meddling with the L15,000 he offered me the other day, but, upon opening the case to them, they did supply it once more, and so I believe I shall have it, however my Lord General must give his consent in it, this money having been promised to him, and he very angry on the proposal.

So I residence to look over my Tangier papers, and having a coach of Mr. Povy's attending me, by appointment, with a view to my coming to dine at his country home at Brainford, where he and his family is, I went and Mr. Tasbrough with me therein, it being a pretty chariot, but most inconvenient as to the horses throwing mud and dirt into one's eyes and upon one's clothes. Probably the most anyone of these bowlers can do is to look out for the balls of his personal set; whether or not hit or not by a ball from behind, is very much a matter of chance. Add to all these possibilities of battle, the various balls that are flying at the identical time at Lord's and at the colleges, and other a lot frequented grounds, on a practising day. I as soon as chopped laborious down upon a shooter, and the ball went a foot away from my bat straight forward towards the bowler, after which, by its rotary movement, returned in the same straight line exactly, like the "draw-again stroke" at billiards, and shook the bail off. Both have been rushing the same facet of him, and as one held his bat most dangerously extended, the purpose of it met his associate underneath the chin, compelled back his head as if his neck have been damaged, and dashed him senseless to the ground.

A surgeon, who witnessed the collision, feared he was dead, and said, afterwards, that with much less highly effective muscles (for he had a neck like a bull-canine) he never might have stood the shock. When he got here to Lord's, in 1825, with that Wykehamist Eleven which Mr. Ward so lengthy remembered with delight, their play was unknown and the bets on their opponents; however when once Price was seen practising at a single stump, his Eleven turned the favourites instantly; for he was one of the straightest of all fast bowlers; and I've heard experienced batsmen say, "We don't care for his beneath-hand bowling, solely it's so straight we may take no liberties, and the primary we missed was Out." I by no means envied any man his sight and nerve like Price-the coolest practitioner you ever noticed: he always appeared vibrant, although others blue; and you had solely to glance at his sharp grey eyes, and you would directly account for the fact that one stump to shy at, a rook for a single bullet, or the ripple of a trout in a bushy stream, was so much fun for R. Price.

To attempt the one run from a cowl hit when Price was there, or to offer the sight of one stump to shy at, How to learn billiards buttons was a wicket misplaced. At Oxford you may even see, any day within the summer, on Cowley Marsh, two rows of six wickets every going through one another, with an area of about sixty yards between every row, and ten yards between every wicket. Freemantle's famous hit was 130 yards within the air. Freemantle's bail was as soon as hit up and fell back on the stump: Not out. Each had a ball hit again to him by that highly effective hitter Mr. H. Kingscote, which whizzed, in defiance of hand or eye, most dangerously by. Mr. Fellowes as soon as made so high a success over the bowler's (Wisden's) head, that the second run was completed as the ball returned to earth! Within the well-known Nottingham match, 1817, Bentley, on the All England side, was playing well, when he was given "run out," having run spherical his ground.