not only miss that certain stroke, but lose the perfect command of your crosse for succeeding play.
Checking, it must be remembered, is both attack and defence. When you run out to tackle an opponent carrying the ball, you literally attack him: when you stand to receive an opponent, determined upon passing you, you act, as it were, on the defensive. The circumstances of each are not the same, though your object is. If you go out to tackle, you succeed when you take the ball or compel its possessor to throw it; when you stand on the defensive, you succeed if you prevent him carrying it past you.
In the cases of attack, checking is not so frequently extempore as in defence.
A skilful checker will seldom let a dodger pass him successfully. Quick eyes, an elastic body and extremities, pluck and perseverance, are the shining virtues of a checker; and as perfection in this department materially restrains dodging, it should be well cultivated. Good checks are worth more on a twelve than men reputed for dodging.
The perfection of a good checker is not only
certainty in “disarming” a dodger, but the
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