Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/247

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208
OUT-DOOR GAMES

find a winning opening, and the game as an exposition of scientific graceful play came to an end when Pettitt took this country by storm with the underhand railroad service.

At cricket, as has been said, the reason for the modern style of play is principally to be found in the perfection of modern wickets. Bowlers have to resort to ungainly dodges, the field are all crammed in the slips and on the off-side, and the batsman in order to get the ball away hits across the wicket. There is not altogether the same state of things in the world of golf, but even here there are dangers ahead, and as has been said before, the chief danger is the unhealthy predominance given to playing for a score. But there is another thing which rather strikes an observer of the game, and that is the length of course. The modern clubs, with their odd shapes and sizes and heavy bullet heads, really exist to satisfy the players to whom length seems everything; but it is impossible to wonder at this when the new links seem to be laid out on the principle that the really good hole is one where it is possible for the long player, by a tremendous