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STRICTLY TEXTBOOK
Playing off the Front Foot

Michael St John Skessley-Mattis OBE's illustrated guide to the finer points of the game continues with a look at that most cavalier of styles: playing off the front foot.

Front-foot shots are the cricketing equivalent of a fighter pilot doing a slow daisy-clipping victory roll in his Spitfire after strafing a column of Belgian nuns: vulgar, cowardly but infinitely rewarding for the spectator.

If the bowler has dished up a rank half-volley, the sensible (Yorkshire) cricketer will stun it into the pitch and glower at the ineptitude of all around him. However, if you are of a more newfangled emotional ilk, you are permitted to smash it through the covers or down the ground.



WRONG
WRONG
RIGHT
Lovely technique, with all the weight going forward, the left elbow nice and high, and the full face of the bat offered.
This is a recipe for disaster. Trousers worn just under the armpits are sure to cause chaffing.
Do not confuse getting on the front foot with hopping on the good foot to do the bad thing. Nice work if you can get it, but this sort of thing has no place on a cricket field.



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