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STALENESS IN GAMES - 817
batting they were stale ; but I never yet met with anyone
who could tell me what the word meant. For a long
time, so wild was the use of the word, I doubted if any
such thing as staleness existed ; and even now as regards
batting it needs careful interpretation. Owing to the
ridiculous importance attached to individual achievement
in games, a batsman may come to believe the whole world
is out of joint because he has failed to score double figures
for six matches. To have the right to speak about staleness
we ought to be quite sure we don't mean simply
fatigue. For one would think that to score a hundred
would tire the muscles far more than to be bowled for
two, but staleness never comes from scoring heavily but
from failing to score. Moreover, failing to score, just
like bad play in golf, has nothing whatever to do with
being in the pink of health ; since we can all recall lamentable
failure when feeling as fit as could be, and creditable
performances when feeling cheap. I never realized what
staleness in a game means till some fifteen years ago I
went in for a golf competition which meant two severe
rounds daily. My practice at that time was to play
only one round daily. I won my first four matches, all
very close ones, and by the evening alter the last was
certainly overdone, the fatigue being more in the nerves
than in the muscles. In the fifth match on the morning
of the third day everything went wtong, and never before
or since have I known the double sensation of languor
and indilfcrence along with " jumpiness " of nerve and
anxiety, The malady was largely mental, and the
outcome partly of the way in which games are spoilt by
publicity and fuss and the ludicrous importance attached to
individual achievement. Nobody ever heard of staleness
in the palmy days of cricket, when it was played on difficult
wickets and when every match was closely contested
tbroughout, As the element of true recreation is lost,
egoism and nerve strain supervene, Of course, in rowing,
staleness is simple enough, The muscles improve to a
certain point and then deteriorate ; and we are told that