a little tentative cross-touch

[Coffee Break]

I read this expression, "a little tentative cross-touch", but am finding it difficult to understand it. Could you please let me know what it means? Here is the excerpt:

The walk after tea, on the day of arrival, is perhaps the hardest of all things in the holiday to really enjoy. The fatigue of the journey is beginning to tell, and you are still a little shy and embarrassed amongst the other holiday makers, who look so thoroughly at home. It would be running before you could walk if you went down on the sands to try a game of cricket on your first evening—or even a little tentative cross-touch, and Mr. Stevens never employed the telescope until his interest in the things around him had begun to wear off.

- R. C. Sherriff, The Fortnight in September, Chapter 14

This is a novel published in 1931, which describes a fortnight in September in which an English family consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, Mary, Dick, and Ernie go on a holiday. The narrator is suggesting that people should first fully taste the sea before employing any instrument such as the telescope or sport games.

In this part, I wonder what this "cross-touch" might mean.
I looked it up on the Internet, but I couldn't find any information about this "cross-touch", so it remains a mystery to me.

My only vague guess is that it might mean a sports game, like a game of cricket... though I am not sure.

 

[Tarheel]

It seems to me to be an odd phrase. Maybe our British members know that one.

 

[probus]

I think it refers to an exercise in which you bend over and touch each hand to the toe of the opposite foot. It's probably old-fashioned and no longer used much.

 

[Rover_KE]

It seems to me to be an odd phrase. Maybe our British members know that one.

This British member doesn’t.

 

[Barque]

I haven't heard it either though much of what I read as a child and as a young boy was British-written fiction from before WW II.

When I read those words I was wondering if they meant a game of football, with emphasis on passing to each other. Crossing the ball and receiving a pass (touching). But that's a guess.

Probus's suggestion could well be the right answer.

 

[Barque]

By football, I mean Association of course. Soccer if you like. Not that crude variant they play in the US and Canada.

 

[Coffee Break]

@Tarheel, @probus, @Rover_KE and @Barque,

Thank you very much for the explanations.
It indeed is an odd phrase!

When I read those words I was wondering if they meant a game of football, with emphasis on passing to each other. Crossing the ball and receiving a pass (touching).

Actually, I was guessing the same thing! So it is more likely to think some old-fashioned exercise of bending over to touch the right foot with the left hand, and the left foot with the right hand.

Then the narrator is saying that, a game of cricket, or even crossing the other foot with each hand as a simpler physical exercise, is unfit to adopt during the first moments you spend at the seaside.

I sincerely appreciate your help, as always.