gave the ground most chance, and prevented the smothering style of play—a little shorter than the blind spot, compelling back play over the crease, instead of forward play. The best batsmen were great masters of this style of play, with which the name of Carpenter is strongly identified. To modern players the sight of Carpenter or Daft dropping down on a dead shooter from a bowler of the pace of George Freeman or Jackson was a wonderful one; but it is rapidly becoming a memory only, for in these days a fast shooter is very rarely seen, and when it does come it nearly always gets a wicket. The reader must always bear in mind that fast bowling cannot be so accurate as slow; it is therefore a certainty that all-round hitting in the fast-bowling days was more common than it is now, in first-class matches. There is one hit in particular that in these days is very seldom seen—that is, the smite to long-leg with a horizontal bat, and much nearer the ground than a square-leg hit. During the entire progress of a match nowadays, between Notts and Lancashire, or Yorkshire and Notts, the unhappy batsman will hardly get a single ball outside his legs to hit. So great is the accuracy of the bowling, that over after over will go by, and not even a ball on his legs will soothe his careworn and anxious brain. This accurate bowling has caused another change in the way of batting. As no ball is bowled on the leg side at all, so it consequently follows there is no fieldsman on the on side except a forward short-leg and a deep field. There is not much to be gained by continually cracking the ball straight to a row of safe fieldsmen on the off side. What, then, does the modern batsman do on a smooth wicket? He waits till the bowler slightly overtosses a ball—whether pitched outside the off stump or on the wicket he cares not; he sweeps: it round to square leg, where no fieldsman stands, and he makes four runs by the hit. In other words, he deliberately 'pulls' it. Twenty years ago, on seeing such a hit, the famous Bob Grimston would have shown his emphatic disapproval in a characteristic manner. But the match must be won by runs; to attain this object the ball must be hit where there is no
