field, and it is useless to waste energy by hitting the ball to every fieldsman on the off side. W. W. Read, H. V. Page, and A. J. Webbe, are all masters of this stroke, which revives the drooping attention of the crowd and relieves the monotony of the scorers. We do not wish the reader to infer from these remarks that we think the batsmen of to-day are a whit inferior in hitting power to their predecessors. If the welcome sight of a fast bowler being put on is seen now, the hitting becomes at once a joy to behold. But there is little doubt that batsmen of the real 'sticking' type are now more numerous, because the bowling is much straighter, and therefore far fewer balls are bowled that are easy to hit.
Bowling having been in former days generally fast, the cut was a hit largely in vogue, and the perfection to which some players arrived with regard to this stroke has never been surpassed by later batsmen. It is, of course, as will be explained later on, much easier to cut fast bowling than slow, and the heroes of the cut in those days were numerous. The champion cutter of his period, by universal testimony, was C. G. Lyttelton, whose hits in the direction of point are remembered by spectators to this day. Tom Humphrey, of Surrey, was another great cutter; and there was a player, not of the first rank, who was famous for this hit—namely, E. P. Ash, of the Cambridge University Eleven, 1865 and 1866. The four champion bats of this era—1855 to 1868—were, in the opinion of the writer, Hayward, Carpenter, Parr and Daft, and the first two, both from the town of Cambridge, were a little superior to the others. The scoring of Hayward and Carpenter between 1860 and 1864 was very large; both excelled on rough wickets, and it is on these wickets that genius exhibits itself.
In all times of cricket, until the appearance of W. G. Grace, there has been a large predominance of skill amongst the professionals as compared with the amateurs. We are talking now of batting; in bowling the difference has been still more to the advantage of the professionals. The Gentlemen won a match now and then, but their inferiority was very great.
