CHAPTER IX
THE PREPARATION OF WICKETS
IT is not necessary to go back before the 'sixties to show the evolution in the preparation of wickets. I can remember the days when the implements used were the scythe and the waterpot, the broom and the light roller and nothing else. The year 1866 was the first year I saw first-class cricket in London, and the matches were Gentlemen v. Players both at Lords and the Oval. I believe I am right in saying that at the Oval in 1866, sheep were penned up in the north-west corner at the Vauxhall end, and when stumps were drawn, were let loose over the ground and supplemented the work of the scythe by nibbling the grass. I have heard they were used at Lords a few years before, but I cannot vouch for the truth of this.
Bowling in those days was fast, faster than it is now because grounds prepared as they were then favoured fast bowling. Real slow round arm bowlers were very few in the 'sixties, not more than three or four among the professionals, though there were some lob bowlers. But it was not until 1864 that a law was passed making overhand bowling legal, and real high bowling, such as that of Richardson, Mold and Woods did not come in to any great extent for some years; the first eleven whose bowlers were all of high action was the Australian eleven of 1878. It may
