Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/262



These are golden maxims, which every player should consider carefully; but the whole secret of success lies in his trying all he can. My brother Fred and Jupp used to go after everything and try for every catch, as if the match depended on their individual efforts; and the extraordinary results which followed surprised themselves as well as others. There is no finer sight in the cricket field than a brilliant fieldsman doing his utmost; and every feat he performs meets with quick and hearty recognition by the spectators. Grounds generally are now as near as can be to perfection, and fine fielding has become comparatively easy.

The grounds of the past were not to be compared with those of to-day. The best pitches were, as a rule, treacherous and kicked a good deal. I do not know what might not be said of the out-fielding. It is told of Clarke's All-England Eleven that, on one occasion when they played in Cornwall, one of the players flushed a covey of partridges in the long-field, so excellent was the cover. As a contrast to this it might to-day be said of every important ground that a wicket could be pitched on any part of it, and that a false bound in the field is the exception rather than the rule.