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Rh you do not try and bowl men out, but tempt them to hit, and if you bowl off balls, the batsmen has to get the ball away from eight men—not an easy thing to do; while, if both styles be adopted, you have only four men on each side, and then a lob bowler becomes expensive.

For years past the strength of the professional has been in bowling, but never since I began to watch and take an interest in cricket have I seen amateurs and professionals so nearly equal in this respect as they are now, in 1897. No doubt Richardson is the finest fast bowler; but if you take the first half-dozen from both ranks, the difference is not so great as it used to be. Richardson, Mold, Hearne, Haigh, and Attewell may be the five best professional bowlers, and no doubt they are far ahead of Jessop, Cunliffe, Bull, Woods, and Townsend, but not so far as used to be the case; and though I hope my younger friends who play cricket now will not be offended, I am bound to say that I think