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32 English bowling of all sorts has never been so weak during the past forty years as it is at the present time. I honestly do not think that there is a single really first-class bowler in England at the present day; but I think, also, that this state of things is not altogether the bowler's fault. We have just passed through a cycle of dry years, and the splendid wickets have broken bowlers' hearts. That is one reason. Another lies in the fact that Richardson, who in 1895 could safely be reckoned with Jackson and Freeman as constituting the three finest fast bowlers the world has ever seen, has since that time had too much bowling; and personally, I do not believe that any bowler, however powerfully made, can last long with such an amount of work as that Richardson has had to do. In 1895, in first-class matches alone, for the most part on hard wickets, he bowled 1690 overs, while in Australia the winter following he bowled 618, and in the summer following, in England, he bowled 1656 more, these overs being of five balls. He was pretty nearly