Page:Cricket (Lyttelton, 1898).djvu/39

Rh but it certainly never was with the fast ones. One of the earliest matches I ever saw was Gentlemen and Players, in 1866. Grundy, notoriously one of the straightest bowlers in England, medium pace, right hand, was bowling to A. H. Winter, who hit him three or four times to leg in two overs, and this was leg-hitting of the orthodox type, being hit off balls bowled to leg, and not pulled. George Parr was famous for his leg-hitting, so also was Mr. Mitchell, and later still Oscroft; but who can be said to be the best leg-hitter now? No Parr or Mitchell is possible in these days, when the accuracy of the bowlers has driven leg-hitting out of cricket.

The greatest fast bowlers of the years between i860 and 1875 were Jackson, Tarrant, Freeman, Atkinson, and Willsher; and of these Willsher lasted much the longest, and was always a grand bowler. But there were a great number of magnificent fast bowlers during those years. J. C. Shaw, Wootton, Emmett, Howitt, Griffith, and a host of