Page:Cricket (Lyttelton, 1898).djvu/43

Rh like Herbert Marshall, an old Cambridge cricketer, used to do. Many a match have I played with him, and never can I call to mind any ball leaving his hands when once it got into them, and his hands were not by any means what you would call well shaped for catching. Many fielders hold their hands away from them, when it follows that the eye must be out of line with the ball, and this is a style which inspires no confidence in the mind of the spectator.

More training and care ought to be given to fielding and catching, for it must be remembered that, with the beautifully smooth wickets of these days, to miss catches is far more damaging to the chances of success than formerly, when the less easy wickets caused far more batsmen to be bowled than now.

To fast bowling in former days the method of arrangement of the fields consisted almost invariably of wicket-keep, longstop, short-slip, long-slip, point, cover-point, mid-off, long-on, short-leg, and long-leg; and if any change was made from this, it