Page:Cricket (Lyttelton, 1898).djvu/53

Rh present time. By universal consent, cover-point, mid-off, extra-cover, and third man are the three posts where ground fielding is all-important; they get catches, often very warm ones, but on these four men lies the responsibility of stopping, if possible, all the cuts and off-drives, the commonest and hardest of hits; and nobody who has seen Law, Royle, G. B. Studd, Hemingway, Briggs, and Strachan at one or other of these posts will ever forget any of them.

The fields at short-slip and extra short-slip should, on the other hand, be sure catches. They have no opportunity for ground fielding, like cover-point, but they get more catches than any other field except wicket-keep; and at the present day on hard wickets it seems hardly possible to get a good side out unless you have a sure hand in the slips. If anybody who has been accustomed to keeping wicket wants a variety, let him take short-slip. He will get a great deal of the fun and none of the bruises of wicket-keeping. But the catches may come low or