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Rh those who can. If batsmen in the past had shamelessly stopped the ball with their pads without 'offering' at the ball with their bat, country umpires would have given them out for unfair play, on the same principle as wilfully obstructing the field. I suppose they would call it l.b.w; and the crowd would have given the retiring batsman (?) a very cold reception; or perhaps a very hot one: neither extreme of heat cr cold is pleasant. The late Chief Justice Cockburn said of county magistrates: 'They may sometimes administer bad law, but generally good justice;' and the remark applies to village-green umpires.