Page:Jubilee Book of Cricket (Second edition, 1897).djvu/32

10, quite moderate bowling can, as a rule, be relied upon to dispose of any side for a not unreasonably large score. Besides, bowlers who can trust their fielders to hold catches bowl with far more confidence and keenness. Nothing demoralises a bowler more than to see run after run scored off him when it might have been saved. As for missed catches, it is weary work for a bowler to lie in wait for a batsman's weak stroke for half an hour, to succeed in getting him into a carefully planned trap, and then to see the catch—such a baby one—muffed ridiculously, and have all his trouble over again. Besides, once bitten, twice shy. The bowler has shown his hand, and the batsman is now on the look-out. Many a bowler has tempted Bobby Abel to try, before he is well set, his placing stroke through the slips; has seen slip fail to hold an easy catch, and has had to bowl and field for the Surrey giant's benefit a whole day or perhaps two. It is too much, no doubt, to expect every catchto be caught; but if more trouble were taken over fielding, far fewer catches would be missed.

Even from the spectator's point of view, it is a pity that skill in fielding is not developed to the highest degree of which it is capable. There is no finer sight in cricket than that of a really good fielding side trying its level best to win or save a match. It is marvellous what can be done, and is done, in such circumstances. Even the uninitiated can appreciate a magnificent catch or a hairbreadth save just on the boundary. And the impression given by the splendid unity of the eleven men, by their individual and collective energy, all concentrated on one end, can arouse as intense enthusiasm in a crowd of onlookers as the best batting imaginable. The finest exhibition of fielding it has been my good fortune to see was that given at Lord's by the Oxford University Eleven of 1892. They won a sensational victory partly by good batting and good bowling, but principally by their extraordinary dash, brilliancy, and accuracy in the field. Their fielding was superb. Had it been merely good, they would have had very nearly double the number of runs to make in the fourth innings of the match. There was no particular reason that this eleven should have been superior to other 'Varsity elevens. Mr M. R. Jardine was perhaps the best of the lot. He was perfect. The standard of excellence they reached, high as it was compared with what one usually sees, is not beyond the capacity of any eleven composed of men who have not lost speed of foot and elasticity of limb. With one or two brilliant exceptions, the county elevens do not field