Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/151

120 and Mr. Jessop and Mr. Ford, in an innings of 50, will very likely only run about 10 of their own runs. The consequence of this is that the batsman never becomes fatigued or out of breath. The idea lately has been promulgated that this is all wrong, and that there is no reason why he should be spared this exertion. Why should bowlers toil and moil and have all the hard work and not half so much of the fun. This change was thoroughly tried in the M.C.C. club matches of 1900, it being provided that if the ball hit the net, which was about two feet high, two more runs should be scored in addition to what had already been run out. This plan was found not to answer, so hits were run out unless they went over the net, in which case four runs were scored. Several improvements were hoped for by this change, but, on the whole, it has not been a success.

I propose now to conclude this question of reform by a brief consideration of the proposed change in the direction of what some hostile critics call tampering with the weapons of the game, and this takes two forms—one the enlargement of the wicket either by adding a fourth