Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/52

Rh bowling, in Gentlemen v. Players at Lord's in 1866, to A. H. Winter, and being hit three times to leg in two overs, and a fieldsman being accordingly put there. I infer from this that the most accurate bowler of thirty years ago is not to be compared in this respect to the modern bowler. In these days a man may hit to leg, but he does so off straight balls; in 1866 such a stroke was considered an outrage and was never seen, E. M. Grace always being excepted. Grundy therefore bowled sometimes to leg; J. T. Hearne, Mead, and Lockwood practically never give a ball off which George Parr would have made the orthodox leg-hit. Here, then, is another instance of development in first-class cricket: leg-hitting has been removed out of the game. A very beautiful thing to see was fine leg-hitting, and its disappearance is a calamity. One reason, and I think the strongest, for the bowling in old days being more off the wicket, was that it is easier to bowl straight when bowling with the hand right over your head than it is when bowling on a level or below the shoulder. In overhand bowling the hand moves up and down in a straight line between hand and wicket; in round-arm bowling this is not