Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/59

40 of the twentieth century under new regulations and changes of the game will begin a new era. I may put in a tabulated form the various stages of development since the beginning of the game and approximate dates. 1750 to 1827—primitive wickets, fast underhand bowling, heavy bats, driving in front of wicket. 1827 to 1860—wickets smoother but still not good, round-arm bowling as a rule medium pace to fast, giving plenty of balls to hit, free batting, plenty of cutting and leg-hitting, 1860 to 1880—overhand and preponderance of slow bowling, heavy roller and mowing machine and improvements in wickets, slower batting. 1880 to 1900—every variety of bowling made easy by the billiard-table wickets, plethora of runs and very rapid scoring, combined with batting of the slowest and most sticky nature.

Such, briefly speaking, is the main feature of cricket development, and our readers will gather from what I have said that the main cause of all development is the gradual improvement of the wickets, which has gone on ever since the beginning of the century, but which has improved by leaps and bounds since the discovery