wicket; just a second or so before the batsman started for a fifth run the ball had been thrown, a hard low and straight throw pitching about 15 yards from the wicket; the ball was handled by the wicket-keeper, and the batsman was run out by a few inches. If the thing is done with real skill there is no prettier sight in cricket; but the boundary has practically stopped all this. A spectator picks the ball up, chucks it to the expectant field, who dribbles it along the ground to the bowler, while the batsman, having had his smack, saunters about in the most unconcerned way and prepares for the next ball. Cricketers well understand that this saving of breath to a batsman is an enormous advantage; he is enabled to stand quite cool and collected in his ground, and hit away without, as a rule, having to run more than two runs, while the bowlers and field are perspiring away in their efforts to get the side out. The remedy we propose is a very simple one, and in our judgment would meet the case perfectly. It consists of running a net, two feet high, round the ground along the same circumference that the boundary ropes now go, and unless the ball goes over this net, let the hit be run out. The batsman will frequently get three runs for a hit of equal value to that for which he now gets four, he will be compelled to run them out, and the fine thrower will have opportunities of distinguishing himself. The net must be like a common rabbit net, and fixed down so as to prevent the ball going under. We feel certain that this system will, if adopted, insure that the batsman will not be the only player on the ground who is in full possession of his breath.
We have heard it maintained that in a run-getting match where there are no boundaries the field gets tired before the batsmen, and that therefore the rabbit net would benefit the side it is desired to handicap. Now, in the first place, we do not agree with this statement, and in the second place the circumstances on a ground like Chatham lines or Woolwich Common must be different from what they are on Lord's or the Oval, where 10,000 spectators are looking on. The two bats-
