Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/62

point, short-slip, wicket-keep, long-slip, long-stop, and long-leg. If a great cutter came in, long-slip would probably be moved to third man; if R. A. H. Mitchell came in, long-leg would be placed deep square-leg. As there was always a long-stop even to what we should call slow medium bowlings so did the wicket-keep always stand up to the wicket. It was also the custom to observe a certain routine according as the bowling changed ends. For instance, the same man fielded long-leg one end and cover-point on the other, all other fields kept the same places—mid-on and mid-off, and long-stop, for instance, crossing over and fielding the same place both ends. A very different state of things is seen now. Practically the ball never bumps nor shoots, and is never on the leg side; the wicket-keep can therefore with ease do without a long-stop to all but the fastest bowling, and when this is on he falls back and takes up a bastard position, a sort of mixture of wicket-keep, long-stop, and short-slip. The post of long-stop is disestablished; we see short-slip one end fielding out deep in the country when bowling is at the other end, we never see a long-leg or a deep square-leg; neither is there, strictly