the affirmative, and consequently Leslie resumed his innings.
When an umpire has to decide the question of a ‘bump’ ball or not, he
must be guided by its length, its flight from the bat, and the way in
which the latter has been used; the state of the ground sometimes must
be considered, as it is unlikely, when the turf is in a soft, spongy
state, that a ball will bounce high or far from it.
As will be seen by the latter part of law 47 (just quoted), the
bowler’s umpire may occasionally be appealed to on matters which are
primarily in the discretion of his colleague. If the latter cannot
decide, for instance, a question of stumping, which, by the law, must
first be referred to him, he may appeal to the bowler’s umpire. This
power of appealing in cases of stumping is rarely used--in fact, we
have never seen or heard of a single case of its exercise, though we
once saw a case arise in which an appeal might very rightly have been
made. In the University match of 1878, A. H. Evans was batting, he ran
out to a slow, hit at it with all his might, missed it, and let the bat
slip out of his hands. The ball was taken, and the wicket put down by
the Cambridge wicket-keeper, Alfred Lyttelton; but the umpire had seen
the bat flying straight at his head, and not wishing to risk a broken
crown by sticking to his post, had fallen down with his head averted
from the wicket, and was consequently unable to give a decision on a
case which he had not seen. Evans was some three or four feet out of
his ground when the bails were knocked off, but as no decision was
given against him he of course remained at the wickets. This is exactly
the case which this part of rule 47 is framed to meet; the other umpire
would have been quite able to have given a decision on a plain case
like this, and no doubt would have done so had there been an appeal
made to him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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