Simon Hughes
The slide stop has really been in vogue the last ten years or so. The
ex-Sussex and England (and briefly Durham) player Paul Parker started it all off, if I'm not much mistaken. He was a brilliant fielder who realised that by sliding up to the ball, even some way from the boundary, you could collect it and jump into a good throwing position all in one movement. He found this method faster than gathering the ball in mid-stride and regaining your balance to throw. Also, breaking your momentum to stoop and pick up the ball, turn and throw is more stressful on your knees.
As fielding has become more athletic, more and more players use the slide stop, not only near the boundary but also in quick dashes from the infield. Chris Scofield is one of England's best fielders and here uses the slide stop to restrict a likely boundary
to only two runs (below). The old-fashioned method would be to flick the ball back, overrun the rope, then wheel round and return to pick up the ball. The batsmen would have coasted three for certain. Here, the process (from first picture to fourth) takes less than two seconds and the batsmen weren't even thinking
about a third. The only downside,
of course, is that it does severely mess up your whites.
 Total commitment
This is a sight not seen 20 years ago. Modern boundary fielding requires speed, agility, resilient knees and lots of spare whites.
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Copyright © Simon Hughes 2001
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