Each man's ambition, however, is less to defeat the returning power of the foe than to paralyse it by hitting the ball out of reach.

It is as though a batsman were out if he failed to hit three wides.
A good battitore, for instance, can smite the ball right down the sixty yards into the net, above the head of the opposing spalla who stands awaiting it at the far end.

Such a stroke is to the English mind a blot, and it is no uncommon thing, after each side has had a good rally, to see the battitore put every ball into the net in this way and so win the game without his opponents having one return; which is the very negation of sport.

Each innings lasts until one side has gained eight points, the points going to whichever player makes the successful stroke.

This means that the betting--and of course there is betting--is upon individuals and not upon sides.
The pari-mutuel system is that which is adopted at both the pallone courts in Florence (there is another at the Piazza Beccaria), and the unit is two lire.