Gracing Victorian cricket

Press, 31 October 1981, Page 17

Gracing Victorian cricket

W. G. Grace: His Life and Times. By Eric Midwinter. George Aden and Unwin, 1981. 175 pp. $22.75. (Reviewed by R. T. Brittenden) William Gilbert Grace is still, perhaps, the most famous name in British sport. The • Bannisters, Coes and Ovetts, the Mcßrides and Kyles, even the Huttons and Bradmans, may come and go, but W. G. has a fixed, first place, for he not only achieved extraordinary feats in conditions foreign to modern cricketers, but also managed and moulded the summer game. Even now, when he looks out from a dust jacket, with his red-and-yellow M.C.C. cap, and with his bushy black beard, he would probably be as fearsome to young eyes as some stern figures from the Old Testament.

One may wonder why, 66 years after the doctor's death, there should be another work on him. It is, however, a welcome one. Midwinter clearly has a special and understandable interest in Grace. The author’s grandfather had a cousin, W. E. Midwinter, who is the only man to have played for Australia against England,, for England against Australia: he also had' the unhappy distinction 'of being the first test cricketer to die. W. E. Midwinter was Grace’s protege; he became the first truly itinerant top professional, travelling to and from Australia to follow the sun and the considerable rewards even then available to top players. So Eric Midwinter has a natural enthusiasm for his subject, and it is matched by his researching. This is a fascinating tale, for it is not only about Grace and his family, but it also provides a picture of Victorian days and ways, a minor but highly interesting social history. Midwinter pays homage to Grace and his skills, but puts him in perspective. He was obviously an ‘ acquisitive man, sometimes a very difficult one. Midwinter describes him as “A happy mongrel — not for him the sleek, high-born pedigree of

the 'gentlipan,' nor the tenacious gun-dog application of the ‘player’. He was simply a contradiction, an exceedingly well-paid amateur cricketer.”

There is no mistaking Grace’s standing in the sport, and with the English public. “He was both Gladstone and Disraeli to cricket, and he played Sullivan to his own Gilbert.”

There are delightfully clear studies of the Grace family. There is GeorgePocock, W. G.’s maternal grandfather, “an eccentric schoolmaster. His twin obsessions, — box kites and evangelical religion — were dissimilar except in intensity." Pocock’s powerful box kites were used to draw carriages' and once Martha, W. G.’s mother, was George’s passenger in a chair flight powered by box kite, across the Avon Gorge. One of this Pocock family, W. J., played for Canterbury in 1882-83 and 1883-84, then disappeared, presumably back to England. He was a very successful bowler, but it seems part of the picture that to end this brief colonial career, there was a “Pocock Benefit” match in Christchurch.

“Grace” can be thoroughly recommended, for it is as pleasantly written as it is informative and entertaining.