MR. G. W. GRACE AT HOME.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 22, 25 January 1877, Page 4

MR. G. W. GRACE AT HOME.

V.. V *...!. ..ik^.^f-fl- .: . ..Y- , > A black- haired, black-browed, blackbearded gfent,^ with;, aY good-bhoiored twinkle ;> in ."' fe w .{-.a? le eye^ apd .a, . rjcb, musical '"Glbuceste-; ring; iv nls'voioe, Mr Grace is a standing—* a six feet two aiajidiog— *-illijatration of the good old sporting verity that a good big one is better than; a■■ good little one ~ that , quality being; equals-length, strength, and: weight wUI te11. , ; Aa Ue rises from -____-jehair. tQ._Wleo.rae us, we become sensible of the colossal proportions of the famous crickete^ who. when in the field, itever looks 'so '.tau as 'he really is. perhaps his, tremendous shoulders and his /long, ; muscular arms bring; down kis height, but it is certain; that in the; open air he never looks -fl'hia inches," save perhaps iv the orchard that surffOUEids his mother's house at Do wnerid. In this pretty dwelling, v. ere once grouped the nine Graces-*— children of the late Mr H. Mills Grace, a' -k.ilful surgeon, au excellent cricketed. and the founder of the now celebrated West Gloucestershire Cricket Club, abhorred by professional bowlers because a visit to, Gloucestershire " spoils their bowling average." Not unnaturally, the sons have all t^ken kindly to. the lancet and the cricket- bat. .Tbeir first lessons in ,cfjcket, a were learnt .under, the apple-trees; at. .Downend, ..and it is a ; curious fact, possibly valuable to Mr ; Raring/ Gould : - arid other J solvers of : legendary puzzles, that local fry ths | have already began to form around the ; Sail that r lowers over ihe'balh i "Their seyn/l.aa.as; Sir. tjohn Munde- i ville 1 puts it, that the ! attitude of Mr '< Grace and his brothers is a peculiarity j acquired ia k&rfy days frocn Mrs Grace, | Who taught- iter boys tb; play cricket as I sooo as they grew to , the length of a \ bat; and the distance from the wioket, j so often insisted;, on; is explained by: the necessity imposed; by the flowing \ drapery proper ta a lady. The young j mother, playing cricket with her little j boys aad girls among the appia- j blossoms is so pretty a picture that it is; almost an; act of cruelly to paint it out;; .but regard for the veracities compels j -ua to bracket the Grace myth with that | of Milton dictating "Paradise Lost": to his:. daughters. The. favored tradi- j tioa is, as that eminent convict, M. Huge! man n once .put. it, cornme loutes \ }es iradUiotisZ "To begin with, neither; Mrs Graceriior :.her ; . daughters, everj played cricket in their lives, the: real • pastor and master of the five .male ; Graces having been . their, uncle,,; Mr '■. Alfred "Pocbck, i»" good old cricketer, highly popular in the Clifton and West; Gloucestershire Clubs. Secondly, Mr Y W. Grace, stands as nearly in front of the. wicket as possible. In truth, quiet Downend, picturesque Freuchay,, and other ipretty villages, near ' Clifton are; jthe abode„of. an ...imaginative. race_ _addicted to. a priori modes of thought,: indifferent to prosy facts, and disdainful oot0 ot detail. ; Not very long ago jt .waa proposed- that a county cricket ground; "should* be provided for Gloucestershire.; A committee was formed, subscriptions; f%ere 'promised, an;eligible site fwjas; Y selected, and. all went gaily onward until the title deeds of the proposed -Gloucester County.. Cricket Ground •came ito be inspected, when it vwas y found that* the: site selected was iai Somersetshire. This feat was enougtj tb immortalise the West Gloucester folkj but it hes been completely thrown intd tho shade by the brilliant performance of oue •bf *their number — an eminent ' .can )i?r, not beloved by. the Kbedive—l^wjkfyr;'.'ice,Bpl«ip'g -tp ba the._ architect of : ihiSY bi!liard**rppm, had that edifice conf YStraoted from hia own designs; It wa. very handsome, very well built, antj completely, successful except in one, particular— it was not large enough for "iTfiilFsised billiard table. * | .. Among thede 1 kindly folk the young Graces; developed their tasie for surgery '- ; abdlbat;ting. J ;Tb use a sporting ' the yunaVaefmay be said to. have" been made for Mr W. G. Grace by his broi ther, Dr Grace, the most brilliant hitter of iiis day. 'Just as the latter waa at - .he height, p. his cricketing reputation 1 , ' ihe "^ young one," 16, came ouj inpublie at Brighton, in a match between South Wales and Sussex, when he gave V the latter eleven a rare day- at leather!---1 "hdbtiog^ Completely mastering the bowling, be scored- in his first inningja r. 150 runaj and in the second 56, not put. It was quickly seen that a star of the first , magnitude had arisen on the cricketing horizon; but it was hot at first suapeoted that Mr Grace , was destined to be among cricketers as Eclipse" — waa amongst horses— -first, and the rest nowhere. There is no exaggeration in this statement. It is a plain fact, and openly acknowleged, that there is no second in the world ;of cricket., The oauses of the extraordinary superiority ; of Mr Grace over all the gentlemen, and for that matter, all the professional ; players of the day are not very far fo ..seek;; Hia great height and enormous' reach gave him ad advantage over every .competitor. He is, too, not a mere cricketer— a maa of of one game—but magnificent all-round athlete. A very fast runner, he bas won no less than 60 cups for various athletio feats. Perhaps his favorite courses are a quarter of a mile on the flat and 200 yards over hurdles. Over the latter oourse he has never, been beaten, albeit he is not j a * "wonder" at; running pr y standing jump. He once made the remarkable time 52. and two-filths seconds over the quarter of a mile at the Loudon Athle- j tic Houee behind the Lillie Bridge. r ;i Th is general flaetness of foot, and. the command of a terrific burst of speed when Wanted, helped to make Mr ;Grabe a wonderfully good judge of a'

• roo, as well as a consummate field. He ;is also a certain catch, a powerfal . thrower, and a clean picker ap, with en arrow-like return. To his clever- ; ness ia all parts ol the field he adds fair ; bowling power; but it is as a batsman | that his greatest triumphs have been ; achieved, aud his superiority of method j most distinctly marked. For it must ;be understood that the difference the batting: of Mr Grace and that of other j fine cricketers is not merely of degree, j but of kind. His faculty of playing i almost every other kind of ball and , " placing " it where he likes, is not the j result of a mere mechanical skill, bat of • a quick eye, an active brain, and a per- . feot sympathy between head and hand. : Cool aod self possessed, inaccessible to worry or flurry of any kind, he is per- ; haps the severest adherent to true aod exact cricket aow existing. He always plays the game, caring nothiog for mere gallery strokes, bat keeping his attentioa bent towards the production of a great aggregate score rather than the excitement of sensational hits. Accordingly to his theory of cricket, it is better to make two twos and keep ia than ooe four and go out. The art of scoring is to keep in : " You have only to stay in, and the ruQs are sure |to oome. Young players play as if they .wanted to get all the runs in one hit, forgetting that "ithe true way to roll up a great score is to play patiently and to take no liber ties." Mr Grlce. never hits for htttihg^ sake, never strikes a ball without a she wrd idea of where it is going when struck. He never makes ap his miad to hit till the b^y comes, and maintains t^at- if if is nopb yjary.good one hii it where yob like, if yba miadsirongthknd , direction." This it will be seen, even by ! the non-cricketing r t-eader, is very ! different from hitting every ball as hard ; as possible and leaving its direction to j Fate. ;.: This.^insistaace, upon strength ' add" direction bounds more like billiards; than cricket ; indeed, it is oot too much ■ to say that Mr Graoe looks upon the! cricket field as a skilful billiard-player! looks upon the table, aad places the ball; with equal care. He studies the position j of (he field — whether it be placed far ia ! or f&r out— with as keen an eye aa is ! ever bent upon tbe pockets. When 1 batting he is as if playing a cannon- i game without hazards, and, lookiogj upon every man in the field as a pocket,! hits between them with the ease andj certainty that once provoked J. C.i Shaw, worn oat wiih bowling, toj exclaim, "I, bowls the bail where I likesj but he plays the ball where he likes. "| It is the other Shaw— Alfred Shaw ofl Notts whose slow round -bowling gives! Mr Grace tbe most trouble. When thej ground is very dead it is impossible toj make a large score off his bowling J Of the fast bowlers perhaps Hill, of Yotkshire, puts the great batsman! most on his mettle ; but he stands in! little dread of any, and loves under-; hand bowling most fervently. j