OUR SAVING " GRACE."

Otago Witness, Issue 1917, 17 August 1888, Page 26

OUR SAVING " GRACE."

From the Sunday Chronicle, with a picture of the champirfn batsman holding a pigmy colonial in each hand : — The champion came do wn like 0 wolf on the fold, And in vain the Australians fielded and bowled,, for the balls from his bat Jlevy like shot from great guns, S 9?' And the bowlers looked siok as he piled on the runs. Like young roosters at morning— bold, eager, and keen, Cock sure of a triumph — the Cornstalks were seen, Like roosters defeated and sore from the fray, • With creßts all down drooping at even were they. For the Grand Old Man opened those shoulders of might, And smote their fast balls with a terrible smite, Till Turner was wilted and Ferris abashed, And Jones, Trott, and Worrall like sacks had been thrashed. » Their bowlers perspired; their fieldsmen spread wide, But gone were their smartness, their swagger and pride ; E'en Jarvis looked modest ; and Ferris forbore To appeal on the chance of a stray " leg before." Oh ! was never a team so beslobbered with praise - As this team of M'Donnell's since Murdock's best days, For there's nothing succeeds like a stranger's suo..ceas. In arousing the cheers of the F. and J. press.. Since our great Punch and Judies— their ' candour" to show— Vote pride in their countrymen " narrow " and "low": If the alien wins the press crows -like a fool, If the Home side succeeds it grows modest and cool. When Surrey and Oxford and Yorkshire went down, The press brayed in Ferris and Turner's renown ; But, when Lancashire's skill in the field winß the game, 'Tie the wioket — not Briggs and the Parson — they blame. But while pressmen in folly and weakness ate sunk, One Briton is still a cool stranger to funk;' Though we may be a feeble, degenerate race, Old England has still left a remnant of Grace. " The Demon " might scare timid bats by his pace, But " The Demon " himself was exorcised by Grace. " The Terror " don't frighten the doctor one bit, He looks on. all bowling as something to hit. Once again o'er Australia we see him prevail, Till their fielding gets flurried, their bowling quite stale ; And all England its gratitude freely accords Tc the man who took down the colonials at Lord's.