GREATEST CRICKET PLATERS. W. G. Grace's 35,000 Runs and. 2,000 Wickets.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 416, 2 November 1889, Page 3

GREATEST CRICKET PLATERS. W. G. Grace's 35,000 Runs and. 2,000 Wickets.

AssuMiK'i that there is nothing of a valedictory nature contemplated in the proceeds ing 3, the complimentary dinner which was given to W. G. Grace afc Canterbury on August Bth will be regarded with extreme satisfaction -by cricketers in all parts of the kingdom. Both' the time and the place for tho pothering are peculiarly well chosen. AJr Grace has just completed a quarter .of a century of his career in first-class cricket;, and it was at Canterbury in August, 1876, that he made the great score of. 344 runs and commenced the" most remarkable series of innings ever played. Thero is nobody, we should think, who will grudge the honour it ia intended to pay ?vlr Grace. It is true that in the present season he has not been uniformly successful ; but he occupies a good position. in the list of batting averages, and, although he has entered his forty-second year, he is still admitted to be the representative cricketer of the age. By afiording eucouragemenb to innumerable lads to entor upon the delights of cricket, Mr Grace has done much for the national muscle, and has earned a title to the gratitude of the community at large. " A mere li3t of the principal performances of the champion cricketer would fill a volume. There have bien .players with a more attractive style, but fqr, accuracy of judgment, for skill in placing the ball, "for ondurance > and everything else that goes to make a really great batsman, he has never been equalled. Add to all this his brilliancy in fielding and hist ability as a bowler, and his claim to rank as the most remarkable all-round cricketer of any nge must bo absolutely unquestioned. The younger generation of players admire and applaud him ; but they can hardly understand the terror he excited among opponents when approaching the height of his fame. Within a few years hecompletely revolutionised cricket. He was largely instrumental in over throwing champion counties ; he deprived the Players of the superiority which for years they had enjoyed over the Gentlemen ; mainly through his efforts the representatives of the South were enabled to triumph over the North, and. with his famous brothel c, he raised Gloucestershire from insignificance to .the foremost position in the cricket, world. Even while a Jad he sprang into the front rank. In the week in which he completed his sixteenth year her bcored 170 runs and 56, not out, for South Wales against the Gentlemen of Sussex, and that year hia average in first-class matches was 57 for each inning. At 17 he was chosen to play for the Gentlemen and for England against Surrey, and in the following season he made 224, not out, for England against Surrey, and 173 for the Gentlemen against the Players of the South. For about fifteen yoars Mr Grace maintained his position at the head of the batting averages, and scored an aggregate of runs hitherto unparalleled. In 1871 he completed thirty-five innings and scored 2,739 runs, an average of seventy eight. It is generally considered, however, that the year 1878 saw him at the height of his career. He made 400, not out, for the United South against twenty two of (J.imjby and the District, and in threo successive innings compiled the enormous total of 839 runs and was once not out. Starting with 344 for the Marylebone Club against Kent, on Friday and Saturday, he scored "177 for his county agrtinst Nottinghamshire on the following Monday, and 318 not out, against Yorkshire on Thursday and Friday. In the matches befcwe n Gentlemen and Players Mr Grace has on eleven occasions played an inning of three figures, has alone exceeded 200 runs in a single attempt, and three times has made over a hundred in each of the two annual meetings at Lord's and the Oval. The distance at which he stands from the other players, past and present, is sufficiently proved by ,the fact that nobody else has played more than two innings of a hundred each for the Gentlemen or the Players. If further proof were needed, it would be found in the unprecedented performances of Mr Grace in threo times playing two innings of 3 figures each in a single match. But it is not as a ; batsman alone that he has earned the title of champion cricketer, for, in addition to scoring over 35,000 runs in first - class matches, he has taken considerably more than 2,000 wickets, at an average cost of less than sixteen runs each. Once or twice the efforts made by Mr Grace for the enjoyment of the public have been suitably recognised. In 1879 a national testimonial, consisting of a clock, accompanied by a check for nearly £1,500, was presented to him. Quite recently bis portrait was un\eiled at Lord's, and now a complimentary dinner is to be given to him at Canterbury. Notwithstanding his 42 years, Mr Grace is still able to hold his own, and is Ihe first man selected when a team is beingj-jpol-lected to represent England. At the Bnd of 18S7i then in his fortieth year, he was found to be second in batting, with an average of fifty foul 1 mns per inning, and in the same year he had an average of sixtythree for Gloucestershire, and took more than twice as many wickets as any of hia colleagues. The figures, indeed, would fehow him to have been then almost as good in batting as at any lime in the course of his career. Last year, again', there was only one batsman. - ahead - of him, and he played the greatest number of innings he has ever had in a single sehbon. The ease « ith which he has stood the wear and tear of life in the cricket field is little short of marvellous. There are few 'pursuits moiQ trying than constant engagements in out' national game, and of all the men whom Mr Grace met as colleagues or opponents in the first few years,- hia brother Edward is probably the only one vjho is now a frequent player in loading matches. Of courso, the pecrot of his endurance is to be found in his magnificent physique, and in his careful and temperate mode of living. He has had experience of summer weather in America and Australia, but even when* others have been well-nigh overpowered by heat he has gone on making tens and fifties with evident comfort and .enjoyment. From infancy he lived in an atmosphere of cricket. His father and his ujiclo were ardent lovers of the game, and 'his four brothers acquired great proficiency*'in it. Ln fact, all circumstances .appear to. k hayo combined to make' Mr Grace whafc he is.— London " Standard." ' s