19 August 2020

Grace

Cricket is just one of several sports that were effectively invented here in England. What could be more English than a game of cricket played upon a village green? The players all dressed in white as bats made of willow strike red leather balls. And then at four thirty the teams break for afternoon tea before the game reaches its conclusion in evening sunlight.

I love the picture displayed above. It is a photograph of one of England's most famous cricketers - the inimitable W.G.Grace. William Gilbert Grace lived between 1848 and 1915 and by all accounts was an outstanding cricketer - a legend in his own time. He was a free scoring batsman who loved the game with all his heart and played for both the England national team and his home county - Gloucestershire. In fact, he played the game for forty four seasons in a row - only pulling down the shutters on his career when he finally admitted to himself that as a fielder he had become a hefty passenger - hardly able to run for a ball any more.

He played 22 test matches - mostly against Australia and scored over 55,000 first class runs. In his younger days, he was also an effective bowler but it was with the bat that he excelled - putting the fear of God into many of the bowlers he faced.

As the famous cricket commentator John Arlott reported more than once, the following notice allegedly appeared outside several cricket grounds in the late Victorian - early Edwardian era:- 

CRICKET MATCH
Admission 6 pence
If W. G. Grace plays
Admission 1 shilling

24 comments:

  1. I don't know if cricket is still a prominent sport today. I've seen it played from a distance. I don't think it's played much here.

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    1. COVID19 has halted most of the world's cricket but England recently played a small test series against The West Indies. They have one match to go in another series - against Pakistan. The game is very big in India but also in Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa.

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  2. You have written an interesting account on W.G.Grace. I have never watched a cricket game. It's not something you see around here. I bet I could find one on YouTube - I'll have to do that sometime!

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    1. Do it if you are having trouble sleeping Bonnie. In that sense it is a bit like baseball.

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  3. When Steve and I used to spend our summer holidays in Scarborough for several years in a row, one of our favourite stops for a drink and/or meal was "The Cricketers", a pub right opposite the cricket ground. We never watched a game, but I agree it is so essentially English to see men clad in white playing on the village green.
    When in Ripon, I often walk past the cricket ground on my way to Fountains Abbey.

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    1. If you ever get to Ripon again perhaps you and TMS (The Mysterious Sister) should make a point of attending a cricket match. No doubt someone will be kind enough to explain what is happening.

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  4. Sir Geoffrey Boycott once said "hello son" to me when Yorkshire played Worcester at Scarborough and everyone was walking on the pitch during the dinner ("Lunch") interval and children played cricket with plastic bats and balls. I have been in The Cricketers across the road Librarian.

    Cricket is a science when the clouds appear and spin takes control. I think it was invented in Pudsey in your county YP.

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    1. Worcestershire not Worcester.

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    2. Geoff Boycott still recalls the time he met a mucky Lancashire urchin on the pitch at Scarborough. "Ee were thin n' as mucky as a chimney sweep. I sez to im - ullo son! But he wor scaired n' ran off fer iz mam."

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    3. They put the admission up to a Shilling when Sir Geoffrey played too. That was in 1983.

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    4. I saw him play at the old "Circle" ground in Hull where Hull City's stadium now stands. Shame we couldn't have both.

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    5. Northsider, I have looked The Cricketers up and the pub seems to have gone forever. I have a photo of my late husband standing below the sign "FOOD! FOOD! FOOD!" in front of the pub.

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    6. You're right Librarian. It was demolished and replaced with apartments. The Floral Hall where I saw the likes of The Spinners, The Nolans, The Bachelors and Canon and Ball is not there either. They all say you should never revisit a place.

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  5. "It's not cricket" - one of my favourite English sayings. Not that I ever suspect anyone of foul play. Which is a bit short sighted.

    I so fondly remember the first time I watched a cricket match. A perfect summer's day. Yorkshire. My future father-in-law and his son and I. Green lawn. And all those
    men in white. I didn't have a clue what was going on, what the aim of the game (other than winning - but how?). It was lovely. Homey. And I say that as someone who has been holding onto her hat at the rarefied airs of Ascot and Henley (decidedly not homey - though in tradition with the eccentricities of the inhabitants of these isles).

    And then there was Botham. Or so I understand.

    U

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    1. Ian Botham - now a Tory Lord. I saw him once in the village of Epworth - home of the Wesleys and birthplace of Methodism. Becoming a Tory Lord is definitely not cricket.

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  6. Not unlike our Babe Ruth.

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  7. Seems like that beard might have interfered with his swing!

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    1. I think he kept his sandwiches and a flask of tea in there.

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  8. Pictures of the unique W.G.Grace fascinated me as a child, however I never could get into cricket and still find it a boring game. I think it's a bit like Marmite, you eithe rlove it or hate it.

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    1. All British lads grew up with images of W.G.Grace in their minds but I do not remember one like the picture that accompanies this post. Thanks for calling by Tony.

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  9. Yes, cricket is alive and well in NZ and that wonderful phrase "it's just not cricket" still has meaning here for describing unsportsmanlike or underhanded behaviour. We have never forgotten the Underarm Incident which soured our relationship with the Aussies for decades and scarred the Chappell brothers for life. A mentality of win at all costs gone mad.

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    1. Of course no New Zealander would ever behave in an unsportsmanlike manner.

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  10. Cricket was so gentlemanly when I was growing up. Test matches. Lords, and all that. These days it looks more like a battleground to my olde English eyes. But then, I live in baseball-land. I don't understand that either... Thanks for the great picture. W.G.Grace... a legend! Gotta love that beard.

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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