Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/100

 of his opponents' wickets, and having two caught off him. Steadily he grew in skill and strength, and at the end of 1864, when E. M. and I had done sufficient to attract attention outside of Gloucestershire, he, in his fourteenth year, was a well-known figure to every cricket club in the district. He did not play with so straight a bat as I did, but, for his age, he was much more resolute in his hitting, and in the field showed something of the dash and certainty which characterised him in that branch of the game in after years.

There was a marked difference in the batting styles of E. M., Fred, and myself. I do not require to particularise E. M.'s again. He went in for hitting in his peculiar way as long as I can remember him, and he invariably brought it off. There was one special feature in it which helped him in his long scores; the flight of the ball after he hit it. When he got the ball clean on the bat it travelled low and fast, and the fieldsman had to be on the spot to have any chance of catching it. His strong nerve was invaluable to him and the side he played on, and the quality of the bowling made little difference to him. I have seen more than one bowler, who had been performing splendidly, go all to pieces as soon as E. M. had hit him once or twice; and one match I shall not readily forget. Gloucestershire was playing Notts, in 1877, when Morley and Barnes were at their best. The first dozen overs or so Morley was simply unplayable, and four of the Gloucestershire wickets were down for less than thirty runs Fred's, Townsend's, and my own among them when E. M. went in to bat. "Keep your eye on Morley, and play carefully, Ted," I said. "All very well to talk," said he. "I should like to know what good the steadiness of you fellows has done for the innings? It looks to me like a clear case of funk, and I am going to stop it! " And stop it he did. In his very first over, Morley