Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/124

 My score of 173 not out, for the Gentlemen of the South v. Players of the South, at the Oval, 27th and 28th August, is also a hazy remembrance. I have a faint idea that there was more hitting in it than in the previous match, and that I played more confidently. I had been thinking hard, during the season, that the arrangement of the field in first-class matches was not quite what it ought to be. There was a prevailing opinion at the time that as long as a bowler was straight, a batsman could not score off him, and that no men in the long field were necessary. The opinion had, I believe, been handed down from old W. Lillywhite's time, who, when a straight ball was driven over his head, used to take off his hat, rub his pate, and say: "That's a very pretty game, but it aint cricket." My brother E. M. was the first to upset that theory, and I determined to copy him, and so every time I had a ball the least bit over-pitched, I hit it hard over the bowler's head, and did not trouble about where it was going. My height enabled me to get over those that were slightly short, and I played them hard: long-hops off the wicket I pulled to square-leg or long-on, without the slightest hesitation.

The year altogether was a busy one, and the game had now taken a greater hold than ever.

I have been repeatedly asked when I played first in the Midland and Northern counties, but was at a loss to answer. I stumbled across an old score the other day, which recalls the date and circumstances. It was on the 4th and 5th of June, 1866, at the old Hyde Park Ground, Sheffield, when I captained Eighteen Colts of Nottingham and Sheffield against the All-England Eleven. I have represented many a team in my life, but this seems to my mind the most curious, and I shall not readily forget the impression the match made on me. The ground was on the top of a hill which took