Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/218

 last three days, the Gentlemen of the M.C.C. played Eighteen Veterans of Over Forty, and the giants of the past could be seen batting with some of the giants of the present. The dinner which was held in the tennis court in the evening of the I5th brought together a most distinguished company of players and lovers of the game, numbering about two hundred. Success to the Great Army of Cricketers, the Church, the Army, the Navy, the Bench and the Bar, Medicine and the Cricket Counties was proposed in turn, and no such memorable meeting has been held since cricket was first played.

The Committee of the M.C.C. have never lost sight of the interests of professional players. Young and promising players have always been encouraged, and the most successful have rarely failed to secure an engagement on the staff of ground bowlers. There are over 40 professional cricketers engaged at Lord's, many of them earning as much as 10 per week. The season lasts about 16 weeks. For country matches they are paid at the rate of £6 per match; for matches played at Lord's, £3 10s. if they win and £3 if they lose. The ground bowlers are paid from 30 shillings to 50 shillings per week, and they can always depend on handsome gratuities from the members. Every player selected by the Committee to play against the Gentlemen is paid at the rate of £10 per match; and after years of faithful service, nearly every first-class player can rely upon a benefit match, which may be expected to realise a goodly sum.

It will readily be understood that every player covets the position of ground bowler at Lord's, and avails himself of the first offer to play there, in the hope of creating a favourable impression. The M.C.C. is generous in another way: the expenses of county teams playing against it at Lord's being defrayed by the club,