Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/307

 On March 27th, 1875, in the Scottish Inter-University Sports, at Edinburgh, he threw 121 yds.

Mr. was born at Birmingham on the 9th January, 1859. His height is 5 ft. 11 ins.; weight, 14 st. 6 lbs. He is, in my opinion, the finest left-hand batsman in England. As long ago as 1876, when he was but seventeen years of age, he played for Gloucestershire, and met with fair success. Gradually he built, up his reputation, and in 1881 he was acknowledged to be quite first-class in county contests as a batsman and field. In the year 1883 he was very successful with the bat for his county, and could show the very good average of 28 for eleven completed innings; a brilliant 127 against Lancashire at Clifton being his highest score. A break then occurred in his cricketing career, owing to his removal to Warwickshire, and he did not appear in the eleven again until 1889. Very quickly he showed that he had lost none of his powers, for that season revealed that he still possessed his old hitting form and had improved his defence and placing, while his fielding was as accurate and safe as ever. The year 1890 was his best batting year. He displayed grand form for Gloucestershire, and came out fourth in the first-class averages.

He played for Warwickshire once or twice in 1886 and 1887, but did not come off; and the committee of that county have been censured more than once for not having played him oftener. Many amusing things have been written concerning this since his subsequent success for Gloucestershire; but I think the following,, which appeared in a Birmingham paper, is really the most laughable:

"A batsman named Cranston made a promising debut last week down in the West Country. He was playing for a local club named Gloucestershire, captained by a Mr. Grace who has some reputation in the district, and