Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/313

 and had scored heavily, and I left the wicket believing a similar ball would always beat me or anyone. He had another ball which was sometimes effective. It was bowled a little outside the off stump, and broke away slightly, often touching the edge of the bat and going to long-slip: but he overdid it occasionally, and was hit to the boundary. It will not do to reveal the number of wide balls he has bowled; but he had not much occasion to grumble at the umpires on that score, for many a glaring one was passed over, the umpire excusing it on the ground of it being "only Tom's preliminary canter."

I might give a dozen of his great bowling performances, but shall content myself with three. For Twenty-two of Dudley against the United England Eleven, in 1867, he took eight wickets first innings and eight second; ten of them clean-bowled, and Carpenter's among them. For Yorkshire v. Nottinghamshire, in 1868, he took nine wickets for 34 runs (the other was run out), Daft, Parr, and Wild's among them, and Freeman bowling at the other end. For Yorkshire v. Cambridgeshire, in 1869, he took seven wickets for 16 runs first innings, and nine for 23 second (he caught the tenth), Hayward and Carpenter's among them and Freeman bowling at the other end. He appeared for the Players in 1869, and as late as 1884, in his 43rd year, and bowled and batted in good form.

He batted in much better style than most left-hand batsmen, pulling less and possessing sounder defence, and his driving was both clean and hard. He rarely failed to score against Gloucestershire, and played against that county in 1887, when he was in his 46th year. As captain of Yorkshire he was modest about his own abilities, and ought to have bowled more; and I am of opinion that, though advanced jn years, that county might have played him a year or