Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/64

 for the South Wales Club, had set the critics talking, and his doings the previous two years were recalled.

In 1860 he played 44 innings, average 41; his principal scores being:

In 1861 he played 60 innings, average 34; his principal scores being:

They were not first-class matches, but good enough to show that he possessed batting powers of a very high quality.

For years, during the cricket week, my father and mother had visited Canterbury, where they had many friends, and were cordially welcomed in cricket circles. The match, the first part of the week in 1862, was England v. Fourteen of Kent; the second part, M.C.C. v. Gentlemen of Kent. The Hon. Spencer Ponsonby Fane, who was managing the matches for the M.C.C., had experienced great difficulty in getting together a good team for England; and at the last moment Hayward was taken ill and could not come.

In the evening my father suggested E. M. to the Hon. Spencer Ponsonby, who promptly said: "Communicate with him at once, please; and I shall try to arrange with Mr. Baker, the Secretary of the Kent County Club, that he shall be allowed to play as an emergency for the M.C.C. in the second match." Mr. Baker acceded to the request very heartily, and E. M.