Page:Cricket, by WG Grace.djvu/97

 satisfied that there was no need for him after our long score.

The Gentlemen of Sussex scored 148 first innings, and had to follow on. They gave us a fine bit of leather-hunting in their second innings, scoring 341, and leaving us 134 to win. Time did not permit us to finish; but at the end of the third day we had scored 118 for five wickets, of which I had made 56 not out.

They gave me a bat, which I have to-day and am very proud of. The handle and the blade are of one piece of wood: it was the only one to be had on the ground at the end of the innings; however, I value it for the reason that it marks the date of the beginning of my long scores. I was not quite sixteen years of age, and had gained my first experience in playing steadily and consistently through a long innings.

A week later I played for the same club at Lord's against the M.C.C.; and before the end of the month against the I Zingari. In the first match I scored 50; in the second, 34 and 47; and for South Wales Club that year I had an average of 48 for nine innings. In first-class matches I scored 402 runs for seven innings, average 57; and at the end of the season I had an aggregate of 1079. I had played well enough to merit an opinion from John Lillywhite's Companion, in its summary for the season:

"Mr. W. G. Grace promises to be a good bat: bowls very fairly."

That was my progress and position at the end of 1864, when I had completed my sixteenth year. The lesson I have desired to convey to young players is, that my doings in the cricket world at that period of my life, if they are of any value, were owing to my father and uncle's stimulating examples, and perseverance on my own part. When the associations and surroundings are