Perhaps one of the reasons why W. G. Grace is so deadly to young
cricketers is this: the batsman, seeing an enormous man rushing up
to the wickets, with both elbows out, great black beard blowing on
each side of him, and a huge yellow cap on the top of a dark swarthy
face, expects something more than the gentle lobbed-up ball that does
come; he cannot believe that this baby-looking bowling is really the
great man’s, and gets flustered and loses his wicket. W. G. Grace is
certainly enormous, and a year or two ago at Lord’s an amusing remark
might have been overheard on this subject. The England _v._ Australia
match was being played. W. G. walked out into the field side by side
with Briggs of Lancashire, the latter, as is well known, being very
small, perhaps hardly up to W. G.’s elbow. A small child of about five
was in the pavilion with his father, and said, ‘Father, who is that big
man?’ ‘That’s Dr. Grace, the champion,’ said the papa; and ‘Who is the
little one?’ the child continued. ‘That is Briggs.’ Dead silence for a
few moments, and then, ‘Papa, is Briggs Dr. Grace’s baby?’
Although power of pace, straightness, and command over the ball are
the really essential qualities of good fast bowling--as, indeed, of
all sorts--there are many occasions when fortune smiles upon bowling
which possesses none of these good attributes. And it is for this
reason, we think, that every cricketer should be able to bowl when
called upon to do so by his captain. Every man who has played cricket
has bowled at a net, and he certainly has an action which is different
from everybody else’s. As a rule, men who are not considered regular
bowlers can send the ball in somehow or other at a fairly fast pace
more or less straight, and these unknown, wild, and erratic bowlers
often succeed in getting rid of well-set batsmen who have defied all
the efforts of the recognised bowlers of the side. There are numerous
instances of a side being deeply indebted to a bowler who never
before nor afterwards showed the slightest ability to get wickets.
In Australia in 1882, when Ivo Bligh’s English team was playing
combined Australia, on a certain occasion two of the best Australian
batsmen--Murdoch and Bannerman--seemed immovable. They had been in
for about an hour, and every one of the regular English bowlers had
been on and off. A suggestion was made to try C. F. H. Leslie. Now
this gentleman, with all his great merits, was never, even in the
estimation of his best friends, a great bowler. But on he went with
pleasure, as every cricketer should when ordered. The first ball was a
very fast one, rather wide, the second ditto, but the third one--‘Ah,
the third!’--was a head ball, designed after the manner of Spofforth’s
best; and it pitched on the middle of Murdoch’s middle stump! The next
comer was Horan, at that time the reputed best player of fast bowling
in the Colonies. A very fast long-hop, wide on the off side, was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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