Cricket 1884

“ Together joined in cricket’s man ly toil.”— Byron. No. 53. VOL. III. Registered for Transmission Abroad. THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 1884. PR ICE 2d. TH E L A T E HON . R O B E R T GK IMSTON . One of the best-known figures at Lord’s and the Oval will be seen no more. It is difficult to realise as yet that the stalwart form which fre­ quenters of the Marylebone ground in particular have been used to see on almost every occasion of im­ portance for the last five-and-forty years, has passed away. It will be fruitful of sorrow to hundreds of cricketers who have profited by his kindly council, or who have had the enjoyment of his friendship, to think that the cheery voice, always full of encouragement to the young player, never raised in other than a helpful or considerate tone to any­ one, whatever his position, is for ever hushed. In the death of the Hon. Robert Grimston, sport of every kind has lost a loyal and liberal supporter. There were few kinds of athletic exercises or sports of which he was not in one way or another a patron. It is with cricket that his name was most prominently identified, but it was not, by any means, his only fancy. In the days when the prize ring was, in a sense, a national institution, at the period when a fair trial of skill and strength could be secured, and before the ring had become a mere vehicle for the profit of the gambling fraternity, he was one of its most liberal upholders. He was, too, passion­ ately fond of hunting, and those who knew him well oh the hunting field need not be told how straight he went after the hounds. On every matter, indeed, con­ nected with hunting he was as great an authority as on cricket lore, and in every department of the sport his opinion carried great Weight. His face was as well known in the Yale of Aylesbury as at Lord’s, and *t is not too much to say that he will be as much missed by the supporters of the Vale as by the hundreds, nay thousands, who have looked up to him for years as the essence of everything that is loyal and genuine in cricket. It is strange that he should never have been in the Harrow Eleven, but ho was “ next out ” for the School in 1834, the year in which another well-known member of the Marylebone I Club, Mr. E. Broughton, formed one of the Harrovian team. He played for Oxford against Cambridge in 1838, with Messrs. A. Lowth and J. C. Ryle, now a bishop, and among his oppo­ nents were the late Lord Lyttelton and Messrs. B. Broughton (just mentioned), C. G. Taylor, whose fame is still freth as the most brilliant all-round cricketer of his day, and C. F. Trower, of Hants and Sussex. In 1849 he played two good innings for the Single . against the Married, at Lord’s, and his scores of 26 and 76 against the bowling of W. Lillywhite, Hillyer, Dean, Mynn. and Clarke were two very creditable performances. He three times represented the Gentle­ men against the Players (in 1842, 1846 and 1849), and it is a littlo curious that on each of these occa­ sions the Gentlemen were the winners. He took an active part with the brothers Ponsonby and Messrs. J. L. Baldwin and R. P. Long in the formation of I Zingari in 1845, and he retained, till his death, the office of treasurer and auditor to that honourable society. For many years he took part in most of the principal matches at Lord’s, and his retirement from active cricket did not abate one jot the interest he felt in the game. Year after year, until the last, he devoted himself with all the energy of which he had such a plentiful supply, to the encouragement of the game at Harrow, and the value of his practical knowledge and un­ ceasing tuition in the science of cricket, in co-operation with the Earl of Bessborough, better known in this connection as the Hon. F. Ponsonby, has been abundantly and conclusively shown in the high reputation enjoyed by Harrow School as a nursery for cricketers. Indeed it is not too much to say that his loss to Harrovians will be almost irreparable. Ardently attached to the game, he always took an interest in young players, and for the last two or three years he actively assisted Mr. Frederick Burbidge in the test practice which usually takes place at the Oval during April, for the tuition of likely Surrey Colts. Of his intimate acquaintance with everything relating to cricket it is unneces-