Cricket 1885

“ Together joined in cricket’s man ly toil.”— Byron. Registered Si^SJSSSSk & * . THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1885. pr io occasion of James Street’s benefit. On the whole, too, for a first season his success was marked, and at the end of the year he had a very respectable average of 16.2, standing fourth in the list of Yorkshire batsmen. He began the season of 1881 in promising fashion, with a score of 31 against Middlesex at Lord’s, and finished it with equal credit, getting 41— his best innings of the year—against Notts at Sheffield, by excellent crioket. With the exception of the fixtures at Scarborough, in which the Yorkshire elevens are not ohosen by I he Committee, he took part in every county match of 1881, and with great credit, securing an aggregate of 370 runs for twenty completed innings, an average of exactly 18J runs.' The summer of 1882 also had a favourable com­ mencement for him, and his 44 against Notts was one of his best innings of the year. Though not on the whole so successful as in the two previous seasons, his batting was of great use on more than one important occasion. Against the second Australian Team he generally scored creditably, though his best contribution during 1882 was his 48 against Derbyshire at Derby. His stand with Teel towards the close of the innings was, in fact, the feature of the Yorkshire batting, and it was due entirely to these two professionals that the follow-on, which seemed in­ evitable when their partnership com­ menced, was saved. The following season of 1883 found Grimshaw com­ paratively out of form, and he only took part in ten of the sixteen fixtures arranged by the Yorkshire Committee. His highest score was 28 against Notts at Sheffield, although he showed good cricket for a team of Yorkshire and Notts combined against an England eleven at Bradford during the same season. His ill-success in 1883, though, was more than counter­ balanced by his excellent show in the following summer, and he participated in every one of the twenty matches in which Yorkshire was engaged in 1884, with the most favourable results. In the match against Cambridge Univer­ sity at Cambridge, on the memorable occasion when three hundreds were made in the Yorkshire innings, he was one of the batsmen who gained that enviable distinction, and his 115 was the result of exceptionally good cricket. His score of 71 against Gloucestershire at Bradford was also an admirable display of batting in every sense, and the same might be said of his 77 for an England eleven against the Australians at Huddersfield, when rain saved the Colonists from a certain defeat. Though his average at the end of 1894 was I R W IN G R IM S H AW . T hough hardly as yet entitled to claim a position in a thoroughly representative eleven of professional cricketers, the marked improve­ ment in his form during the last two or three years, emphatically justifies the belief that this honour is close within Grim- shaw’s rtach. Yorkshire cricket has had much cause to be grateful for his services just lately. In his case, too, as with most of the county eleven, the qualification of birthright, which has always been the teBt for candidates desirous of places in tbe Yorkshire team, has been strengthened by a con­ tinuous residence within the county’s limits. Born at Farsley, on May 4, 1857, his connection with that district has, we believe, been unbroken. Though he did not make his first appearance in connection with York­ shire cricket until a later date than some Northern professionals now in the front rank of players, his reputation was at once established. He was, in­ deed, just twenty-three years of age when he had his first trial as one of nineteen Colts opposed to the York­ shire eleven in the early part of the summer of 1880. Though Rawlin, who also was able to claim county honours, figured in the same team, Grimshaw’s form was by far the best on the side of the Colts. His first score of 41 out of a total of 144 was, indeed, the result of such capital crioket that he was at once promoted to a place in the Yorkshire eleven. Though in his opening match, against M.C.C. and G. at Lord’s, he only made three runs in his two innings, his next opportunity proved more successful, and his two scores of 14 and 38 against Middlesex, made a very favourable impression on the experienced judges who frequent the pavilion of th ) Marylebone Club during the progress of an important match. This promise he fully maintained throughout the summer, and several creditable scores were attached to his name, the highest one of 45 against Surrey, in the return match on the