Cricket 1889

JAN. 24, 1889. CRICKET: A WEEKLY RECORD OF THE GAME. 7 DOCTOR W. G. GRACE. The commencement of a new volume has seemed to us a fitting opportunity for the presentation of a portrait of the great master of the game, and one on a larger scale than is our usual custom. C r icket readers will, we feel sure, only be too glad to have such an artistic as well as life-like reproduction of the “ grand old man.” It is unnecessary to refer to Doctor Grace’s remarkable career as a cricketer. His deeds during the last eight years have been written fully in the chronicles of the books of C r ick e t , the chief incidents of his early career duly recorded in the biography which appeared in this paper in the summer of 1883. Born in 1848, his introduction to first-class cricket took place as long ago as 1864. An active career of a quarter of a century, during all of which time he has occupied a position unapproached as the best of living cricketers, without a rival as an all-round exponent of the game, is, indeed, an extraordinary instance of continuous excellence, a wonderful proof of physical vitality, as well as of un. dying enthusiasm in the greatest of all our national sports. That his powers have not even yet, after twenty-five years of hard work, suffered to any appreciable extent was proved by his many good scores during last season. He is still, as he was in 1864, the foremost cricketer of the day. “ W.Gr.” is a national institution, and one of which Englishmen have good reason to be proud. “ None but himself can be his parallel.” Our portrait, we may add, is from a photograph by Messrs. Hawkins and Co., of 108, King’s Road, Brighton. In the third match of the English cricketers at Port Elizabeth, begun on Jan. 1, in the first innings of the local Twenty-two, Briggs took the last four wickets with successive balls, NEXT ISSUE, FEBRUARY 21;