Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

74 had been offered the chance to see visions, but turned it down in case it disrupted his cricket playing. But the tales of his boxing successes are, it seems, frequently exaggerated. Certainly he was a good lightweight boxer, good enough, according to the DIB , to have represented New College when he was at Oxford. But I can find no corroboration for the oft-repeated claims that he won a boxing Blue: based on the detailed reports in contemporary issues of The Times , he certainly did not fight in any of the Oxford v Cambridge matches in the years that he was at Oxford, or the years immediately following his securing of a third-class degree in 1903. 116 Neither can I find any corroboration that he won the French amateur title. Several sources state that he fought in the French amateur championships, which is plausible – he lived for some years in Paris. Some go as far as saying that he fought for the French lightweight title, which could mean exactly the same thing, or could mean that he reached the final of the event at that weight. Only one source claims that he actually won this title, and on the balance of evidence I would suggest that this is simply wrong; surely if he had done, the other sources would have picked up on the fact? Leg-spinner for Ireland CricketEurope states that Gregory narrowly missed selection for the Harrow School cricket eleven but took many wickets for the second team. This may well be true, but I have been unable to corroborate it; surviving records of the period at Harrow are at best patchy. His first definite appearance in an organised match that I have traced is when he appeared for New College Nomads in a match at Headington in May 1901. He was wicketless in this first appearance, but a month later he took six wickets for the Nomads against Blenheim Park at Blenheim. Scores of 16* and 12* in these two games show that he could bat a bit too, even if bowling was his main strength. The following year, Gregory played twice for the Oxford University Authentics without performing anything special, 117 but he did enough to be selected for a University trial match held in The Parks from 2 to 4 June. Playing for R.S.Darling’s XI against W.S.Medlicott’s XI, he only took one wicket in the match and scored 9*, but the report in The Sportsman after the first day was complimentary: ‘Two new men, Bernard and Gregory, were given a trial, and so far the last-named has justified his selection, as although not taking many wickets, he gave distinct promise, getting a good break from leg, with plenty of variety in pitch and pace’. Nevertheless, he was not called upon again in 1902, and, based on reports in the contemporary sporting press, he played no cricket in his final year at Oxford in 1903; perhaps the prospect of examinations was at last focusing his mind on academic matters. And so passed perhaps his best chance of playing first-class cricket in England. 116 Gregory never formally ‘took’ the BA degree to which he was entitled, and so could not, and did not, style himself ‘W.R.Gregory, BA’. 117 In the following winter (1902/03) the Authentics toured India, playing a number of matches that are now regarded as first-class. But the side in India was very different from the sides in which Gregory played in 1902, and it seems unlikely that he was a serious candidate for selection for the tour. In the Wickets