Days of Grace (25 Jul 1998)
IT IS 84 years to the day since Dr W G Grace scored 69 not out for Eltham against Grove Park at the age of 66 in his last cricket match
25-Jul-1998
25 July 1998
Days of Grace
The Electronic Telegraph
IT IS 84 years to the day since Dr W G Grace scored 69 not out for
Eltham against Grove Park at the age of 66 in his last cricket match.
Like Muhammad Ali, Babe Ruth and Pele, the passage of time has served
only to enhance his towering legend. Although it is a matter of record
that English cricket grounds of the 1870s used to pin a notice outside
the gates informing would-be spectators: "Admission 3d; If Dr W G
plays, admission 6d", his feats and fable, majesty and mythology have
become so entwined as to leave us no closer to the man behind the
beard.
Dr Who?
Grace's most recent biographer appears to find sympathy with the
prosecution view of Sir C P Snow who wrote of him: "W G Grace was by
no conceivable standard a good man. He was a cheat on and off the
cricket field." For the defence, however, speaks a Gloucestershire
team-mate of the day: "He has the whole world as his stage, and his
friends are as numerous as pebbles on the seashore."
One hundred and fifty years (plus seven days to be exact) after his
birth, the real Dr W G will never be fully revealed unto us, and so we
can but honour the prowess which brought him 54,896 career runs.
As to a fitting epitaph, Grace put it better than anyone when he said:
"I don't like defensive shots - you can only get threes."
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)