Using contemporary accounts of W.G.'s greatest innings, many for the first time, Robert Low presents a radically new image of the sportsman who was recognised as the pre-eminent athlete of his day.From his emergence as a teenage prodigy to well past his fiftieth year W.G. dominated the game of cricket, taking 2,876 wickets and scoring 54,896 first-class runs in a career lasting an incredible 43 years, from 1865 to 1908. His beard and massive frame made him instantly recognisable wherever he went and his gamesmanship and wit were legendary.
Оглавление
Robert Low. WG Grace
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1 · INTRODUCTION
2 · THE GRACE FAMILY
3 · BOY WONDER
4 · THE NONPAREIL
5 · MISSIONARY TO AMERICA
6 · HONEYMOON IN AUSTRALIA
7 · REWRITING THE RECORDS
8 · GRACE THE CRICKETER
THE BATSMAN
THE BOWLER
THE FIELDER
THE CAPTAIN
9 · DR GRACE
10 · ENTER THE DEMON
11 · A DEATH IN THE FAMILY
12 · QUEEN AND COUNTRY
13 · CAPTIOUS CAPTAIN RETURNS TO AUSTRALIA
14 · RESURRECTION
15 · A BIRTHDAY TREAT TO REMEMBER
16 · CLOSE OF PLAY
APPENDIX
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ALSO BY ROBERT LOW
Copyright
Отрывок из книги
Title Page
Acknowledgements
.....
He was quick to take offence at a slight, real or imagined. Playing for Gloucestershire against Somerset in the 1890s, he batted with a badly damaged thumb which was further injured by deliveries from the Somerset bowler Sammy Woods. As play was held up while he was being treated, a spectator shouted, ‘Why don’t you hold an inquest on him?’ E.M. muttered, ‘I can’t stand this’ and headed off in the heckler’s direction to exact retribution. Seeing him approaching, the man ran off, with E.M. pursuing him all the way to the gate. Then he returned to the wicket and completed an innings of 70.
On another occasion, he was batting with W.G. and both were scoring very slowly, unusually for them as both liked to get on with it whenever possible. The crowd began to barrack them, and their criticism intensified as the players returned to the pavilion at an interval. Furious, E.M. reached into the crowd and grabbed one of his barrackers. A spirited tussle ensued, and as the man’s friends dragged him away, one of them told E.M. in a deep Gloucestershire accent, ‘Look yer, Crowner, thee canst sit on carpse with twelve men to help tha, but thee cassent sit on a live man.’
