W. G. GRACE'S BATTING.

[To THE EDITOR OP TED "SPECTAT011."1 SIR,—Even in time of war much will be written and said about the batting of the immortal cricketer who has just died ; and yet it is not unlikely that some points of groat interest may have escaped notice. An attentive observation of some of " W. G.'s" innings about forty years ago yields some interesting results. I omit' all restatement of what has been already well said, but wish to rescue from oblivion certain technical points in whiCh his batting was either quite dis tinetive, or at leastwonderful from its excellence on. familiar lines.

It is quite true that he was strangely lacking in attractive- ness of style, but I should dispute what has been said that the

effort in each stroke was obvious. The style was unattractive, not because it was laborious, but because the movements were ungainly. The immense shoulders were put into the stroke more obviously than the wrists, and this took away 'all grace from the movement, but the power was astonishing because of the perfection of the timing and the leg work. For instance, in the digging stroke past point for a good-length ball six

inches off the off' stump, what was noticed was the awkward heave of the shoulders as he bent right over the ball, and the

curious prod with the elbows; but the force with which the ball went was astonishing, till one noticed that the movement of the upper part of the body was perfectly combined with a

stamp of the right foot. I saw him in 1878 make this stroke so mightily that, though Barlow's horny left hand was enough in the way to deflect the ball forty-fiire degrees, it went off the palm right away to the ropes for four.' 1 think Tom Emmett was the bowler.

He never reached his arms right forward for the forward stroke, but deemed to contain himself in order to- make sure

that the hall was not turning en the ground before be played.

But once, in 1875, ile met his decease at the hand of that astute artist Alfred Shaw. The ball pitched at a perfect length on the off stump, shot down the hill and took the leg stump, just missing the bat which was advancing, but not far enough. I think this was 'because the break was more than could be expected from the nature of the ground. But the next innings Shaw prudently cried off for some injury, fancied or real, in the foot, and the unfortunate Players had a dusty time of it.

It was then that I observed his unique play of the shooter.

Morley of Nottingham was just at his best as a fast bowler, but the most witless cricketer to be found anyWhere. He slammed in the balls at exactly the same pace and length over after over, being that kind of bowler who was so punished by " W. G." that ho may be said to have become insignificant in first-class cricket for several years. The mechanical fast bowler, in short, had to exercise his craft furtively on grounds remote from the Leviathan's presence.

Now 1875 was the last year in which shooters were common at Lord's, and any one who knows the pane at which Morley's

balls used to shoot on the leg stump, and the profound satisfaction that it gave to stop 'one of them solidly, some- thing after the manner of that superb craftsman R. A. H.

Mitchell, will understand • the unspeakable mastery of the ball which was revealed by " W. G.'s" performance. He scored 150 in that innings, but it was only by degrees that we detected what he' was doing with the shooter. He

brought down the bat with a curious dig, at such an angle that it not Only went forcibly towards mid-on,' but he positively placed it on each side of the field as he chose. Of course, if Morley had changed his pace instead of bowling like a machine, or if the wicket had been of the kicking sort, this could not have been done. It was the most titanic display of batting that ever I have seen.

Another feature of his play was that he was never out of form ; of course, his scoring differed in amount, but as far as I could see there was no stretch of time. when his eye appeared to be off. For instance, in 1879—a nightmare year of heavy rain—a huge crowd gathered in awful weather on Whit.

Monday, and " W. G." went in for a few minutes, to see what

could be done in the way,of play. :Alfred Shaw was bowling, and, though there had been no good cricket for many days

before, he knew he could trust " W. G." to respond without

fail to any venture for a big hit; so, in crder to give the crowd something to cheer at, he dropped him three half-volleys on

his legs (from the pavilion end), which were all despatched

with perfect ease to the tavern. In that terrible year other batsmen might have done it, but no one but " W. G." could

have been relied upon to do it. Akin to this was the fact that in his prime he would travel on a night journey from Cantor• bury to Gloucester (as I am pretty sure he did in August,

1876) and play a colossal innings 'on arrival, not only showing no symptoms of fatigue, but quite unconscious that there was

anything remarkable in what he did. This was characteristic of the man. No one ever had a more unanalytic brain. Once when there was a discussion as to bow a certain difficult ball should be played, one of those present asked him his opinion, and he said with the ulmast simplicity, "I should say you ought to put the bat against the hall" (pronounced like the name of the Swiss town Bale).

His power of eye was well shown in an innings in 1879 against Bates of Yorkshire, who was breaking back on a sticky wicket most formidably. " W. G." detected the moment the ball left Bates's hand where it was going to pitch, and if it were an awkward length he would lurch a foot or so from his ground so as easily to reach the pitch, and suppress the ball before it had time to turn. In fact, it looked as though he might have run out and hit it on the half-volley ; but I fancy that his great weight made that difficult for him, or possibly he might have done so at a later stage in the innings.

Many cricketers will think that it was to be deplored that he forsook the old-fashioned leg hit for the sliding stroke. There was something, to my mind, unsportsmanlike about this, though no doubt he reduced it to such a certainty that it added to his average; but if Mitchell or W. Oseroft or George Parr bad adopted these cautious tactics, instead of hitting to leg as they did, the world would have been the poorer for all time.

Hewitt of Middlesex, the fast left-hand howler, used to sling the ball in straight at the batsman's person, rather short, trusting to it bounding high, and getting the batsman caught at short-leg. In his later days he used to relate gleefully how " 4Y. G." was on one occasion uneasy at these balls, and was observed by Howitt to look round at short-leg just before the ball was bowled, and then place a slightly uppish stroke two or three feet on one side of him. Old Tom Hearne was short- leg, and Ilowitt made a plot with him that after " W. G." had prospected, Hearne should move two feet to the right at a certain ball in the next over. The plot came oft to perfection, and the ball was landed in Tom's hands, the bourne in which it very seldom failed to find a resting-place, and the great man had to go.

One cannot fancy what would have been the fame of " W. G." if he had combined a style like that of Mitchell,

C. G. Lyttelton, A. G. Steel, or Fryer with his genius, his physique and unremitting industry. These and other players are on a lower level, not only because they could not do like- wise, but because they had other things to do. After all, cricket is a game.—I sin, Sir, ac., OLD BLUE.