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Was It All Cricket?

Chapter 40 — The End of the Innings

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Chapter 40
The End of the Innings

From the story I have told it will be seen that in cricket, travel, and business, my experiences have been somewhat different from the general rule.

The cricket chapters which give a personal glimpse of so many of the great players from Grace to Hammond and from Murdoch to Bradman, cover most of the champions of the game, and span the period from the first Test Match. The opinions of so many great judges of the game, which I have freely quoted, will certainly help to establish a basis for comparison between the past and the present.

The travel part of this narrative, stretching from New Zealand to London, and from Nova Scotia to Hong Kong, spans distances, if not time, and tells of peoples and places not usually seen by the ordinary traveller.

It could, perhaps, be said that I played business as I played cricket; the “higher and slower” ball, the most tempting and often the most deceptive of all bowling deliveries, frequently appeared on the fields of commerce and industry when alluring propositions presented themselves and were tackled with the same vigour as were the innocent looking half-volleys of cricketing days. The results were sometimes as disastrous as on that day in Melbourne when I chased down the pitch to hit Jacky Worrall. There was one difference; with my banker as wicket-keeper, I always managed to scramble back to the crease, even though, with ball in hand, he could at times have knocked off the bails. That I was optimistic and took risks, this story will have made clear. Age and experience steered me to a safer course, and as the wicket improved, success became easier.

The original purpose in writing these memoirs was to leave to my family a sketch of events in the early life of their father. Being persuaded to publish them opens the pages to a wide field of readers. The peep into my early home life cannot be of the same interest to them as it will be to my own kinsfolk, page break
S.S. Kairanga Loading Timber at Port Craig

S.S. Kairanga Loading Timber at Port Craig

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New Forest Company's Sawmills at Ngahere

New Forest Company's Sawmills at Ngahere

page 557 but I hope the story, which lights up the path trodden by the youthful cricketer of 1895, and the Fourth Engineer of a British tramp steamer, may hold the attention of those who read this book to the end.
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