W.G.'s Birthday Party

by David Kynaston (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2010

  $3.26

  On a hot morning in July 1898, the sporting world gathered at Lord's to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of WG Grace, the greatest cricketer the game has ever seen. Grace was cheered onto the field by a packed crowd as he captained the Gentlemen, the privileged old guard of the Establishment. Their opponents in this annual match were the Players, cricketers for whom the sport was a precarious livelihood rather than a summer pastime. This three-day encounter represented the climax of cricket's Golden Age, and the unstoppable arrival of the professional game that would dominate the twentieth century. In WG's Birthday Party , David Kynaston tells the story of one of the most thrilling matches in cricketing history, as well as the colorful and sometimes tragically moving lives of the members of both teams. Using the Gentlemen vs Players contest as a lens through which to examine the hierarchy and tensions endemic in cricket at the beginning of the modern era, he presents a lively, moving, richly detailed and massively entertaining portrait of late-Victorian society. It is social history at its most compelling, from 'the most entertaining historian alive' ( Spectator ).

• Used

  Paperback
  1992

  $3.26

  On a hot July morning in 1898 the cricketing world gathered at Lord's to pay homage to the greatest exponent of the game it had ever known. The occasion was Dr W.G. Grace's 50th birthday. Shortly after noon, to a volley of thunderous applause, he led out his team of gentlemen to do battle against the players: the historic annual contest between amateurs and professionals was about to begin. This moment, more than any other, was the apogee of cricket's Golden Age, a summation of artistry, colour and individuality crowned by one giant, indestructable force. David Kynaston not only evokes the magnificence of the occasion and describes what turned out to be a thrilling match, but goes beyond the boundary to reveal the colourful lives and sometimes tragic fates of its participants, whilst offering an insight into the late Victorian world.