Lot 77 , W.G. Grace, signed letter to county cricketer F. N. Bird, a photo of Minor Counties v West Indians, 1906 etc. letter framed and glazed

W.G. Grace, signed letter to county cricketer F. N. Bird, a photo of Minor Counties v West Indians, 1906 etc. the letter dated August 5th 1896 and inscribed 'I shall be pleased to give you a place in the match at the County Ground on Tuesday & Wednesday next..', the remaining archive to include photos of Northants C.C. 1908 and Devon C.C.C. 1921 and two albums of Bird family cricket records, containing newspaper cuttings of cricket reports involving F N Bird from around 1896 to 1928 and later appearances by his son letter framed and glazed
Estimate £300-500

Provenance - Frederick Nash Bird; thence by family descent.
Rev. F N Bird was born on December 13, 1875, Framlingham, Suffolk and died March 3, 1965, Chichester, Sussex (aged 89 years 80 days). He played 16 first class matches for Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire from 1899-1909 and numerous matches for Buckinghamshire and Devon County 1st XI.
The match described by W G Grace is probably an appearance for F N Bird made for Gloucestershire Colts vs the county 1st XI in which W G Grace batted down the order.

The selection of the West Indies team took place after the 1905-06 Inter-Colonial Tournament in January 1906. The team was selected by two representatives from each of the three competing colonies; Jamaica, Grenada and St. Vincent being unrepresented. The West Indians (Indies) game against the Minor Counties XI was played on 21, 22, 23 June
at Ealing and the tourists won by 215 runs.
Goodman captained the West Indian side, won the toss and batted first, Ollivierre kept wicket in Bancroft's absence. The tourists made a disappointing score of just 204 with Bertie Harragin scoring 68 out of 94 in 65 minutes. The Minor Counties got within 12 runs of the West Indian score with 62 in 88 minutes from William Coleman from Hertfordshire the top scorer.

The second time around the tourists batted better. Sydney Smith with 93 and Harragin with 63 adding 130 runs for the fifth wicket in 80 minutes. Set a target of 351 the Minor Counties were quickly 11/3 and never got close. Smith took 5/45 to go with his 4/86 in the first innings and his scored of 23 and 93.

After the match Harragin attempted to beat his West Indian record for throwing the cricket ball. However he only reached 124 yards 2 feet 10 inches compared to his record of 128 yards 4 inches.


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Sold for £550