Phillip Blashki and now over 500 descendants, mostly in Australia, have been documented. Phillip was primarily a silversmith and had a stall at Melbourne's Great Exhibition of 1888. He was also an optician, watch repairer, jeweller and maker of masonic regalia. He produced several notable items of public importance, including Australian cricket's Sheffield Shield the cost of which was donated by Lord Sheffield in 1893, following his tour (led by W G Grace) of Australia of 1891-2. Blashki's tender was the one accepted. He also produced the NSW Cricketers Association's 'Hordern Shield'. Phillip Blashki started in Geelong as a hawker and retailer
The Cricketers of My Time now rich literary history. Writing in 1957, John Arlott described it as "still the finest study of cricket and cricketers ever written". "The Cricketers of My Time" was first published in serial form by a weekly London newspaper called "The Town" in 1832. The following year, the series with some modifications appeared as the second part of an instructional book entitled "The Young Cricketer's Tutor", which was also the title of the book's first part. There was a third part called "A Few Memoranda Respecting the Progress of Cricket" and that is generally referred to as the "Memoranda". The first