"I want to give invaluable First Class match experience to many cricketers who could not otherwise get it and who would be all the better for it when they come to play in County Cricket”.
Full Name: William Gilbert Grace
Born: 18 July 1848, Downend, Bristol
Died: 23 October 1915, Mottingham, Kent
Major Teams: Gloucestershire, London County, England.
Also Known As: The Doctor, WG
Batting Style: Right Hand Bat
Test Debut: England v Australia at The Oval, Only Test, 1880
Last Test: England v Australia at Nottingham, 1st Test, 1899
Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1896
In a remarkable career, Grace took 2,864 wickets and scored 54,896 runs including 126 centuries. ‘The Great Cricketer’ scored his last Century on his 56th birthday when making 166 for London County v MCC. July 18th 2004 was the Centenary of that occasion, when the reformed London County replayed that match v MCC at Beaconsfield CC.
Extract from Wisden Cricketers Almanack 1916 edition
Editor’s Obituary (Section: Deaths in 1915)
William Gilbert Grace
Born Downend, near Bristol July 18th 1848
Died at his home, Fairmount, Eltham, Kent, October 23rd 1915
In no branch of sport has anyone ever enjoyed such an unquestioned supremacy as that of WG Grace in the cricket field. In his great days, he stood alone, without a rival. Not even George Fordham and Fred Archer as jockeys, or John Roberts as a billiard player, had such a marked superiority over the men who were nearest to them in point of ability. Whatever may be in store for the game of cricket in the future, it seems safe to say that such a player will never be seen again. A rare combination of qualities went in to the making of WG Grace. Blessed with great physical advantages, he united to a strength of constitution that defied fatigue a devotion to the game which time was powerless to affect. When he was in his prime no sun was too hot and no day too long for him. It is on record that when, for a cricketer, he was no longer young, he spent the whole night by the bedside of a patient, and on the following day stepped on to the Clifton College ground and scored over 200 runs.
Mr Grace’s career in the cricket field – almost unexampled in point of length – can be sharply divided into two portions. His early fame as a batsman culminated in the season of 1876, when in the month of August, he scored in three successive innings, 344 against Kent at Canterbury, 177 against Notts at Clifton, and 318 not out against Yorkshire at Cheltenham. Soon after that, having passed his examination at Edinburgh as a surgeon, he thought of gradually retiring from cricket and settling down, like his elder brothers, to the busy life of a general practitioner. As a matter of fact, he did for many years hold a parish appointment at Bristol, a locum tenens doing his work in the summer months. There can be little doubt that his change of plans was mainly due to the appearance in England in 1878 of the first Australian eleven. Those whose memories go back to that now somewhat distant time will remember the tremendous sensation caused by the victories of that eleven, and in particular by Spofforth’s bowling, and Blackham’s wicket-keeping. Englishmen realised, with an excusable shock of surprise, that in the cricket field there were serious rivals to be faced.
Mr Grace had never been in such poor batting form as he was in 1878, and on the few occasions that he met the Australian bowlers he did nothing in the least degree worthy of his reputation. I have no exact knowledge on the point, but I feel tolerably certain that the success of the Australians revived Mr Grace’s ambition. At any rate, the fact remains that, though the most brilliant part of his career had ended before the invasion of 1878, the Australians found him for the best part of twenty years the most formidable of their opponents. This second part of his career as a batsman began towards the end of the season of 1880. Following some fine performances for Gloucestershire he played, as everyone will remember, a great innings of 152 at The Oval in the first match in this country between England and Australia. Even then, however, though only in his 33rd year, he laboured under one serious disadvantage. In the four years following his triumphs of 1876, he had put on a lot weight and was very heavy for so young a man.
He said himself at the time that he was never in better form than in those closing weeks of the season of 1880, and that, but for lack of condition, he would have made many more runs. Against increasing bulk he had to battle for the rest of his cricket life. For a long time he retained his activity to a surprising extent, but as the years went on his once splendid fielding gradually left him. He kept up his batting, however in a marvellous way, the success of what one may call his second period in the cricket field reaching its climax when in 1895 he scored a thousand runs in first-class cricket in the month of May. His batting at that time has never been approached by a man of the same age; he was nearly 47. In 1896 he was still very good, but after the years began to tell on him, and in 1899, when he moved from Bristol to Crystal Palace, he played at Trent Bridge his last match for England against Australia. Still, though he had now done with Test Matches, he went on playing first-class cricket for several seasons, his career practically ending with The Gentlemen and Players’ match at The Oval in 1906. The finish was worthy of him as, on his 58th birthday, he scored 74, batting up to a certain point with much of the vigour of his younger days.
Of Mr Grace’s cricket from the time of his first appearance at Lord’s in July, 1864, for the South Wales club against the MCC down to the end of 1876, columns could be written without exhausting the subject. He was picked for The Gentlemen, as a lad of 17, both at Lord’s and The Oval in 1865, the honour being conferred upon him quite as much for his medium-pace bowling as for his batting. A year later, however, he proved himself, beyond all question, the best batsman in England, two wonderful innings at The Oval establishing his fame. He scored 224 not out for England against Surrey and 173 not out for Gentlemen of the South against Players of the South. An attack of scarlet fever interfered with his cricket in 1867, but after that, he never looked back. His best seasons as a batsman were, I fancy, 1871,1873,and 1876. His play in 1871 far surpassed anything that has been done before.
In his whole career, he scored in Gentlemen versus Players’ matches 6,008 runs with an average of 42 and took 271 wickets for a trifle under 19 runs each. He made seven hundreds for the Gentlemen at Lord’s, four at The Oval, and one each at Brighton, Prince’s, Scarborough and Hastings. The first of his seven hundreds at Lord’s was obtained in 1868, and the last, after an interval of twenty-seven years, in 1895. Of those seven innings, the first was, perhaps, the most remarkable. Going in first wicket down for a very strong side he took out his bat for 134, the total only reaching 201. As Lord Harris has pointed out the wickets at Lord’s in those far-off days were by no means so true and easy as careful attention made them in later years. A score of a hundred at Lord’s in the’60’s against the best bowling was an incomparably bigger feat than it is at the present time.
No mention has been made of Mr Grace’s connection with Gloucestershire cricket. With his two brothers, E.M. and G.F., and other fine, though less gifted, players to help him, he built up a team of remarkable strength in batting and fielding. The county club was established in 1871, and in 1876 and 1877 the eleven stood ahead of all rivals. Until beaten at Clifton by the first Australian Eleven in 1878 the team never lost a match at home. After G.F. Grace’s death in 1880, Gloucestershire never seemed quite the same as before, but in 1885, and again in 1898, there was, thanks to WG’s batting and C.L. Townsend’s bowling, a brief revival of old glories. The Gloucestershire matches at Clifton and Cheltenham in the old days were delightful, the Gloucestershire eleven being quite a family party. Like other families they had their little differences of opinion, but there was a great feeling of comradeship among them, and they played cricket with tremendous zest.
Mr Grace’s venture in connection with London County at the Crystal Palace did not add to his fame. He was in his 51st year when he left Bristol, the experiment being made far too late. Many pleasant matches were played at the Palace, but they were carried through in too leisurely a spirit to appeal to a public brought up on cricket of a much sterner character. If tried fifteen years earlier, the project might have proved a success. As it was the London County faded out when Mr Grace’s contract with the Crystal Palace company came to an end.
With Mr Grace’s characteristics as a batsman I must deal rather briefly. He was, in the main, quite orthodox in style, his bat being as perfectly straight as Fuller Pilch’s, but he greatly enlarged the domain of orthodoxy, playing in a far more aggressive and punishing game than any of the classic batsmen who came before him. It should be explained here that E.M. Grace, who first made the family name famous, played a game of his own and was a little outside comparisons. WG developed the art of batting to an extraordinary degree, but he was not like E.M., a revolutionist. There is his own authority for stating that he did not indulge in the pull till he was forty. A splendid all-round hitter, he excelled all his predecessors in his power of placing the ball on the on-side. A story is told of a cricketer who had regarded Fuller Pilch as the last word in batting, being taken in his old age to see Mr Grace bat for the first time. He watched the great man for a quarter of an hour or so and then broke out into expressions of boundless delight. ‘‘Why,’’ he said, ‘‘this man scores continually from balls that old Fuller would have been thankful to stop.’’ The words conveyed everything. Mr Grace when he went out at the ball did so for the purpose of getting runs. Pilch and his imitators, on the other hand, constantly used forward play for defence alone.
When the wicket was difficult and the ball turning, Mr Grace trusted for defence to that strong back play which, even in his boyhood, convinced his people at home that he would be a greater batsman than his brother, E.M. Mr Grace’s batting from 1868 onwards quite overshadowed his bowling, and yet during his career he took many hundreds of wickets. Indeed, old Bob Thomas the umpire, always contended that if he had not been such a wonderful batsman he would have been the best slow bowler in England. Even as it was, he held his own very well with such matters as Alfred Shaw and Southerton. He bowled medium pace with a purely round arm action in his young days, but slackened his speed about 1872.
His superb strength and health enabled him to stand any amount of cricket, but in his best two years as a bowler- 1875 and 1877- his batting fell off 50 per cent. He did not rely much on break, only turning in a little from leg, but he had great command over his length and very seldom indeed pitched short. His chief strength lay in head work. No one was quicker to find out the weak points of a batsman or more certain to lure an impetuous hitter to his doom. In Gloucestershire’s great days he was much helped by brilliant fielding. Fred Grace in particular, at deep square leg, being available to him. When he first appeared for the Gentlemen, Mr Grace was a splendid outfield, capable of throwing the ball a hundred yards, but as time went on he took to fielding near the wicket and for many years he had no superior at point except his brother E.M.
Personally, W.G. struck me as the most natural and unspoiled of men. Whenever and wherever one met him he was always the same. There was not the smallest trace of affectation about him. If anything annoyed him he was quick to show anger, but his little outbursts were soon over. One word I will add. No man who ever won such world-wide fame could have been more modest in speaking of his own doings. Mr Grace married in 1873 to Miss Agnes Day. His domestic life was unclouded except by the death of his only daughter in 1899 and of his eldest son in 1905. Mrs Grace and two sons – Captain H.E. Grace,R.N., and Captain C.B. Grace, K.F.R.E. – survive him.
S.H.P.
Miscellany:
Despite recording a ‘pair’ of spectacles, in four ‘minor’ matches, ‘The Doctor’ never recorded this easy feat in a first-class match.
In five years, WG accumulated an aggregate of runs in excess of 3,000 in a season. His highest aggregate ever was in 1876, when he made 3,908 runs in 72 completed innings at an average of 54.27. In 1871, he made 3,234 runs in only 48 completed innings at an average of 67.37.
In 1874, 1875, 1877, and 1878 he took over 300 wickets during the season.
First-Class Cricket Memorabilia:
1865
Appeared for the first time, at the age of 16, for Gentlemen v Players- at The Oval. He scored 23 and 12 not out and took seven wickets for 125 runs.
1866
His first match for the South v the North at Lord’s. He made 19 and took one wicket for 33 runs.
Aged 18, scored 224 not out for England v Surrey at The Oval, and 173 not out for Gentlemen of the South v Players of the South, on the same ground, thereby earning the title of Champion.
1868
His first match for Gloucestershire – v MCC and Ground, at Lord’s. He scored 24 and 13 and took five wickets.
Scored 134 not out, whilst only 57 other runs were made, of a total of 201 for Gentlemen v Players at Lord’s. The runs were obtained on very bad and difficult ground and the only other double-figure score for the side was 28 by B.B. Cooper, and the next highest in the match 29 not out by Grundy.
For North of Thames v South of Thames, at Canterbury, he scored 130 and 102 not out, this being the first occasion since 1817 on which two separate hundreds by any one player had been made in a match of note. W.G. was then 20 years of age, and he obtained his runs off Wootton, Howitt, Grundy and Hearne (T).
1869
W.G. was elected a member of MCC, being proposed by T. Burgoyne (Treasurer) and seconded by R.A. Fitzgerald (Secretary). In his first innings for the Club- v Oxford University at Oxford, he scored 117.
In making 283 for the first wicket of Gentlemen of South v Players of South, at The Oval, W.G. (180) and B.B. Cooper (101) established a record for first-class cricket
For North v South at Sheffield, he scored 122 of the total of 173, the next highest innings for the side being 23 by B.B. Cooper.
1870
W.G. scored 117 not out for MCC and Ground v Notts at Lord’s, but when he had made about 60 he played on from a ball from Shaw (J.C.) without a bail falling.
In his innings of 109 for Gentlemen v Players at Lord’s, were as many as 54 singles, but the fieldsman were placed deep.
1871
In match between Gentlemen of England and Cambridge University, at Cambridge, W.G. (162) and A.J.A. Wilkinson made 103 runs before the first wicket fell, the latter scoring only 19 of the number, so fast did the Champion obtain his runs.
In first-class cricket this year, W.G. scored 2,739 runs, this being the first time that any batsman obtained as many as 2,000 runs in a single season in such matches.
1873
For Gentlemen v Players, at The Oval, W.G. scored 158, but when 44 he had his wicket hit by a ball bowled by Emmett without a bail being disturbed.
1876
For Gloucestershire v Yorkshire, at Sheffield, the three brothers Grace had a hand in getting out the whole of the Yorkshire Eleven in both innings.
In the first innings of United South v United North at Hull, W.G. scored 126 out of 153 in 165 minutes: the only other score above 4 in the completed innings of 159 (5 extras) was 14 by Pooley.
By making 344 for M.C.C. v Kent at Canterbury, the Doctor set up a fresh record for first-class cricket, exceeding William Ward’s 278 for M.C.C. v Norfolk (with E.H. Budd, T. Vigne, and F.C. Ladbroke) at Lord’s in 1820. In his two following innings he made 177 for Gloucestershire v Nottinghamshire at Cheltenham, thus obtaining 839 runs in three innings, once not out, in ten days.
1877
In the course of his innings of 261 for South v North, at Prince’s, his own score was 202 with the total 300.
For Gloucestershire v Nottinghamshire, at Cheltenham, W.G. obtained 17 wickets, nine in the first innings and eight in the second. With the last forty-one balls he delivered he took seven wickets without conceding a run.
1878
As W.G. was running between the wickets in Gloucestershire’s match v Surrey, at Clifton, the ball was thrown in and it lodged in his shirt. After running six runs – three with the ball in his possession – he was stopped, and Jupp asked him to give up the ball, but this he wisely declined to do, as he might have been adjudged out for handling the ball.
1879
On the second day of the match at Lord’s between Over 30 and Under 30, W.G. was presented, in front of the Pavilion, with a national testimonial in the form of a handsome clock, of the value of 40 guineas, and a cheque for £1,458. The list was headed by the M.C.C. with 100 guineas, and H.R.H. the Prince of Wales among the subscribers. In the absence in America of the Duke of Beaufort, the presentation was made by Lord Fitzhardinge. It had been arranged that the Over 30 v Under 30 match should be a complimentary one for the Doctor, and the proceeds added to his Testimonial Fund, but with great liberality he suggested that it should be played for the benefit of Alfred Shaw, whose match earlier in the season - between North and South – had been ruined by the weather.
1885
For Gentlemen v Players at Scarborough, W.G. scored 174 out of 247 in 235 minutes on a treacherous wicket. The next highest score in the completed innings of 263 (six extras) was 21 by T.C. O’Brien.
For an Eleven of England v Shaw’s Australian Team, at Harrogate, he scored 51 of the first 53 runs.
1886
For M.C.C and Ground v Oxford University, at Oxford, W.G. scored 104 and took all ten wickets in the second innings for 49 runs.
For England v Australia at The Oval, W.G. made 170 out of 216 in four and a half hours. With Scotton, who scored 34, he obtained 170 for the first wicket.
1888
For M.C.C. and Ground v Sussex, at Lord’s he scored 73 out of 103 in seventy minutes.
1889
This year his portrait was painted for the M.C.C. at the cost of £300 by Archibald Stuart Wortley. Private subscriptions for the same were limited to £1. In the following year the portrait was exhibited at The Royal Academy in Gallery X, No 1003.
1890
In the second innings of the North v the South match at Lord’s, A.E. Stoddart (115) at one period of his innings made 50 runs whilst W.G. was obtaining 3.
1895
Aged 46, W.G. scored 1,016 runs during the month of May with an average of 112:
13 and 103 M.C.C. and Ground v Sussex at Lord’s
18 and 25 M.C.C. and Ground v Yorkshire at Lord’s
288 Gloucestershire v Somerset at Bristol
52 A.J. Webbe’s XI v Cambridge University at Cambridge
257 and 73 not out Gloucestershire v Kent at Gravesend
18 England v Surrey at The Oval
169 Gloucestershire v Middlesex at Lord’s
At lunch-time on the third day of the match at Gravesend only an innings each had been completed, yet Gloucestershire won by nine wickets. W.G. was on the field during every ball of the game. In appreciation of his wonderful rejuvenescence, a National Testimonial was organised, the Daily Telegraph collecting £5,000 (by means of a shilling subscription) and the M.C.C. £2,377 2 s less £21 8s 10d. expenses. He was entertained at banquets both in London and Bristol, that at the latter place being organised by the Gloucestershire County C.C.
Gentleman of England, set 172 to win v I Zingari at Lord’s, made the runs without the loss of a wicket in 165 minutes with W.G. scoring 101 not out and A. Sellers 70 not out. It was the Zingari Jubilee Match.
1898
The Gentlemen v Players match at Lord’s was commenced on W.G.’s 50th birthday and every man who took part in it was presented by the M.C.C. with a medal struck in honour of the occasion. The Champion scored 43 and 31 not out and took a wicket. On the second day of the match he was entertained at dinner by the Sports Club, Sir Richard Webster (Lord Alverstone) presiding.
In the second innings of Gloucestershire’s match v Susssex at Bristol, W.G. declared when he had made 93, thereby crediting himself with having obtained every number from 0 to 100 in first-class cricket.
1899
In January, W.G. formed the London County CC, with headquarters at the Crystal Palace.
His last match for Gloucestershire v Middlesex at Lord’s. He scored 11 and 33, and bowled 20 balls for 10 runs and took one wicket.
His last Test Match v Australia, at Nottingham. He made 28 and 1, and delivered 110 balls for 37 runs without obtaining a wicket.
In December he was elected a life-member of the M.C.C. on the suggestion of Lord Harris.
1900
In scoring 169 for Oxford University v London County, at Oxford, R.E. Foster made four consecutive sixes from W.G.
Aged 52, he scored 72 and 110 not out for London County v Worcestershire at the Crystal Palace.
In the first innings of the North v the South, at Lord’s, P.F. Warner drove back a ball to E. Smith, who turned it on to the broad back of W.G. who was batting at the other end. Off the rebound, Smith made the catch, Warner thereby being caught and bowled.
1902
In the second innings of M.C.C. and Ground v Lancashire, at Lord’s, W.G. made a hit to leg off Hallows, the ball going over the grand-stand and out of the ground into an adjoining garden.
For London County v Ireland, at the Crystal Palace, W.G. (32) and W.L. Murdoch (41) made 75 for the first wicket, but the whole side were all out for 92.
1904
His last match (in first-class cricket) for M.C.C. and Ground v South Africans at Lord’s. He scored 27.
W.G. scores his 126th final first-class century (166) for London County v M.C.C. and Ground on his 56th birthday.
1905
Playing for Gentlemen of England v Surrey at The Oval, W.G. pulled a ball from J.N. Crawford right out of the ground, scoring 6, and sent the next delivery from the same bowler almost as far for 4.
His last match for the South v Australians, at Hastings. He scored 2.
1906
A.E. Harragin, for West Indians v W.G.Grace’s XI at the Crystal Palace scored three 6’s and a 2 off one over from W.G.
At The Oval, W.G. made his 85th and last appearance for Gentlemen v Players. He made 4 and 74, obtaining the latter number on his 58th birthday.
1908
His last appearance in first-class cricket – for Gentlemen of England v Surrey at The Oval. He scored 15 and 25, and bowled twelve balls for 5 runs without taking a wicket.
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