W.G. Grace's cricket career to 1878

W.G. Grace (1848 – 1915) played first-class cricket for a record-equalling 44 seasons, from 1865 to 1908. This article discusses his career from his childhood beginnings to the end of the 1878 season.

Henry Grace, WG's father, founded Mangotsfield Cricket Club in 1845 to represent several neighbouring villages including Downend. In 1846, this club merged with the West Gloucestershire Cricket Club whose name was adopted until 1867. It has been said that the Grace family ran the West Gloucestershire "almost as a private club". Henry Grace managed to organise matches against Lansdown Cricket Club in Bath, which was the premier West Country club. West Gloucestershire fared poorly in these games and, sometime in the 1850s, Henry and Alfred Pocock decided to join Lansdown, although they continued to run the West Gloucestershire and this remained their primary club.

Alfred Pocock was especially instrumental in coaching the Grace brothers and spent long hours with them on the practice pitch at Downend. EM, who was seven years older than WG, had always played with a full size bat and so developed a tendency, that he never lost, to hit across the line, the bat being too big for him to "play straight". Pocock recognised this problem and determined that WG and his youngest brother Fred should not follow suit. He therefore fashioned smaller bats for them, to suit their sizes, and they were taught to play straight and "learn defence, with the left shoulder well forward", before attempting to hit.

WG recorded that he saw his first great cricket match in 1854 when he was barely six years old, the occasion being a game between William Clarke's All-England Eleven and twenty-two of West Gloucestershire.

It was through Grace's elder brother EM that the family name first became famous. His mother, Martha, wrote the following in a letter to Clarke's successor George Parr in 1860 or 1861:

"'I am writing to ask you to consider the inclusion of my son, E. M. Grace – a splendid hitter and most excellent catch – in your England XI. I am sure he would play very well and do the team much credit. It may interest you to learn that I have another son (i.e., WG), now twelve years of age, who will in time be a much better player than his brother because his back stroke is sounder, and he always plays with a straight bat'."

WG was just short of his thirteenth birthday when, on 5 July 1861, he made his debut for Lansdown and played two matches that month. EM had made his debut in 1857, aged sixteen. In August, WG made his debut for West Gloucestershire, playing against Lansdown at Sydenham Field in Bath.

In August 1862, Grace played for West Gloucestershire against a Devonshire team. A year later, following "a dangerous bout of pneumonia" that left him bed-ridden for several weeks, he returned to score 52 not out and took 6 for 43 against a Somerset XI. It was following this illness that Grace grew rapidly to his full height of 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m). He was one of four family members who played for Bristol and Didcot XVIII against the All-England Eleven in August 1863. He bowled well and scored 32 off the bowling of John Jackson, George Tarrant and Cris Tinley. EM took ten wickets in the match, which Bristol and Didcot won by an innings, and the outcome of that was that EM was invited to tour Australia a few months later with George Parr's England team.

In July 1864, Grace was invited to play for the South Wales Club which had arranged a series of matches in London and Sussex. He replaced EM, who was still in Australia. This was the first time that Grace left the West Country and he made his debut appearances at both Lord's and The Oval. The tour was a great success for Grace, who celebrated his sixteenth birthday while the team was in Kent. The highlight was his performance against the Gentlemen of Sussex at Hove where he scored 170 and 56 not out.

His name now well known in cricketing circles, Grace made his first-class debut for Gentlemen of the South v Players of the South in June 1865 when he was still only 16 but already 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) tall and weighing 11 st (70 kg). He bowled extremely well and had match figures of 13 for 84. It was this performance that earned him his first selection for the prestigious Gentlemen v Players fixture.

Grace represented the Gentlemen in their matches against the Players from 1865 to 1906. It was he who enabled the amateurs to meet the paid professionals on level terms and to defeat them more often than not. His ability to master fast bowling was the key factor. Before Grace's debut in the fixture, the Gentlemen had lost 19 consecutive games; of the next 39 games they won 27 and lost only 4. In consecutive innings against the Players from 1871 to 1873, Grace scored 217, 77 and 112, 117, 163, 158 and 70. In his whole career, he scored a record 15 centuries in the fixture.

Grace's 1865 debut in the fixture did not turn the tide as the Players won at The Oval by 118 runs. He played quite well and took seven wickets in the match but could only score 23 and 12 not out. In the second 1865 match, this time at Lord's, the Gentlemen finally ended their losing streak and won by 8 wickets, but it was E M Grace, not WG, who was the key factor with 11 wickets in the match. Even so, WG made his mark by scoring 34 out of 77-2 in the second innings to steer the Gentlemen to victory.

From 1865 to 1870, Grace played first-class cricket for various teams but he had been playing for his father's Gloucestershire club, in its various guises, since 1862.

Just after his eighteenth birthday in July 1866, Grace confirmed his potential once and for all when he scored 224 not out for All-England against Surrey at The Oval. Grace was a fine athlete and an example of his physical fitness was his 440 yards hurdles victory in the National and Olympian Association meeting at Crystal Palace the day after his long innings at The Oval. He was thenceforward the biggest name in cricket and the main spectator attraction. As Altham records, from then on "the successes came thick and fast".

Although photographs of Grace in later life reveal that he was rather corpulent, he was a fit athlete in his younger days, as his feats in 1866 confirm. At his peak, he was 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) tall and usually weighed about 12 st (76 kg). A non-smoker, he kept himself in condition all year round by shooting, hunting or running with the beagles as soon as the cricket season was over.

Grace was out of the game for much of the 1867 season due to illness and injury. He scored 134, all run, out of 201 for the Gentlemen at Lord's in 1868 and said later that it was "my finest innings" as the pitch was playing "queerly". Soon afterwards, he scored two centuries in a match for South v North, only the second time in cricket history that this had been done, following William Lambert in 1817.

The highest wicket partnership involving Grace was 283 runs for the first wicket with B B Cooper for the Gentlemen of the South v the Players of the South at The Oval in 1869. Grace scored 180 and Cooper 101. He scored nine centuries in 1869, the year of his 21st birthday, and in 1870 he scored 215 for the Gentlemen which was the first time anyone scored a double century in the Gentlemen v Players fixture.

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was particularly keen to recruit Grace and, in 1869, he became a member after being proposed by the treasurer and seconded by the secretary Robert Allan Fitzgerald. Grace wore MCC colours for the rest of his career and their red and yellow hooped cap became as synonymous with him as his large black beard. Grace played for MCC on an expenses only basis but any hopes that the premier club had of keeping him firmly within the amateur ranks would soon be disappointed for his services were in much demand. Grace first played for MCC at Lord's in May 1869 against the official South, which consisted mainly of his future United South of England Eleven colleagues. The South won by an innings and 17 runs. He continued to play for MCC on an irregular basis until 1904.

The United South of England Eleven (USEE) had been formed by Edgar Willsher in 1865 but the heyday of the travelling teams was over and their organisers were desperate to feature new attractions. Grace joined the United South in 1870 as its match organiser, for which he received payment, but he played for expenses only. He made his debut for the USEE in July 1870 against the United North of England Eleven at Lord's, but his team was well beaten by an innings. The United South survived until 1882 and was the last of the great travelling elevens to fold, its longevity due to Grace's involvement.

Also in 1870, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club was founded and immediately acquired first-class status when its team played against Surrey at Durdham Down near Bristol on 2, 3 & 4 June 1870. With Grace and his brothers EM and Fred playing, Gloucestershire won that game and quickly became one of the best teams in England. The club was rated Champion County in 1874, 1876 and 1877 as well as sharing the title in 1873.

The Grace family "ran the show" at Gloucestershire and EM was chosen as secretary which, as Birley points out, "put him in charge of expenses, a source of scandal that was to surface before the end of the decade". WG, though aged only 21, was from the start the team captain and Birley puts this down to his commercial drawing power. It was at this time, "scorning the puny modern fashion of moustaches", that he grew the enormous black beard that made him so recognisable. In addition, his "ample girth" had developed for he weighed 15st. in his early twenties. Grace was a non-smoker but he enjoyed good food and wine; many years later, when discussing the overheads incurred during Lord Sheffield's profitless tour of Australia in 1891–92, Arthur Shrewsbury commented: "I told you what wine would be drunk by the amateurs; Grace himself would drink enough to swim a ship."

According to Altham, 1871 was Grace's annus mirabilis, except that he produced another outstanding year in 1895. In all first-class matches in 1871, a total of 17 centuries were scored and Grace accounted for 10 of them, including the first century in a first-class match at Trent Bridge. He averaged 78.25 and the next best average by a batsman playing more than a single innings was 39.57, barely more than half his figure. His aggregate for the season was 2,739; Harry Jupp was next best with 1,068. The year was marred by the death of his father in December and, as he was still a medical student only, Grace had to increase his involvement with the United South XI to cover the family's loss of income.

Grace made three overseas tours during his career. The first was to the United States and Canada in early 1872, with R A Fitzgerald's team. The expenses of this tour were paid by the Montreal Club. Grace and his all-amateur colleagues made "short work of the weak teams" they faced.

Grace became the first batsman to score a century before lunch in a first-class match when he made 134 for Gentlemen of the South versus Players of the South at The Oval in 1873. In the same season, he became the first player ever to complete the "double" of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in a season. Grace's best season as a bowler was 1875 when he took 191 wickets. He also scored 1,498 runs to complete his third double and he went on to do that eight times in all:
 * 1873 – 2,139 runs and 106 wickets
 * 1874 – 1,664 runs and 140 wickets
 * 1875 – 1,498 runs and 191 wickets
 * 1876 – 2,622 runs and 129 wickets
 * 1877 – 1,474 runs and 179 wickets
 * 1878 – 1,151 runs and 152 wickets
 * 1885 – 1,688 runs and 117 wickets
 * 1886 – 1,846 runs and 122 wickets

Grace visited Australia in 1873–74 as captain of "W G Grace's XI". On the morning of the team's departure from Southampton, Grace responded to well-wishers by saying that his team "had a duty to perform to maintain the honour of English cricket, and to uphold the high character of English cricketers". But both his and the team's performance fell well short of this goal. The tour was not a success and the only positive outcome was the fact of the tour having taken place, ten years after the previous one, as it "gave Australian cricket a much needed fillip". Most of the problems lay with Grace himself and his "overbearing personality" which quickly exhausted all personal goodwill towards him. There was also bad feeling within the team itself because Grace, who normally got on well with professional players, enforced the class divide throughout the tour. In terms of results, the team fared reasonably well following a poor start in which they were beaten by both Victoria and New South Wales. They played 15 matches in all but none are recognised as first-class.

Grace's team landed in England on 18 May 1874 and he was quickly back into domestic cricket. The 1874 season was very successful for him as he completed a second successive double, scoring 1,664 runs and taking 140 wickets, and he led Gloucestershire to its first Champion County title. Another good season followed in 1875 when he again completed the double with 1,498 runs and 191 wickets.

One of the most outstanding phases of Grace's career occurred in the 1876 season, beginning with his career highest score of 344 for MCC v Kent at Canterbury in August. Two days after his innings at Canterbury, he made 177 for Gloucestershire v Nottinghamshire; and two days after that 318 not out for Gloucestershire v Yorkshire, these two innings against counties with exceptionally strong bowling attacks. Thus, in three consecutive innings Grace scored 839 runs and was only out twice. His innings of 344 was the first triple century scored in first-class cricket and broke the record for the highest individual score in all classes of cricket, previously held by William Ward who made 278 in 1820. Ward's record had stood for 56 years and, within a week, Grace bettered it twice. Grace scored a then-record 2,622 runs in the 1876 season and completed another double with 129 wickets, while Gloucestershire won the championship title for the second time.

In 1877, Gloucestershire won the championship for the third and (to date) final time, largely thanks to another outstanding season by Grace who scored 1,474 runs and took 179 wickets.

The first Australian team to tour England arrived in May 1878 and, at Lord's on 27 May, took part in one of the most famous matches of all time when they defeated a strong MCC team, including Grace, by nine wickets. The match was scheduled for three days but was completed in one. MCC were dismissed during the morning session for 33, Grace having scored 4, and then the Australians were themselves bowled out for 41. In the second innings, Grace was clean bowled by Fred Spofforth without scoring and MCC were all out for only 19, the Australians needing 12 to win. The match caused a sensation with the crowd rapidly increasing through the day as news spread.

The satirical magazine Punch responded to the event by publishing a parody of Byron's poem The Destruction of Sennacherib including a wry commentary on Grace's contribution: The Australians came down like a wolf on the fold, The Marylebone cracks for a trifle were bowled; Our Grace before dinner was very soon done, And Grace after dinner did not get a run.

There was bad feeling between Grace and some of the 1878 Australians, especially their manager John Conway; this came to a head on 20 June in a row over the services of Grace's friend Billy Midwinter, an Australian who had played for Gloucestershire in 1877. Midwinter was already in England before the main Australian party arrived and had joined them for their first match in May. On 20 June, Midwinter was at Lord's where he was due to play for the Australians against Middlesex. On the same day, the Gloucestershire team was at The Oval to play Surrey but arrived a man short. As a result, a group of Gloucestershire players led by WG and EM went to Lord's and persuaded Midwinter to accompany them back to The Oval to make up their numbers. They were pursued by three of the Australians who caught them at The Oval gates where a furious altercation ensued in front of bystanders. At one point, WG called the Australians "a damned lot of sneaks" (he later apologised). In the end, Grace got his way and Midwinter stayed with Gloucestershire for the rest of the season, although he did not play for the county against the Australians. Afterwards, the row was patched up and Gloucestershire invited the Australians to play the county team, minus Midwinter, at Clifton College. The Australians took a measure of revenge and won easily by 10 wickets, with Spofforth taking 12 wickets and making the top score. It was Gloucestershire's first ever home defeat.

In other matches that season, Gloucestershire made its first visit to Old Trafford Cricket Ground in July to play Lancashire and this was the match immortalised by Francis Thompson in his idyllic poem At Lord's. In a match against Surrey at Clifton, the ball lodged in Grace's shirt after he had played it and he seized the opportunity to complete several runs before the fielders forced him to stop. He disingenuously claimed that he would have been out handled the ball if he had removed it and, following a discussion, it was agreed that three runs should be awarded.

Despite his troubles in 1878, it was another good season for him on the field as he completed a sixth successive double with 1,151 runs and 152 wickets.

Following the 1878 season, Grace was assigned to Westminster Hospital for his final year of medical practice and this curtailed his cricket for a time as he did not play in the 1879 season until June. He finally qualified as a doctor in November 1879. Meanwhile, the events at The Oval had a postscript in January 1879 when WG and EM were called to account by the Gloucestershire membership because of the expenses they had claimed from Surrey for that match, and which Surrey had refused to authorise. But, although their ears burned and EM had to comply with some new rules imposed by a finance committee, little changed and they continued very much as before.