by Low, Robert
The match at Prince’s, the charming little ground in Hans Place, long since submerged beneath the mansion blocks of Knightsbridge, was the result of press agitation to match the amateurs of the south against the professionals of the north. The weather on the first morning was very strange: oppressive heat, accompanied by a thick fog which made it hard for the occupants of the press box to discern what was happening in the middle. After the Players of the North had made 182, W.G. went in late on the first day and was 32 not out by stumps. The knowledge that he was at the crease drew a thousand spectators on Friday morning, despite the weather, and they were treated to a vintage Grace innings after a cautious start. The Daily Telegraph rhapsodised: ‘There has been a good deal of talk lately about Mr Grace being out of form this season … but yesterday he came out in his true colours, showing all the wonderful command over the ball and great hitting power. After such a display we can confidently expect Mr Grace will give us many more innings as long and as brilliant as this latest performance.’
This forecast was amply borne out by events, particularly in the Gentlemen v Players fixtures. The first was at Lord’s, where the pitch had at last been relaid in response to mounting criticism. It was never to be as bad again and W.G. celebrated by hitting 163 (including one drive for seven), surviving a catch at point off a Jemmy Shaw no-ball when 63, at which one watcher remarked, ‘There’s no getting the long’un out.’ In the second match, at The Oval, he made 158 out of 320 in 195 minutes after playing Emmett’s second ball hard on to his leg stump without dislodging the bails. He rubbed salt into the bowler’s wound by hitting him for 25 runs off his next three overs. The Telegraph recorded: ‘To say Mr W.G. Grace is far and away the best batsman that ever scored a run is to tell an old tale . . This week Mr Grace’s star has been fast rising to the zenith.’ The innings had been ‘an extraordinary succession of grand hitting displays of which even he may well be proud’. He also took 7–65 in the match off thirty-four overs. The Sporting Gazette remarked, somewhat sourly: ‘Mr W.G. Grace helped to spoil both matches … However, it would be idle to grumble. The majority of those who comprised the thousands who thronged both arenas have had their wish – they have seen Mr W.G. Grace bat, and that, to vast numbers of vague admirers of cricket is everything …’
There was a third Gentlemen v Players game, at Prince’s, in which Grace scored 70 to make a total of 391 for twice out against the best professional bowling in England. Unlike the public, they must have been sick of the sight of him. To rub salt into the wound, the amateurs beat the professionals by an innings in two of the three matches, and by 48 runs in the other. One Surrey fielder certainly had enough of watching W.G. paste his colleagues all round the ground for Gloucestershire. Grace scored 83 at The Oval and a hard-hit 160 in the return at Clifton College. When W.G. reached his 150, the Surrey fielder remarked: ‘We shall get him out soon, for his average against us cannot be more than 180.’
Another match against Surrey, for MCC, gave the brothers Grace the rare opportunity to play against each other, as Fred had been elected a member of the Surrey club. W.G. and G.F. had a marvellous relationship, much commented on by their playing colleagues, but they still relished the chance to better the other on the field. Fred got the better of the batting honours, contributing a fine 60 out of Surrey’s second-innings total of 153, though he was finally stumped off his brother’s bowling, ‘which he had been knocking about pretty freely’ commented W.G. With a target of only 55 to win, W.G. didn’t bother to open but put himself at number 6. He soon found himself out at the middle, however, and so badly did MCC bat that he was still there with the totals tied and only one MCC wicket left. Fred Grace, who bowled at a brisk pace, had taken 5–24. In a final twist, W.G.’s last-wicket partner was dropped in the deep by, of all people, Fred, who was reckoned to be among the finest fielders in England, and the batsmen scampered the winning run.
W.G. had much the better of their next confrontation, when the XI who had toured Canada played an MCC XV at Lord’s in late July. W.G. scored 152 and was particularly severe on Fred. ‘The great batsman certainly had some luck in his long innings,’ said the Telegraph, ‘but his wonderfully free hitting and great command over the ball were as marvellous as ever.’ It was so hot that poor Ottaway had to retire with sunstroke.
The heatwave came to W.G.’s rescue a couple of days later at The Oval playing for the South v North. On 42, he attempted to hit the ball to leg and managed only to sky it straight up in the air. But the fielder, Pinder, was blinded by the sun and made a hash of an easy chance. Grace took full advantage and went on to make a ruthless 192 not out. The Sporting Gazette reflected, ironically, that Grace has ‘spoiled another good match’, adding:
What is to be done with him? He is really ruining the cricket in first-class matches. He demoralises the fielders, and breaks the heart of the bowlers until his own display of batting is really the only feature of the match. And yet what can we do with him? No one else can draw gate money as he does, and unless he is doomed to play single wicket matches just to show his own batting, or unless any eleven which plays him be considered equal to a fifteen, we do not see how the matter is to be remedied.
It was W.G.’s finest all-round season to date, for he was credited with 2,139 first-class runs at an average of 71.30, and more than 100 first-class wickets for the first time (to be exact, 101 at 12.94), thus achieving his first ‘double’ of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in a season. Modern research has downgraded games like the match against the MCC XV and revised W.G.’s tally but he still towered over everyone else. But nothing gave him greater satisfaction than Gloucestershire’s progress in 1873. Although composed entirely of amateurs and in only their fourth season, they were joint winners of the (unofficial) county championship, with an unbeaten record (four victories, two draws). They were deemed to have shared the laurels with Nottinghamshire, who registered five wins and one defeat.
W.G. was, as usual, Gloucestershire’s inspiration, averaging 62 with the bat and capturing 21 wickets. His sole century for his county came against Surrey at Clifton – a superlative unbeaten 160 in the second innings of a match which was drifting towards a draw. He had scored a brisk 48 in the first innings, including a magnificent pull over square leg which went out of the ground and exploded against the side of an adjacent house with such force that it almost rebounded into play. His century included several such shots out of the ground as he subjected the bowlers, with a wet ball on a greasy pitch, to a typical assault. ‘How is to be expected for any ordinary – or average – county to make headway against scoring like that?’ enquired the Sporting Gazette.
Grace’s very presence – and of course that of G.F., reckoned to be the second-best all-rounder in England, and E.M. – counted for as much as his exploits with bat and ball. As Sydney Pardon, editor of Wisden from 1891 to 1925, put it: ‘The fact of being on the same side with W.G. and his brothers made the other men play twenty per cent above their ordinary form.’
Just how much of an amateur was W.G.? The reality was that he made a better living from cricket than any professional. Until he qualified as a doctor in 1879, his main source of income was the United South XI, which took the game out to the provinces, and particularly to towns which rarely saw good-class cricket. He was paid a flat fee for each fixture, from which he had to pay the rest of the team, selected by him. A heavy penalty was payable if he himself did not play. The professionals he engaged for these games usually received a match fee of £5. Any surplus went into Grace’s pocket. Throughout his long career Grace received a considerable annual income from cricket, topped up by generous public collections on his behalf, which led to periodic outbreaks of ill-feeling from professional players. They had a point – but the vast crowds who turned out whenever his presence was advertised were a continual reminder of the game’s greatest attraction.
W.G.’s unprecedented popularity may have pulled in the crowds, but brought its own problems for that very reason. Nottinghamshire were keen
to play Gloucestershire again at Trent Bridge but would not confirm the date unless W.G. was guaranteed to take part. On the date Notts proposed, he had agreed to play in a benefit match for Joseph Rowbotham, the Yorkshire captain, and having given his word that he would attend, declined to let the beneficiary down. Although E.M., who had become the Gloucestershire secretary, had suggested another date, the Gloucestershire committee would not hear of it, which led first to ructions within the committee, and then to a temporary break in relations with Nottinghamshire. The fixture was not resumed until 1875.
When W.G. took Gloucestershire to Sheffield to play Yorkshire for Rowbotham’s benefit, twelve thousand spectators flooded into the ground and gave him a welcome he never forgot. He rewarded them with an innings of 79. What county treasurer in the 1990s would not happily settle for an attendance like that?
A writer in Fun magazine derived some heavy-handed humour from Grace’s dominance. He suggested that a ‘Society for the Improvement of Things in General and the Diffusion of Perfect Equality’ would submit the following:
That W.G. Grace shall owe a couple of hundred or so before batting – these to be reckoned against his side should he not wipe them off.
That his shoe spikes shall be turned inwards.
That he shall be declared out whenever the umpire likes.
That he shall always be the eleventh player.
That he shall not be allowed to play at all.
The Times was of similar opinion:
So deep is the apprehension entertained by every cricketer who is liable to find himself, in one or another match, ranged on the side to which Mr Grace does not belong, that grave propositions have been made in the higher councils of the craft … entreating that he will consent to play for the future either blindfolded or with his right arm behind his back.
Now it was Australia’s turn to see this extraordinary man. In 1872 W.G. had received a cable from members of the other MCC – the Melbourne Cricket Club, the premier organiser of the game in Australia, where its popularity was growing fast, helped by the steady stream of migrants from the old country. The cable invited W.G. to put together a side to tour Australia, where his pre-eminence would undoubtedly pull in spectators by the thousand. There had been two previous English tours down under, but the last had been in 1863/64 (when the party had included E.M. Grace). In the interim, several unsuccessful attempts had been made by Melbourne clubs to induce W.G. to take teams out.
W.G. stated his terms: a personal fee of £1,500, plus expenses. The Australians were staggered by the size of his demand, which was far in excess of anything any other cricketer had demanded before, or indeed was to demand in the future. It would be in the region of, say, £100,000 in today’s money, an incredible amount by any standard. But W.G. had a pretty shrewd idea of his own worth – and he knew there was no one else in the cricket world with anything like his pulling power. The Melbourne men did not proceed with the deal – for the time being.
Back they came in 1873, with a similar proposition. This time the Melbourne Cricket Club had joined forces with the East Melbourne and South Melbourne clubs. Although the clubs would not be financial guarantors of this latest venture, plenty of their wealthier members could see that an England tour party headed by W.G. Grace could be almost as lucrative a goldmine as the real things fuelling the country’s development. The committee formed for the purpose by the three clubs agreed to W.G.’s fee of £1,500 and expenses, and £170 each for the other professionals he would recruit. Not surprisingly, this time he agreed.
As the invitation was to him personally and not to the MCC at Lord’s, he was at liberty to pick both professionals and amateurs, and went after the best of both. He wanted both Alfred Shaw and Tom Emmett but neither fancied the prospect. From the amateur ranks William Yardley and Arthur Hornby agreed, only to withdraw at the eleventh hour, but Fred Grace was a natural choice. The eventual tour party, like that to North America the previous year, consisted of only twelve men, who were more or less guaranteed a game every time. The party was: W.G. Grace, G.F. Grace, their talented cousin W.R. Gilbert, the utterly reliable professional batsman Harry Jupp, Arthur Bush, the Gloucestershire wicket-keeper generally regarded as inferior to the professionals Pooley and Pinder, F.H. Boult, the Yorkshire batsman Andrew Greenwood, Richard Humphrey, James Lillywhite, Nottinghamshire’s William Oscroft and Martin McIntyre, the pace bowler, and the Surrey slow round-arm bowler James Southerton.
As the game was still in its relative infancy in Australia, it was generally felt that the English were far superior. Accordingly, the Australians would put out twenty-two players against the touring XI or XII. When he had finally gathered his dozen, Grace wrote to his hosts: ‘I am proud to say that I have succeeded in getting together a very strong team, and if we lose a single match, all I can say is that your teams of 22 must be a good deal stronger than we play in England.’ Many Australians, however, were not convinced that they were seeing the cream of English cricket, apart from the Grace brothers. There were five amateurs and seven professionals in the party, although one of the amateurs was to earn nearly ten times as much from the tour as any professional. The division between amateurs and professionals was the principal reason for a frequently unhappy expedition.
Before the party left for the Antipodes, W.G. had personal business to address. On 9 October he was married to Agnes Nicholls Day, the daughter of his first cousin, William Day, a lithographer. Agnes was a quiet, attractive, dark-haired girl whom W.G. had met the previous year, presumably at a family function. The wedding took place in London, at St Matthias in West Brompton, as the bride’s family lived at Clapham Common. W.G.’s brother-in-law, the Rev. John Dann, officiated, and the best man was Arthur Bush, W.G.’s burly county colleague who was shortly off to Australia with him. So indeed was the new Mrs Grace. She gallantly agreed to accompany her husband on tour, an unusual honeymoon in any age. It showed that W.G. knew how to pick a wife as well as a cricket team. Agnes developed an interest in cricket while never equalling her mother-in-law’s passionate devotion to the sport. She was a model Victorian wife and the marriage was an exceptionally happy one.
A fortnight after the wedding the party left Southampton on board the P & O steamer Mirzapore. They nearly left Jupp behind, nursing a hangover. Charles Alcock, secretary of both Surrey and the Football Association, who had stayed aboard to say goodbye to his friends (chief of whom was W.G.), returned to shore in a small boat, found Jupp and put him in the tugboat taking mail out to the steamer. A sea passage to Australia in 1873 was no luxury cruise. For a poor sailor like W.G. the early stages, like the Bay of Biscay, were an ordeal and the Mirzapore had the added misfortune to encounter a bad storm in the Mediterranean. For the first and only time in his life, W.G. kept a diary, but he was no Pepys, alas. Its entries were terse in the extreme: ‘Tremendous sea caught ship, and broke two or three hundred plates and saucers,’ he recorded.
They were grateful for a few hours ashore at Malta, where they arrived on 1 November, and dined at the United Service Club where W.G. was prevailed upon to make a speech. Back on board, the cricketers played leapfrog and boxed: ‘Nearly killed one of the team!’ the diarist wrote. They were not impressed by Alexandria, where Grace declined the offer of a match by the British consul, Mr Stanley; he was apparently worried that some of his men might not make it back on board in time, although Stanley offered to lay on a special train to rejoin the boat at Suez. The cricketers were eager to see the Suez Canal, which had been open for only four years but in the event found it a let-down. The ship could move only during the day because searchlights were not used at that time, and the Mirzapore also ran into heavy fog. The captain insisted on proceeding regardless and managed only to run aground in the mud, which delayed the voyage still further.
Disembarking briefly at Point de Galle, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), they transferred with some reluctance to a smaller and less well-appointed steamer, the Nubia, but crossed safely to Australia and landed at King George’s
Sound, Western Australia, on 8 December. The voyage had taken them forty-six days. According to reports reaching Australia, the Englishmen had started to get homesick halfway through their long journey but cheered up on finally reaching their destination.
The Nubia was met by a boat bearing a delegation who had made the journey from Melbourne to welcome the tourists. W.G. leapt nimbly over the side of the steamer on to the deck of the Australian boat, followed by the rest of the party. The tourists then went ashore for a few hours to stretch their legs and have some much-needed practice. To his great delight, McIntyre bowled Grace for the first time in his life. Local Aborigines gave them an exhibition of throwing the boomerang and W.G. could not resist trying his hand. After a few abortive efforts, he got the hang of it only too well and nearly took Gilbert’s head off.
Then it was back aboard the Nubia for the final passage to Melbourne, where they arrived on 13 December, a Saturday morning. The steamer made such good progress that it arrived early and the dignitaries of Melbourne had to be rounded up in haste to get down to the railway pier from where they took a small boat to go out and greet the English party. Coming alongside the Nubia the Australians, who included the mayor of Melbourne, gave three cheers for the Englishmen, who, lined up on deck, returned the compliment.