by Low, Robert
Yet another umpiring controversy dogged W.G., this time in the Gentlemen v Players match at Prince’s. Again, Fred was at the other end, this time facing the bowling of John Lillywhite. Fred played the ball back to Lillywhite at a catchable height, only for W.G. to come between ball and bowler. Lillywhite and the fielders appealed vehemently for someone to be given out for obstructing the field but the umpires turned them down. The bad feeling persisted for some time, and W.G. did not help matters by taking his customary century off the professionals.
It happens to all great sportsmen at some time in their careers – the whisper that they are over the hill. The rumours that W.G. was already past his best at the age of twenty-seven started to gain currency during the 1875 season and there was indeed statistical evidence to support the notion. His batting average plummeted to 32 but he himself had no doubt about the cause: unseasonal weather throughout the summer which gave the upper hand to the bowlers throughout. They, of course, included W.G., who cashed in for the biggest haul of first-class wickets he was to record in one season: 191 at 12.92 each, almost exactly the same as the previous year.
So long was W.G.’s career that he was to be written off at regular intervals over the next quarter of a century and he derived great satisfaction from proving the critics wrong time and time again. But another good reason for him to be out of form was that he had moved to London in February to continue his medical studies at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He and Agnes found an apartment in Earls Court, west London, possibly because it was convenient for Paddington Station and the trains for Bristol and the West Country.
However, he was in good form in non-first-class matches for the United South, with centuries against the likes of a Hastings XVIII, a North Kent XVIII and a Trinity College, Dublin XVIII. But his others were out of the top drawer, notably a typical 152 for the Gentlemen v Players at Lord’s in early July when he and the promising twenty-year-old, A.J. Webbe, an Oxford undergraduate who burst on to the scene that summer, put on 203 for the first wicket in the second innings, the highest opening partnership recorded till then in the famous series. Webbe, who went on to captain Middlesex, remembered: ‘How he used to run in those days; then there was no sign of stoutness in his figure.’
Webbe was able to acquire a batting education as he watched Grace from the non-striker’s end. By lunch, he had scored just 12 to Grace’s 45. After lunch Grace gave a hard chance to mid-on and then punished the Players with a whirlwind 55 in only twenty-five minutes to reach his century at 4.10 p.m. He was dropped again by Richard Daft at long-off and finally run out going for a sharp second. Of particular interest to his team-mates in the pavilion was the masterly way in which he dealt with shooters, which because of the pitch improvements at Lord’s were never thereafter as common there. ‘It was only by degrees that we detected what he was doing with the shooter,’ recalled Edward Lyttelton. ‘He brought down the bat with a curious dig, at such an angle that it not only went forcibly towards mid-on, but he positively placed it on each side of the field as he chose.’ W.G. made his 152 in 205 minutes out of 242, ‘his innings equal to any he has shown in late years, his batting as resolute and well-timed as ever’, said the Sportsman. ‘Nobody can wield the willow as he can,’ was the respectful comment of the Sporting Gazette. ‘It was the most titanic display of batting that I had ever seen,’ wrote Lyttelton.
Three weeks later W.G. travelled to Sheffield with Gloucestershire to play Yorkshire. A huge crowd, estimated at nine thousand packed into Bramall Lane to watch cricket’s biggest attraction and he did not let them down. As one observer put it, ‘Mr Grace is always a safe sensation at Sheffield since he first astonished the natives of that district.’ A total of twenty thousand was reckoned to have come through the gates in the three days of the match.
Grace won the toss, elected to bat, and was almost run out in the first over. Having given his fans such a nasty scare, he hit a fine on-drive for four in the second over and he was on his way. By lunch he had made 54, while his team-mates amassed only 32 and lost five wickets. He moved masterfully on to complete his century and was eventually stumped off Armitage for 111, made out of 174. ‘Mr W.G. Grace was at the top of his tree with the bat, and he never played better in his life,’ said the Sporting Clipper.
His third and final first-class century of 1875 came in a rain-interrupted match against Nottinghamshire at Clifton, played from 16–18 August, when he made 119 including a gigantic six off Oscroft which went over square leg and out of the ground, landing among the houses on the other side of the road which skirted the ground.
But if it was anyone’s summer, it was Alfred Shaw’s, for the great Nottinghamshire left-arm slow-medium bowler cleaned up wherever he went, notably against MCC at Lord’s where he took 7–7 in the second innings. W.G. was one of his victims, though he did not give up his wicket without a struggle. He scored 35, at one stage adding only 10 in an hour on a difficult wicket against Shaw at his finest. Among all his centuries and double centuries, he remembered that innings as one of the best he ever played. W.G. admired Alfred Shaw enormously. ‘Between 1870 and 1880 he was perhaps the best bowler in England,’ he wrote later. He knew this from bitter experience, for Shaw had the distinction of clean bowling him in first-class cricket on twenty occasions, more than any other player.
Perhaps the doubters served only to inspire W.G., who was never one to ignore a challenge. The season of 1876 was the stage for his greatest feat of sustained batting, over eight days in August, and his highest score, 400 in a non-first-class match. He was slow to get going, for in the winter of 1875–6 he had started to put on weight for the first time, and by the time the cricket season opened he was no longer the svelte figure whom A.J. Webbe had marvelled at the previous summer. Perhaps because of the comforts of married life, his weight had ballooned to 15 stone and he had started to take on the imposing shape that has gone into cricket legend and which is the instant image we have of Grace today. But we should never forget that until he was twenty-seven he was a superb figure of a man, the epitome of athleticism.
His increasing weight and girth meant that he scored only 163 runs in May and 464 in June. By July he was back in form, as he showed with his annual fireworks displays in the Gentlemen v Players series. In the first match, at The Oval, he was bowled by Tom Emmett for a duck but took his revenge with 90 in the second innings. At Lord’s he made 169, the third highest score at the ground until then. It was a devastating display against the best professional bowlers in the land: he made 110 before lunch out of 172, and continued in the same vein afterwards including a ‘slashing drive’ for six and a seven into the nursery garden. It was described as ‘the finest innings played in London that season and his reception at the Pavilion at the finish great and enthusiastic’. The innings, said another commentator, ‘went very far towards destroying whatever of interest might and must otherwise have been felt in the match’. He was also back to his best with the ball, taking 9–122 in the game and going one better in the third match at Prince’s. The Sporting Gazette expressed contrition for having shared the doubts about the great man:
Many people, and those good judges of the game too, thought that Mr W.G. Grace’s right hand had forgot its cunning this season; but they must, or ought to be convinced that they have formed an erroneous opinion concerning him. In past years we have grown so accustomed to read of or to see such tremendous scores from the bat of the ‘champion’ that we all expect to see the three figures attached to his name in whatsoever match he plays. That, up to this time, except when playing for his own county of Gloucestershire, he has failed in contributing his ordinary scores is true; but that his 169 at Lord’s on Monday were obtained in a style to which none but W.G. Grace could attain is admitted on all hands by either cricketers or Cockneys who witnessed it. He had the best of bowling against him but he made actual mincemeat of it all until at last he was caught out at slip by Hill from Shaw’s bowling with a very good catch low down.
Thus restored, W
.G. took his United South team off to Grimsby for a match against a local XXII starting on 10 July. The Grimsby men made a bad tactical error before the game: they complained to W.G. that the team he had brought along was not up to the standard they had expected and presumably advertised around the town. Or perhaps they were just hoping for a rebate. As it was, W.G. made them pay – for thirteen and a half hours, the time he took to compile an epic quadruple century. To be fair, he did offer a chance when he was on 350.
The pitch was a good one but the grass in the outfield had been left uncut and many of W.G.’s strokes were slowed up before they could reach the boundary and he was forced to run 158 singles, which must have done his waistline some good. When the innings closed at 681, late on the third day, he was still unbeaten. He had faced fifteen different bowlers and, of course, twenty-two fielders. It was the only 400 of W.G.’s career, and 4 short of the highest score made until then. There was a rumour that the great man had in fact scored only 399 when he ran out of partners but asked the scorers to add the extra run. Nobody else was counting by then. ‘It is the most extraordinary performance with the bat ever known,’ said the Sporting Clipper. The Grimsby men were so shattered by the experience that they made only 88 in reply.
Charles Alcock was overcome with superlatives when he considered the innings in Lillywhite’s Annual:
What can be written in praise of an innings against such odds, in which no chance was given until he had scored 350 and in which he had to contend against bowling, if not of the very best kind, still straight, and demanding from batsmen careful play?
Can one do aught but wonder at the masterly skill in placing the ball – the skill of the batsman – but admire the splendid physique that could alone accomplish such a feat? No paint can add to the beauty of the lily, nor will gilding improve refined gold. To extol W.G. Grace’s merits as a cricketer would be superfluous. At the present time he is like Eclipse [the racehorse], first – and the rest nowhere … For the last ten years W.G. has stood alone as the most marvellous cricketer of his time.
One oddity was that non-members of the Grace family contributed only 72 to the United South’s total: Fred Grace made 60 and W.R. Gilbert 116. The Grace family grew by one during the game: on the second day, news arrived from Downend of the birth of W.G.’s second son, Henry Edgar, whose arrival was toasted in champagne by the proud father that evening.
A fixture he would not have missed for anything was Richard Daft’s benefit at Trent Bridge. W.G. and Daft had fought some epic battles for South v North, Gloucs v Notts and Gentlemen v Players (Daft was first an amateur, who became a professional in 1859 and reverted to the amateur ranks in 1877, towards the end of his career). They held each other in the highest regard. ‘He was the most finished and graceful batsman in England for a great many years,’ wrote Grace. ‘I was just as thankful to see his back to the wicket as he was to see mine.’ The public gave generously to Daft: £160 on the first day, £180 on the second, and £92 on the third. Grace chipped in with a typical unbeaten 114, though he was as much a beneficiary as Daft, who dropped him when he was on 29.
This was a mere curtain-raiser for the events of August. Grace’s first stop was Hull, where he took his United South team to play a powerful United North side – too powerful for Grace’s team, who made 28 between them, but not for W.G. who hit 126 in 150 minutes, including several balls despatched into the grounds of an adjacent lunatic asylum and another which was borne away by a passing goods train. In the second innings he contributed 82 out of his side’s total of 194.
Then it was down to Canterbury and the by now regular fixture between the combined Kent-Gloucs team and the Rest of England, the main attraction of the Festival week. England’s captain was the young and inexperienced A.J. Webbe, who lost the toss and found himself in the field with a man short. The wily pro Alfred Shaw advised him to place a man between slip and third man to cover both positions and went there himself. To their amusement, W.G. sliced a catch to him and was out for only nine, marching off in some disgruntlement with the remark, ‘He was in no position at all.’ Inevitably he made up for it in the second innings with 91. The match ended in farce, with wickets tumbling so quickly that Fred Grace, who had changed out of his whites, had to rush to the wicket in his ordinary clothes and hold out for a draw. High comedy was the order of the day during that game: when the august figure of Lord Harris walked out to bat, the scoreboard operator inadvertently left out the first letter of his surname on the board, which reduced the crowd, many of whom had been drinking, to fits of laughter until the mistake was spotted and corrected.
The next day, Grace switched sides, as it were, and turned out for MCC v Kent in a twelve-a-side game. Faced with a Kent total of 473 (Lord ’Arris 154), MCC were shot out for 144 and followed on. W.G. went out to open the batting with no thought of batting to save the day: that was never his way. So he hit out to entertain the crowd, hoping and expecting to be on the train home to Bristol the following day, which would enable him to get a good day’s rest before Gloucestershire confronted Nottinghamshire. But as often happens in such circumstances, the reverse occurred: ‘I risked a little more than usual, helped myself more freely than I would have done under different circumstances, and everything came off.’ Helped by short boundaries and a good wicket, MCC had 100 on the board in forty-five minutes. By the close of play, W.G. had rattled up a whirlwind 133 not out, reaching his century with the second of two big hits for four on to the booths beyond long-on.
His friend C.C. Clarke described it as ‘the most attractive contribution I ever saw either from him or any other cricketer. It did not matter where George Harris placed the field, whether point was forward or set back, nor how the men in the deep were set, with clean cuts and strong pushes he was sending ball after ball past them’. And that was with a bat which, Grace confided to Clarke that evening, had something wrong with it. So after dinner they ‘tinkered up’ another bat, ‘making the handle bigger by splicing an old white glove round it’.
The next day was a Saturday and the usual bumper Festival crowd was treated to an extraordinary exhibition by Grace, the like of which had never been seen before on a cricket field. The general expectation was that Kent would still win, but Grace had other ideas. He batted for most of a blazing hot day, fuelled by champagne and soda water at the tea interval. He showed an uncharacteristic nerviness as he approached his double century but once that was passed he resumed normal service. When he reached 279, out of 451, he finally achieved a long-held ambition by creating a new record for the highest first-class individual innings, previously set by William Ward in 1820 with 278. Grace had gone close in 1871; now the record was gathered in. On he went to his triple century. When MCC’s score reached 500, he was on 315, and Kent had tried ten bowlers against him without success. He was eventually caught low down at mid-off for 344, in 380 minutes. The press were unanimous in their superlatives: ‘A sensational innings … the greatest batting exhibition yet recorded,’ said the Sporting Gazette. ‘Ordinary words of praise would seem absurd when applied to such a stupendous achievement,’ agreed the Daily Telegraph. ‘That he should have made all those runs without a chance must add still more to the surprising character of the performance, which must be classed as by far the most remarkable event in the annals of cricket,’ purred the Sportsman. ‘After Mr Grace’s retirement the game became singularly uneventful.’
There was just one complaint, from the Sporting Clipper, and it was aimed at the meanness of the Canterbury authorities: ‘Although the management took something like 200 pounds more than ever known before, they did not present Mr Grace with a prize bat to commemorate such a great performance.’ Needless to say, the match was saved. But as it turned out, Grace’s mighty achievement was only the first part of an amazing sequence.
He took the train to Bristol on Sunday and next day, another hot one, was ready to take on the men of Nottinghamshire at Clifton College. The visitors were late and the start was delayed until 1 p.m. Winni
ng the toss, W.G. opened the innings and swiftly showed that, far from being drained by his efforts at Canterbury, he had brought his form with him. Nottinghamshire boasted a formidable opening attack, Alfred Shaw and Fred Morley, but Grace treated them like novices. In Shaw’s first over he drove and cut him for successive fours. E.M. held firm at the other end, while W.G. cut loose, hitting Tye so fiercely to square leg, where there was no boundary, that he ran seven for it. At one stage he hit four successive fours and when lunch was taken at 2.30 p.m., he had made 83 not out out of 122. After lunch he struck a six over the road, and lofted another drive into the grandstand where Fred Grace rose and caught it, to the delight of the ladies gathered there, ‘in order that it might not spoil the features of a Clifton villa’, according to one report. To add to the fun, W.G. made as if to leave the wicket and walk back to the pavilion.
He hit an all-run six, which was his undoing, for in attempting to repeat the shot he was caught at long-on off the bowling of John Selby, the England batsman who had only been brought on in desperation after the front-line attack had been hit all over the ground. (It was one of only five first-class wickets he took in his life.) Grace had made 177 in 190 minutes. Notts were forced to follow on but after a good start were undone by W.G. with 8–69. He was not called on again with the bat, as Gloucs were left with only 31 to win on the third day, which Fred and E.M. knocked off in 25 minutes.
The match also contained a row, when the Notts player Tolley took what the Gloucestershire team considered to be an unnecessarily long time putting on his pads before going out to bat. ‘Mr W.G. Grace was very wroth,’ wrote one observer. ‘This is nothing new in a Clifton match.’