WG Grace - short profiles from John Hall and Jeff Green (12 July 1997)

12 July

WG Graceshort profiles

These short profiles were posted to rec.sport.cricket in response to requests for more information about WG Grace.

Profile by John Hall (john@jhall.demon.co.uk)

Grace played his first first-class match in 1865 at the age of 17 and his last 43 years later in 1908 when aged almost 60. In between he scored 54,896 runs, still 5th on the all-time list, at 39.55, including 125 centuries. That average may not look much nowadays, but for most of his career the pitches were atrocious by modern standards; also he played on at an age when his eyesight and reflexes must inevitably have deteriorated. He also found time to take 2876 wickets, 6th on the alltime list, at 17.92. He took 887 catches, second on the list for a nonkeeper.

His best years were in the 1870s. Unfortunately, by the time he made his Test debut, in 1880, he was already past his best, so his record is comparatively modest: 1098 runs at 32.29 with 2 hundreds (though an average of 32 then would probably equate to something approaching 50 His greatest year was probably 1871: 2739 runs at 78.25. The next best aggregate that year was 1068, the next best average 37.66. In 1873 he averaged 72.20 for 1805 runs, next best average 41.60, next best aggregate 1052. In 1876 he scored 2622 at 62.42, compared to 1261 and 42.00 by the runners up. And in his dotage, in 1895 at the age of 47 he made 1000 runs in May and finished with the highest aggregate of 2346 at an average of 51.00 (3rd best).

The combination of his enormous popularity, coinciding with the railways making travel possible for the masses, turned cricket into the first modern spectator sport. A library with a good cricket section would probably contain at least one biography - several have been written over the years.

Profile by Jeff Green (greenjk@dircon.co.uk)

The Doctor was without doubt the greatest Batsamn in England for 20 or so years, during that time he was worth a place in any side in the world as a bowler. He was also a brilliant fielder and a great raquets and tennis player. He was if not actually the inventor of modern batting (play straight, foot to the pitch bat close to the pads) he was certainly it's greatest early exponent and the means by which the rest of the world learned how to play.

He scored the first 2 300s in first class cricket. He scored his last first-class 100 almost 40 years after his first. His first century was a double century. His was the first century in tests for England. He carried his bat 17 times. He scored 3 hundreds in a row 5 times. As a bowler he took 8 or more in an innings 16 times including a ten for, and a 9 and an 8 in the same game and 14 times he scored a century in a game in which he took ten or more wickets.

The real merit of his play though was the difference between his scoring and his fellows. As a very young man he scored 134* while the rest of his team made 57 out of an all out 201. At 20 he became the first player in "modern" cricket to score 2 hundreds in a game. He was the first player to score 2000 in a season, he made 2739. He once made over 800 runs in 10 days for twice out (2 300s). He was (and maybe still is I haven't checked) for many years the only player to have scored more than 200 of his sides first 300 runs.

I can find several instances where he scored over 150 and no other player made 30. He is one of only 3 players to make 1000 runs in May and he was 46 when he did. By once declaring when he hade made 93 he became the first (and for all I know) the only player to score every score between 0 and 100 in fc cricket.

One could of course go on but it gets repetitive after a while, suffice it to say that for the whole of his career he was a practicing family doctor and more than once he played his innings or took his wickets after attending patients all night. He even practised during his overseas tours.

I would still rate Bradman as the best Batsman who ever lived but Grace was the greatest cricketer.