William Gilbert Grace was an English amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He was nominally amateur as a cricketer, but he is said to have made more money from his cricketing activities than any professional cricketer. He was an extremely competitive player and, although he was one of the most famous men in England, he was also one of the most controversial on account of his gamesmanship and moneymaking.
An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are considered specialists. Some wicket-keepers have the skills of a specialist batter and have been referred to as all-rounders, but the term wicket-keeper-batter is more commonly applied to them, even if they are substitute wicket keepers who also bowl.
Greville Thomas Scott Stevens was an English amateur cricketer who played for Middlesex, the University of Oxford and England. A leg-spin and googly bowler and attacking batsman, he captained England in one Test match, in South Africa in 1927. He was widely regarded as one of the leading amateur cricketers of his generation who, because of his commitments outside cricket, was unable to fulfil his potential and left the game early.
Arthur Dick Pougher was an English professional cricketer and umpire who played for Leicestershire County Cricket Club from 1885 to 1901, and in one Test match for England in 1891–92. He was born at Humberstone, Leicestershire and died at Aylestone Park, Leicester.
1947 was the 48th season of County Championship cricket in England. It is chiefly remembered for the batting performances of Denis Compton and Bill Edrich who established seasonal records that, with the subsequent reduction in the number of first-class matches, will probably never be broken. Their form was key to their team Middlesex winning the County Championship for the first time since 1921, although they were involved in a tight contest for the title with the eventual runners-up Gloucestershire, for whom Tom Goddard was the most outstanding bowler of the season. Compton and Edrich were assisted by the fact that it was the driest and sunniest English summer for a generation, ensuring plenty of good batting wickets.
1876 was the 90th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Gloucestershire reclaimed the unofficial "Champion County" title. A relatively dry summer and improvements to pitches via the heavy roller saw several batting records broken.
George Arthur Davidson was an English first-class cricketer who played for Derbyshire between 1886 and 1898 and for Marylebone Cricket Club between 1888 and 1898. A useful all-rounder, he scored over 5500 runs and took 621 wickets in his first-class career.
Variations in published cricket statistics have come about because there is no official view of the status of cricket matches played in Great Britain prior to 1895 or in the rest of the world prior to 1947. As a result, historians and statisticians have compiled differing lists of matches that they recognise as (unofficially) first-class. The problem is significant where it touches on some of the sport's first-class records, especially in regards to the playing career of W. G. Grace.
William Mycroft was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Derbyshire and MCC between 1873 and 1886. He was a left-arm fast bowler with a great deal of spin and a dangerous yorker that was often believed to be unfair – which may explain why he was not considered for the earliest Test Matches despite being in his prime. He took 863 first-class wickets at an average of 12.09 with 87 five-wicket innings and 28 ten-wicket matches in his career. His first ten-wicket match in 1875 against Nottinghamshire became the first of six in only nine games that season. He holds the Derbyshire record for most wickets in a single match, with figures of 17–103 against Hampshire at the Antelope Ground, Southampton in July 1876. This is one of only two times a player has taken seventeen wickets in a match and finished on the losing side – the other, by Walter Mead in 1895 was also against Hampshire. Mycroft had no pretensions as a right-handed tail end batsman: he scored only 791 first-class runs at an average of 5.34 and prior to Alf Hall and Father Marriott remained the last significant cricketer who took more wickets than he scored runs.
W. G. Grace established his reputation in 1864 and, by 1870, was widely recognised as the outstanding player in English cricket.
W. G. Grace played in 31 matches in the 1895 English cricket season, 29 of which are recognised as first-class.
Following his "Indian Summer" in 1895, W.G. Grace continued to play first-class cricket through his fiftieth birthday in 1898 and finally severed his connections with both Gloucestershire and England in 1899.
W.G. Grace was mainly associated with the new London County Cricket Club during this period. His first-class career ended in 1908 when he was nearly 60.
Following his father's death in December 1871, W. G. Grace increased his involvement with the United South of England Eleven (USEE) in order to provide more income for his mother, with whom he and his younger brother Fred were still living. Grace continued to play regularly for Gloucestershire and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and, when required, by the Gentlemen. In the late summer of 1872, he toured North America with a team of players who all had amateur status. In the 1873 season, he performed his first season "double" of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets.
W. G. Grace played in 32 matches in the 1871 English cricket season, 25 of which are recognised as first-class. His main roles in 1871 were as captain of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club and as both match organiser and captain of the United South of England Eleven (USEE). In addition, he represented Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the Gentlemen in the Gentlemen v Players fixture and the South in the North v South series.
Having toured Australia the previous winter, W.G. 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". Gloucestershire again had a strong claim to the Champion County title although some sources have awarded it to Derbyshire and Grace himself said that it should have gone to Yorkshire. Grace made 21 first-class appearances in 1874, scoring 1,664 runs, with a highest score of 179, at an average of 52.00 with 8 centuries and 2 half-centuries. In the field, he held 35 catches and 140 wickets with a best analysis of 7–18. His bowling average was 12.71; he had 5 wickets in an innings 17 times and 10 wickets in a match 9 times.
One of the most outstanding phases of W. G. 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 including Alfred Shaw, Fred Morley, Tom Emmett and Allen Hill. Thus, in three consecutive innings Grace scored 839 runs and was only out twice.
W. G. Grace qualified as a doctor in 1879 made his first appearance in Test cricket the following year, scoring the first-ever century by an England batsman.
W. G. Grace played mostly for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) during the five seasons from 1887 to 1891. He also represented England in Test cricket.
W. G. Grace played mostly for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) during the five seasons from 1887 to 1891. He also represented England in Test cricket.
