I had played the last year or two were not to be compared with the contest on this occasion,’ he wrote later.
The game rated a small mention in the weekly Clifton Chronicle, which on the same page reported the discovery by some children of the body of a newly-born baby on Brandon Hill, a packed residents’ meeting to discuss a proposed new road from Bristol up to Clifton, then as now a genteel suburb, and the ticket prices for the new Bristol and South Wales Union Railway (the charges from Bristol to Stapleton Road, where Dr W.G. Grace would open his first practice nearly twenty years later, were 6d, 4d and 1½d for first, second and third class respectively).
William Clarke had died in 1856 but the All-England operation continued under the direction of George Parr. The team which came to Bristol consisted of some familiar faces – Julius Caesar, Ned Willsher and Alfred Clarke – plus some of the most outstanding professionals of the age. They included George Tarrant, the Cambridgeshire round-arm fast bowler, his county colleague Tom Hayward, a slim but graceful batsman, H.H. Stephenson, the Surrey all-rounder whose selection to lead the first tour party to Australia in 1861/2 greatly upset the northern professionals, the great Nottinghamshire fast bowler and the terror of Lord’s, John Jackson, R.C. Tinley, the lob bowler also of Nottinghamshire, and W.H. Moore, an amateur who had recently scored a century against the North. The Bristol team included the four oldest Grace boys: Henry, Alfred, Edward and Gilbert.
Opening the innings, E.M. smashed a swift 37 in his usual swashbuckling style before being given out lbw to Jackson. W.G. was down to bat at number ten, half-way down the order. Lunch was taken just before he was due to bat and Tarrant, nicknamed ‘Tear’em’ or ‘Tearaway’ because of his menacing appearance as he raced in to bowl at high speed, offered to give the youngster some practice. This act of kindness was all the more surprising as Tarrant was notorious in the game for his moodiness and short temper. (Interestingly, he became a close friend of E.M. when they toured Australia and New Zealand with George Parr’s team the following winter. Perhaps the fact that both operated on a short fuse helped to cement the relationship.)
When W.G. walked to the wicket Tarrant and Jackson were bowling, an awesome prospect for a fifteen-year-old but one which W.G. took in his stride, though he confessed to suffering from nerves before going out to bat. After a couple of overs Tinley was brought on to bowl his under-arm lobs. They held no terrors for W.G., who was well used to batting against E.M.’s lobs at home. He played the first over cautiously, then showed his mettle in the next over, pulling Tinley into the scoring tent. The crowd’s enthusiastic reception is easy to imagine. Unfortunately for the teenager, the success went to his head. In the next over he gave Tinley the charge, missed and was bowled, not the first or last time a headstrong young batsman has been undone by a wily pro. Still, W.G. walked off with a highly respectable 32 to his credit and professed himself thrilled with his performance. He had made the fourth best score, and fared better than his other brothers: Henry made a duck and Alfred 3 in a total of 212.
All England performed poorly against the enthusiastic Bristolians and were forced to follow on after making only 86 in their first innings, E.M. taking five wickets. The England stars fared little better in their second knock. When Edwin Stephenson, of Yorkshire, no mean batsman, came in, E.M. handed W.G. the ball, told him to toss it up and took himself off to the outfield. Sure enough, Stephenson swallowed the bait in W.G.’s first over, E.M. pulling off a magnificent catch to give the young man a distinguished first scalp at top level. All England were all out for 106, E.M. taking another five wickets. The Bristol XXII had won by an innings and 20 runs in under two days, although three had been set aside for the match. The result indicated the improvement in the Bristol players’ standards over their past decade, thanks in no small part to Dr Grace’s efforts. By now, E.M. was recognised as one of the finest players in the country.
W.G. finished off his season for West Gloucestershire in the autumnal conditions of October with 35 and 2 against Cheltenham College. But, for all his burgeoning self-confidence, he and his family cannot have realised just how rapidly he was progressing. That he was to demonstrate in style the following summer.
He was still only fifteen years when in June 1864 he was invited to play for the All-England XI against Lansdown. That the invitation was extended at all indicates that he must have mightily impressed the canny old All-England pros during his brief knock against them the previous summer. Perhaps it was a tribute to the Grace family’s influence, though E.M. was absent, still making his way home from Australia after the completion of Parr’s tour. His oldest brother Henry played for Lansdown. W.G. batted at number six and found himself at the wicket with the great John Lillywhite, who made a nonchalant century. W.G. batted with care, scoring 15 in half an hour until he had the misfortune to be run out by Lillywhite, the teenager presumably not daring to countermand the great man’s call. ‘I did not mind that,’ he manfully recalled. ‘I had played for the All England Eleven.’ The professionals duly won by an innings and 22 runs.
It was E.M.’s continuing absence that led to W.G.’s first game in London ten days later. For years various members of the clan had been invited by the South Wales Club to join its annual tour to London, the Graces being popular figures on the cricket fields of the principality. Henry suggested that W.G. take E.M.’s place and the young man was off to the capital for the first time in his life. His journey was nearly in vain. The first game was at The Oval against Surrey. When the brothers arrived, the Welsh captain, Mr J. Lloyd, took Henry aside and asked him if his brother would mind stepping down for the second match, against Gentlemen of Sussex at Hove, as he wanted to include a more experienced player. He reckoned without the Graces’ unflinching sense of family solidarity. Henry was firm: Gilbert would play in both matches or neither. Indeed Henry went further: if Gilbert wasn’t picked, he himself would not play and no Graces would ever appear for South Wales again. Lloyd backed down. W.G. scored 5 and 38 but the real fireworks came on 14, 15 and 16 July at the historic Hove ground, one of cricket’s most splendid arenas, and left Lloyd looking very stupid indeed.
In the event South Wales played with only ten men so the whole unpleasantness had been unnecessary but it meant W.G. was under some pressure to do well. He responded in extraordinary fashion, confessing that the events at the Oval had placed even greater pressure on his shoulders. E.M.’s ship was known to be nearing England and W.G. hung on to the hope that his inspirational older brother might turn up at Hove and help out. He need not have worried.
South Wales won the toss and W.G. went in first wicket down, joining Lloyd in the middle. There he proceeded to give the captain a close-up demonstration of just how mistaken he had been. He scored 170 out of a total of 356 for nine, hitting 19 fours and dominating the day’s proceedings before wearily chopping an attempted cut on to his stumps.
W.G. claimed it was chanceless but one of the Sussex bowlers thought he should have been caught at point going for a fourth consecutive boundary. Lloyd contributed 82 but was eclipsed by his young partner. W.G. had arrived on the big stage with a bang. That afternoon he heard that E.M. had in fact arrived back in England that day.
In South Wales’s second innings W.G. dominated again, scoring 56 not out in a total of 118–5, though the Welshmen failed by 16 runs to win the match. The Gentlemen of Sussex presented W.G with a bat to mark his epic performance. He treasured it all his life; it marked the real beginning of his magnificent career. He was not quite sixteen years old.
Six days later the prodigy made his first appearance at Lord’s, again for South Wales, against MCC and Ground, and again he made a huge impression. He went in first wicket down and made 50, the second highest score. This would have been quite an achievement by any standards, but it was made all the more meritorious by the dreadful conditions the batsman faced, even at the home of cricket. The pitch, uncared for, full of holes and covered with small pebbles, was lethal; that very summer Sussex refused to play there because of it. Surrey had done the same in 1859. The creases were not marked with chalk but were inch-deep trenches which deteriorated rapidly. W.G. himself recounted that an over might contain three ‘shooters’ but also balls that hit the stones and reared up at the batsman. The only boundary was if a ball hit the pavilion rails; otherwise everything had to be run. One spectator was Charles Alcock, secretary of Surrey cricket club and editor of Lillywhite’s Annual. He was mightily impressed by the youngster, as he wrote years