Fred Grace

Like his brothers, Grace learned how to play cricket at home on a practice pitch that the family had created on the site of a former orchard. He was coached by his father, Dr Henry Grace, and his uncle, Alfred Pocock. His mother, Martha, was a keen participant too and she provided the driving force and the motivation which crystallised into the competitive edge that EM, WG and Fred always had as first-class players. EM, several years older than WG and Fred, learned to play using a full size bat and, because it was too big for him as a boy, he developed a tendency to hit across the line of delivery instead of playing straight. Alfred Pocock recognised this fault and decided that WG and Fred must learn to play straight by using small bats, suitable for their boyhood sizes. It meant that WG and Fred became technically correct batsmen with strong defensive techniques whereas EM remained primarily an attacking batsman.[3]

In his Cricketing Reminiscences (1899), W. G. Grace emphasised that "cricketers are made by coaching and practice", but he and his brothers were born "in the atmosphere of cricket".[6] Their parents and uncle were "full of enthusiasm for the game" and it was "a common theme of conversation at home".[7] It was in the Downend orchard and as members of their local cricket clubs that Grace and his brothers developed their skills, mainly under the tutelage of Alfred Pocock, who was an exceptional coach.[3] Apart from their cricket and schooling, the brothers lived in the country and roamed freely with other village boys. One of their regular activities, to help local farmers, was stone throwing at birds in the fields and WG later claimed that this was the source of their eventual skills as outfielders. Fred Grace, in particular, became an outstanding fielder.[8]

Grace first attracted notice in club cricket, playing for his father's West Gloucestershire Cricket Club in 1864 when still only 13. Despite his coaching, it was said of him then that he did not play with so "straight a bat" as WG, but was "more resolute in his hitting".[9] Mention was made of the great promise shown in his fielding, always an outstanding feature of his game; he was hailed as "a glorious field".[10] Grace's height was about 5 ft 10in, so he was three inches taller than EM and four inches shorter than WG.[11]

His earliest appearance in a match now rated first-class was Monday, 21 to Tuesday, 22 May 1866 at the Magdalen Ground, Oxford for a hastily organised Gentlemen of England XI against Oxford University (OUCC), the university winning by 10 wickets.[12] Aged 15, Grace took a wicket and had scores of 0 and 10. WG, aged 17, was in the same team and it was at this match that WG received an invitation from Edmund Carter to join the OUCC, but he had to refuse because his father intended him for medical school.[13][14] In due course, Fred would follow him into the study of medicine.[15]

On Thursday, 25 June 1868, Grace played for the new Gloucestershire County Cricket Club in its first-ever match, which was a two-day game at Lord's against Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). His brothers EM and WG were in the same team but the match was by no means first-class. Gloucestershire won by 134 runs.[5][16] The county club was not actually new because it had pre-existed for over twenty years as the West Gloucestershire Cricket Club, based in Bristol and effectively run by the Grace family. It renamed itself as the county club in 1867 but it did not have a county-wide remit because of a rival club called the Cheltenham and Gloucestershire Cricket Club.[17]

It is generally agreed that the inaugural first-class match played by Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, per se, was against Surrey at Durdham Down, Clifton from Wednesday, 2 to Friday, 4 June 1870. EM, WG and Fred Grace all played for Gloucestershire who won by 51 runs. Grace bowled well, taking four for 56 and four for 31. He scored 16 (hit wicket) and 15 which were useful runs in a low-scoring (<500) match.[18] The county club has always dated its foundation to 1870 (it celebrated its centenary in 1970) but its formal constitution was not completed until March 1871 when it finally merged with the Cheltenham and Gloucestershire.[17]

With Gloucestershire now a first-class county, Grace set about establishing himself as a first-class player. Like EM and WG, he was a genuine all-rounder. On Thursday, 14 July, Grace made his debut for the Gentlemen in the prestigious Gentlemen v Players fixture at The Oval. He failed with the bat and scored two ducks but he succeeded with the ball. After the Gentlemen had scored 198, the Players struggled and were dismissed for 148 with Grace taking five for 38. It was the first time he captured five wickets in a first-class innings (his previous best was his four for 31 in the county match against Surrey). The Gentlemen's second innings belonged to WG who hit 215, well supported by Walter Money with 109*. They totalled 513 but didn't leave themselves time to bowl the Players out. Although Grace again bowled well, taking three for 9 in 15 overs, the Players with 109 for four held on for the draw.[19]

From Thursday, 18 to Saturday, 20 August 1870, Grace played alongside WG for the Gentlemen of the South against the Gentlemen of the North at Meadow Road, Beeston. The North, captained by WG's long-time rival A. N. Hornby, won the toss and decided to bat first. They scored 287, WG taking six for 89 and Fred one for 53 (Hornby scored 103). The South were 6 for one at close of play on Thursday. WG, who opened the innings, went on to make 77 on Friday morning, sharing a third wicket partnership of 122 with Isaac Walker. When he was out, Fred came in to join Walker and came of age as a cricketer. They shared a stand of 294 for the fourth wicket, broken when Walker was out for 179. There was then something of a collapse as the South went from 430 for four to 482 all out just before the close. Fred scored 189 not out and that remained his career-highest innings. On the final day, the North managed to avoid the innings defeat and amassed 289 (WG three for 83; Fred two for 61) to ensure a draw.[20] Prior to this match, Grace's highest score was 33. As Eric Midwinter put it, "here was another cricketing talent to be nurtured".[21]

Grace had made his debut in the North v South match in 1870 but without much success. Although this fixture did not quite equal Gentlemen v Players in terms of prestige, it was nevertheless the standout event in the pre-international programme because, in theory, it featured all of the best players in England as they were chosen on technical ability alone, not on status. Grace and WG won the game for the South at Lord's in May 1871 when they shared a fourth wicket partnership of 170. WG scored 178, Grace 83 and the next best was 22 by Harry Jupp in a total of 328 which was enough for the South to win by an innings and 49 runs (Grace did not bowl).[22]

There was always controversy surrounding Grace's elder brothers EM and WG about the money they, as nominal amateurs, made from cricket. Grace himself was once barred from a Gentlemen v Players match because of match fees he had claimed for appearances with the USEE.[23][24]

The English cricket team in Australia in 1873–74 is sometimes called W. G. Grace's XI. The Melbourne Club had invited WG to form a team for the tour. There were several refusals but eventually a team including Fred Grace, Walter Gilbert, Harry Jupp, James Lillywhite, William Oscroft and James Southerton boarded the P&O steamer Mirzapore at Southampton and sailed to Melbourne where they received a rapturous welcome. Then it all turned sour.[25]

In the aftermath of the Sydney Riot of 1879, cricketing relations between England and Australia were strained and the 1880 Australian tourists had difficulty arranging fixtures. The establishment at Lord's, spearheaded by Lord Harris, had effectively embargoed them and they only played four first-class matches from May to August but many more against local club teams.[26] They were most welcome in the north of England but one southern player who had faith in them was Fred Grace. Operating on a freelance basis for a match fee, he played against the Australians in their opening match for a club team in Southampton and then for three others in Manchester, Northampton and Harrogate.[27] Importantly for the Australians, Grace was a go-between from them to WG who, in the words of Malcolm Knox, "did not belong to (any Lord's) clique". WG, as always, was pragmatically alert to financial opportunity and offered them a match against Gloucestershire. This broke the Lord's embargo and Harris soon relented.[28]

The Gloucestershire v Australians match took place Monday, 2 to Wednesday, 3 August at the Clifton College Close Ground and the Australians won by 68 runs. All the Grace brothers and Billy Midwinter played for Gloucestershire but, with eleven wickets, Fred Spofforth won the game for the Australians.[29] It was a big match both on the day and in terms of its legacy. Knox says that Gloucestershire treated it "as an international" and a huge crowd attended. In the longer term, it convinced first the Graces and then Harris that international cricket was the way forward and negotiations began to ensure that such a match took place that summer.[30]

Grace was selected along with EM and WG to play for England at The Oval. The match was played Monday, 6 to Wednesday, 8 September and was later recognised as the inaugural Test in England. Grace was out for nought in both innings and so became, albeit retrospectively, the first player to be dismissed for a pair on Test debut.[31] He made his mark on the match by holding a celebrated, and possibly match-winning, catch on the boundary in front of the gasometer at the Vauxhall End. This was from a shot by the giant Australian batsman George Bonnor off Alfred Shaw. Bonnor hit the ball so high that he and his partner Harry Boyle had turned for their third run before, finally, the ball came down to Grace who had positioned himself perfectly to catch it cleanly.[32] That catch became part of cricket's folklore and has been described as "the most famous deep field catch in history".[10]