All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

140 but England had been gradually improving and were expected to put up a good fight. However, taking eleven for 82 Grimmett bowled Australia to an easy victory. It was a remarkable start to a Test career that would finish 11 years later with a record 216 wickets from only 37 matches. Third in 1930, Yorkshire were entering a period up to the Second World War when they would dominate the Championship. Of the ten professionals in the side against the Australians, five had played for England and three would go on to do so. They were led by 25-year-old amateur Alan Barber of whom Wisden said that he was perhaps the first Yorkshire captain since Lord Hawke worth his place as a player. The interwar Yorkshire sides are remembered for the power of their bowling, but they could also bat and wickets against them were well- earned. In 1930 eleven English batsmen made 2,000 runs in the season, and three of these were Yorkshiremen: Herbert Sutcliffe, Maurice Leyland, and 43-year-old Percy Holmes. Australian sides usually met Yorkshire twice during the season, with one of the matches played at Bramall Lane, Sheffield. The ground’s urban location, and the dust and ash from the surrounding factories and foundries, gave it a distinctive atmosphere. And the outfield’s many bare patches were a reminder that Sheffield United also played football there. The illustrious opening pair Holmes and Sutcliffe began quietly in front of ‘seven thousand cloth-capped Yorkshiremen’ as the sun appeared ‘through a pall of smoke’. Sutcliffe eventually became more aggressive and, after he had driven left-armer Percy Hornibrook for a six and a four in the same over, Grimmett was brought on at the Football Ground End with the score 46. He had begun the tour in fine form, taking 21 wickets in three matches, and it was perhaps surprising that he hadn’t come on sooner. However, having got on it didn’t take him long to get among the wickets, Holmes soon playing on for 31. On an easy-paced pitch Grimmett could only turn the ball slowly: most of the home batsmen would fall prey to his clever variations of pace and flight. Edgar Oldroyd had joined Sutcliffe but was not really comfortable, and soon after lunch with the score 84 Grimmett first beat him with a leg break outside the off stump and then whipped in a trademark top spinner and trapped him in front. Sutcliffe continued to bat confidently and, in partnership with the resolute Maurice Leyland, took the score to a solid looking 120 for two before he was caught behind for a chanceless 69. When he left the rest of the innings became a procession, with only wicketkeeper Arthur Wood and extras reaching double figures in Yorkshire’s final total of 155. The last seven wickets had fallen in just over an hour, Grimmett conceding only 16 runs. He had hardly bowled a loose ball and his figures are still the best ever against Yorkshire, and a record for Bramall Lane that will never be beaten, Yorkshire having vacated the ground after the 1973 season and left it to the winter game. And after standing at Pontypridd umpire Thomas Oates had officiated his second all-ten in ten games. Grimmett was ably helped by the young South Australian keeper Charlie Walker who made three stumpings and held a brilliant catch to dismiss Sutcliffe. His stumping of Barber was particularly special: the fraction of Clarrie Grimmett