All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

33 the second bowler after Grace to reach this total. He bowled the first ball in Test cricket; appropriately it was a ‘dot’. In all he played seven Tests, taking 12 wickets. Born a little later, he might have made a significant impact on the international stage. Thirty-two-year-old Shaw had been playing first-class cricket for nearly ten years when he took all-ten against a strong North of England side in June 1874. He had taken 100 wickets in a season for the first time in 1871 and was embarking on a period of increasing returns that would culminate in 201 wickets in 1878, a total only then surpassed by James Southerton’s 210 in 1870. The North had of course been on the receiving end of James Lillywhite’s all-ten just two years before, and five of that side were playing at Lord’s. And, together with Shaw, three of the side (Yorkshiremen Andrew Greenwood, Tom Emmett and Allen Hill) would play in the very first Test match at Melbourne nearly three years later. Having purchased the freehold of the ground MCC had started to develop Lord’s, and the first Grand Stand (demolished in the 1920s) now stood on the north side opposite a new Tavern. North began their innings just after midday in bright, hot weather against the bowling of Shaw from the pavilion end and Nottinghamshire colleague Fred Morley. Shaw bowled Greenwood at 19 and ‘Monkey’ Hornby, the North captain, joined Ephraim Lockwood. A sizeable partnership quickly developed and with the score 58 Grace put himself on. The change was unsuccessful and the next wicket did not fall until Shaw came back, off his fourth ball having Hornby caught by Middlesex’s Charles Buller at long on for 53, after a partnership of 80 that was easily the highest of the match. Buller’s Wisden obituary suggests that his contemporaries will remember the former Harrow captain as ‘one of the greatest batsmen of his day’ but also says that ‘Into the scandals that marked Mr Buller’s private life and caused his social eclipse, this is obviously not the place to enter’ (apparently referring to his discharge from the Army because of bankruptcy, and later involvement in a high- profile society divorce scandal). Lockwood went soon afterwards for 38, well caught by Grace at point, and Shaw began to work his way through the North’s batting. The quiet and unassuming Yorkshireman Lockwood made exactly 1,000 runs in 1874, a total exceeded only by Grace and Surrey’s Harry Jupp. He was perhaps unlucky not to play Test cricket. His last chance probably went when rheumatism prevented him travelling to Australia in 1881/82. Lunch was taken at 159 for seven, and with the first ball after the interval Shaw had Emmett caught low down at point by Grace, redeeming himself for previously dropping the Yorkshireman in the same position. The innings ended soon afterwards at 3.30, Shaw completing his all-ten by bowling J.C. Shaw, one of five Nottinghamshire colleagues playing for the North, for a (not unusual) duck. Jemmy Shaw had been Lillywhite’s tenth victim and he now bestowed the same honour upon his unrelated namesake. Nobody exceeded the 139 wickets that Grace took in 1874 (he also made most runs and was the leading fielder!), but this time he had bowled without reward. Morley, one of six bowlers who took 100 wickets during the season, was similarly unsuccessful. Alfred Shaw