All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

42 W.G.Grace turned?). Although he was an impressive, tall, bearded figure his leisurely amble up to the wicket (probably wearing his MCC cap), ungainly action and seemingly innocuous delivery added to his ability to deceive. Flighting the ball cleverly and maintaining strict control over length and direction, he often bowled round the wicket which accounts for the 197 batsmen caught in his famous square-leg trap. A fine fielder he caught and bowled as many as 222 of his victims. He didn’t bowl much in Tests and his figures against Australia (nine wickets for 236 runs) might suggest that better class batsmen were less susceptible to his wiles. However, he still numbered three Test centurions among his victims. Because of examinations Oxford were forced to field a weakened team for their home match against MCC; only five of the side subsequently appeared against Cambridge. It was their last home game before the University match (which, despite Oxford having beaten Surrey and given the Australians a good game, the Light Blues were expected to win, but didn’t). The Times thought that MCC had sent down a strong side; Cricket considered it only moderate. The truth was somewhere in between. Most of the team were fairly average amateurs, but any eleven with Grace in it (1,846 runs and 122 wickets in 1886) could not be described as moderate. And his skills were supplemented by those of two outstanding professional bowlers: Kent and Nottinghamshire’s Walter Wright and Nottinghamshire’s William Attewell. Together they would eventually take nearly 3,000 wickets in their respective careers. Dull with a bitterly cold north wind, the weather on the first day wasn’t very much like midsummer. The Parks is a beautiful ground, but with only a pavilion for shelter spectators needed to be well wrapped up. Going in first at 12.15 Oxford made a one-run-an-over 142, Grace who opened the bowling picking up two wickets in 32 overs and taking two catches. The only batsman who made a significant contribution was Oxford captain Herbert Page who was bowled by Attewell one short of his fifty. Page had a decent career with Gloucestershire, as did his son Dallas who sadly, aged 25, was killed in a motor accident returning home after the last match of the 1936 season, his second as county captain. Herbert Page was also a useful medium-pace bowler: the previous month he had taken all-ten in a minor match for M.C.Kemp’s XI against Hertford College. Opening the batting for MCC Grace reached his fifty just before the close. The north wind continued to blow next day, but at least the sun came out. Grace had been well entertained the previous evening at a banquet given by Vincent’s Club. He had started the morning with some shaky net practice, but after that showed no sign of any hangover as he continued to dominate the batting, and the weak Oxford bowling. He was finally dismissed leg-before for 104 by Page having hit 15 fours and a straight driven six. Over 100 runs behind and facing a very good attack Oxford probably didn’t start their second innings with any great feelings of optimism as Grace opened the bowling again. And they would not have been heartened by losing two wickets without a run on the board, including Edward Bradby playing the only match of a first-class career whose only runs were the