All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

43 W.G.Grace boundary he hit in the first innings. Percival Coles, who was also playing his last first-class match, went soon afterwards but then Page and Joseph Brain put on 30, the highest partnership of the innings, before Brain was brilliantly caught on the square-leg boundary. Brain was a gifted batsman who had hit a century for Gloucestershire against the 1884 Australian tourists. He became a major figure in Glamorgan cricket, although dying in 1914 he did not live long enough to see his adopted county achieve first- class status. Page, top scoring again, went soon after, stumped by Manley Kemp. A week before, Kemp, aged 25, had made 175 for Gentlemen of England against Cambridge University, taking his side from 21 for six to 298 all out. Wisden said that his batting would not readily be forgotten by those who had the good fortune to witness it. In 134 matches however, played mainly for Oxford University and Kent, it would be his only century. William Rashleigh went next. A fortnight later he would become the first freshman to make a century in the University match, when he and Kingsmill Key (143) put on 243 for the first wicket. Declarations not allowed, the remaining batsmen then attacked so recklessly that nobody else reached double figures. With three Oxford wickets falling at 80, including Arthur Cobb who would die suddenly of typhoid fever later in the year, the end was nigh. Last man in was John Ware. He was a leg-spinner, although he didn’t take any wickets in MCC’s innings. Like Bradby he was playing his only first-class match. He celebrated by hitting a four and a six before Grace pinned him in front. For someone who had a certain reputation for being a bit intimidating in the field it is perhaps surprising that this was the only wicket that fell to him this way in the match. On the other hand, over his career about one in 11 of his victims were leg-before, so one out of 12 in the match is about par. Grace had previously taken ten wickets in an innings in a 12-a-side match (Gentlemen of MCC against Kent in 1873), a feat also performed by his brother E.M. in 1862. He had also taken nine wickets three times, although the only other time he got close to all-ten was for South against North in 1875 when he took the first eight before James Lillywhite took the ninth (thanks to a brilliant catch at mid on by Grace!). Later in 1886 Grace became the first bowler to reach 2,000 first-class wickets. He would remain the leading wicket-taker of all-time until 1919 when Wilfred Rhodes overtook him. 1886 was the ninth and last season in which he took 100 wickets although, despite approaching middle age, he would still have the energy to take another 800 first-class wickets (as well as score 25,000 runs!) before he finally retired.