Famous Cricketers No 96 - Clarrie Grimmett

no-ball and conceded only five wides, none occurring in the Sheffield Shield. His 1402 wickets playing for Australian sides is the most by any Australian cricketer and the most first-class wickets by a bowler never to play in county cricket. Yet despite his impressive record as a slow-spin bowler between the wars, he was somewhat over-shadowed in the public eye in an era of great batting and a succession of top-class batsmen. When the game resumed in 1945, a new set of players had emerged who were to carry all before them for most of the next generation. Changes also took place in the various competitions after 1919. The Sheffield Shield was increased to eight-ball overs and continued to be played to a finish until 1927-28 when it was at last limited to a four-day game of five and a half hour’s duration plus the pre-lunch session of a fifth day of two and a half hours. Not until 1930-31 did it become established as a four day fixture but Test matches in Australia still continued to remain timeless. Both at state and representative level scores began to rise dramatically. Victoria amassed 1059 in 1922-23, only to surpass it in 1926-27 with 1107. Forty-six scores of over 600 were registered with no less than eleven batsmen scoring 300 or more. The first person to score a 1,000 runs in a season was Ponsford, only to be overtaken by the greatest batsman of all, Bradman who confirmed his undoubted superiority in the late twenties and thirties. With wickets becoming ever more over-prepared, it became more and more difficult to bowl batsmen out for a low score. Grimmett had arrived at Test level at the end of the 1925 season, at a time when Australia’s principal bowlers, Gregory, McDonald and leg-break bowler Mailey, were beginning to fade from the scene. He was to remain a mainstay of the side until the end of the South African tour in 1935/36. Clarence Victor Grimmett was born in Dunedin, New Zealand on Christmas Day 1891. A Roman Catholic, the son of Richard and Mary Grimmett, he lived as a child near to Basin Reserve, the home of Wellington cricket. At Mount Cook Boys’ School, he was coached by the school sportsmaster, F.A.’Dimp’ Hemplemann, who persuaded Grimmett at about fourteen years of age to bowl leg-breaks rather than fast bowling. Figures of 6/5 and 8/1 were enough to persuade Grimmett to concentrate on leg-break bowling and by 1912 he had made his first appearance for Wellington, taking 4-48 in the second innings. However in spite of his efforts, he had by 1913/14 appeared in only nine games. Believing his cricketing opportunities in New Zealand were limited, Grimmett decided to emigrate to Australia. There he progressed rapidly from the Sydney A Grade team third eleven to the A’s, when appearing against Arthur Mailey’s Redfern he took 7/32 in 14.2 overs and 5/33 in the second innings. With no Sheffield Shield possible during the First World War after the first season of 1914/15, Grimmett continued to appear for the Sydney club but perhaps feeling he had little hope of challenging the great New South Wales bowler, Arthur Mailey, he was persuaded to move to Melbourne and played in five matches in five years for Victoria, between 1918 and 1923 without appearing in any Sheffield Shield matches. He took only nine wickets, although he continued to perform with distinction for local sides South Melbourne and Prahan, taking a total of 228 wickets in four years for the latter club, which won the Victoria Cricket Association title on three occasions. A disastrous game against M.C.C. in which he took only 1-104 in 1920/21 did little to improve his chances. In 1924 he was offered the chance to move to Adelaide for initially three years as a sign-writer, with full pay should he be selected for South Australia. At 32, married with a young child, it was too good an offer to refuse. However just prior to his decision to join South Australia at Adelaide Oval, he was selected to appear in his first ever game for Victoria against South Australia in the Sheffield Shield, a match Victoria won convincingly by an innings. More to the point, Grimmett after just 1-12 in three overs in the first innings, ran through their side in the second, taking 8-86, the best innings figure on debut by a bowler in the competition. It was his final game for Victoria, for in May Grimmett and family travelled to Adelaide, where he was to be based for the rest of his career. A small man, he was five feet seven inches tall, a prematurely balding figure who always wore a cap, he adopted a quick six-step with an almost surprising round-arm approach to the wicket, only a little 4