Famous Cricketers No 96 - Clarrie Grimmett

In 1926/27 he had moved into a new five-bedroom house and once again laid out a practice net in the garden. In 1928, having tried and failed in an independent business attempt at the Clarrie Grimmett Bag Store in Adelaide, he was taken on as a sports equipment wholesaler. When in 1928 the SACA paid him as captain-coach role with the Colts, added to coaching, selling sports goods and articles he was now able to practice regularly on his own pitch at Firle in Adelaide. After a short but highly enjoyable tour of New Zealand in 1928, in which he claimed 47 wickets, his next four series against England were to end all square at two rubbers each. England won comfortably in both 1928-29 and 1932/33 but lost out to Australia in 1930 and 1934. In 1928/29. Australia was soundly beaten by a powerful England side which was gradually forced to bring in new faces. Grimmett, who bowled almost twice as many overs as any other player, took by far the most wickets, albeit at 44.52 apiece. In 1932-33 England again triumphed in the ‘Bodyline ‘ series, Grimmett being dropped after the first three Tests, as the Australian selectors struggled to find a solution to the problem. However in both 1930 and 1934 he proved successful, Australia claiming victory in the decisive game in the final Test of each series. If Bradman was undoubtedly the player of the season in 1930, Grimmett could rightly claim to be the outstanding bowler. In particular his work rate was prodigious, especially in the first part of the tour. After claiming all ten wickets for 37 early in the season against Yorkshire he took ten wickets at Trent Bridge, his first ten wickets in a Test series in England, 6-167 at Lord’s and 5-135 at Headingley, finishing with 29 wickets at 31.89, fourteen more than any other bowler and the most by an Australian in England. He was especially fond of dismissing Hammond, who had previously scored 905 runs in the 1928-29 series, in five out of nine innings in the 1930 season, Grimmett having considerable success on exposing his weakness on the leg side. Hammond remarking that ‘Of all the bowlers I have met, he was the one I could take least liberties with’. Grimmett was chosen as one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Season, heading the Australian averages with 144 at 16.85 apiece. In 1934 he was extremely fortunate to team up with O`Reilly. Between them they claimed nineteen wickets in the opening Test at Trent Bridge, Grimmett taking his third consecutive five wicket haul of 5-81 before capturing 5-64 in the final Test at the Oval. Altogether he and O’Reilly took 53 of the 71 wickets in the series, Grimmett’s tally of 25 at 26.72 being just a fraction short of O’Reilly’s 28 at 24.92. O`Reilly described his partnership with Grimmett as ‘one of cricket’s greatest success stories of the twentieth century’, the pair claiming 169 wickets in their fifteen Tests together, Grimmett also played in three other series, against West Indies in 1930/31 and South Africa in Australia in 1931/32 and in South Africa in 1935/36. He ran through the West Indies eleven, claiming 33 wickets at seventeen apiece and proceeded to repeat the process against South Africa, when Australia won all five Tests, again taking most wickets, 33 wickets at a cost of 16.87 apiece. He was not even called upon to bowl in the Fifth Test against South Africa at Melbourne. His final series against South Africa proved to be his best yet, when once again he worked in tandem with O’Reilly. He took an incredible 44 wickets in the series and 92 on the tour as a whole. He was still convinced that he had a role to play in the 1936/37 series against England. In the opening fixture, a testimonial between Bradman and Richardson’s XI’s, F.A.Ward, who had been the leading bowler in 1935/36 for South Australia whilst Grimmett was in South Africa, took figures of 7-127 and 5-100 and subsequently a further ten for South Australia against the M.C.C. With a far superior record than Grimmett, Ward was selected for the first Test against England, and although being left out after three Tests, Australia went on to win the rubber by three games to two without having recourse to Grimmett. There was every indication that he would figure in the tour of England in 1938, having toured in the previous three but Ward was given the spinner’s place alongside O’Reilly and Fleetwood-Smith. There was considerable disappointment in many quarters that Grimmett had been overlooked, bowlers such as O’Reilly being convinced that he should have been chosen, O’Reilly later commenting that ‘Grimmett ‘s omission was the most biased, ill-considered piece of selection known to Australian cricket,’ It was suggested in some quarters that according to Bradman, Grimmett had lost his ‘leg-break.’ Grimmett had earlier responded by bowling Bradman himself with a well-flighted leg-break in a testimonial match in November 1937, remarking that ‘this will teach the little beggar I can still bowl a leg-break.’ It was in fact the tenth and final time that he was dismissed by Grimmett. Subsequently there was an alleged dressing-room disagreement between Bradman and 6