Fred Grace

 ( 1850 Births ) 

It is generally agreed that the inaugural first-class match played by Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, per se, was against Surrey at Durdham Down, Clifton from Wednesday, 2 to Friday, 4 June 1870. EM, WG and Fred Grace all played for Gloucestershire who won by 51 runs. Grace bowled well, taking four for 56 and four for 31. He scored 16 (hit wicket) and 15 which were useful runs in a low-scoring (<500) match. Gloucestershire v Surrey, 1870 – scorecard The county club has always dated its foundation to 1870 (it celebrated its centenary in 1970) but its formal constitution was not completed until March 1871 when it finally merged with the Cheltenham and Gloucestershire.

From Thursday, 18 to Saturday, 20 August 1870, Grace played alongside WG for the Gentlemen of the South against the Gentlemen of the North at Meadow Road, Beeston. The North, captained by WG's long-time rival A. N. Hornby, won the toss and decided to bat first. They scored 287, WG taking six for 89 and Fred one for 53 (Hornby scored 103). The South were 6 for one at close of play on Thursday. WG, who opened the innings, went on to make 77 on Friday morning, sharing a third wicket partnership of 122 with Isaac Walker. When he was out, Fred came in to join Walker and came of age as a cricketer. They shared a stand of 294 for the fourth wicket, broken when Walker was out for 179. There was then something of a collapse as the South went from 430 for four to 482 all out just before the close. Fred scored 189 not out and that remained his career-highest innings. On the final day, the North managed to avoid the innings defeat and amassed 289 (WG three for 83; Fred two for 61) to ensure a draw. Gentlemen of the North v Gentlemen of the South – scorecard Prior to this match, Grace's highest score was 33. As Eric Midwinter put it, "here was another cricketing talent to be nurtured".Midwinter, p. 29.

The Gloucestershire v Australians match took place Monday, 2 to Wednesday, 3 August at the Clifton College Close Ground and the Australians won by 68 runs. All the Grace brothers and Billy Midwinter played for Gloucestershire but, with eleven wickets, Fred Spofforth won the game for the Australians. Gloucestershire v Australians 1880 – scorecard It was a big match both on the day and in terms of its legacy. Knox says that Gloucestershire treated it "as an international" and a huge crowd attended. In the longer term, it convinced first the Graces and then Harris that international cricket was the way forward and negotiations began to ensure that such a match took place that summer.Knox, p. 74.

Grace was selected along with EM and WG to play for England at The Oval. The match was played Monday, 6 to Wednesday, 8 September and was later recognised as the inaugural Test cricket in England. Grace was out for nought in both innings and so became, albeit retrospectively, the first player to be dismissed for a pair on Test debut. England v Australia 1880 – scorecard He made his mark on the match by holding a celebrated, and possibly match-winning, caught on the boundary in front of the gasometer at the Vauxhall End. This was from a shot by the giant Australian batsman George Bonnor off Alfred Shaw. Bonnor hit the ball so high that he and his partner Harry Boyle had turned for their third run before, finally, the ball came down to Grace who had positioned himself perfectly to catch it cleanly.Rae, p. 250. That catch became part of cricket's folklore and has been described as "the most famous deep field catch in history".

The cause of death, though given as "congestion of the lungs", was pneumonia. Grace was buried in the cemetery at Downend and an estimated 3,000 people followed his coffin. The Australians wore black armbands during their last match which began on the day of the funeral. The Times wrote: "His manly and straightforward conduct and genial manners won him not only popularity, but the esteem of hosts and friends".Rae, p. 257.

It has been alleged that Grace's illness developed "after sleeping in a damp hotel bed". Gilbert, who stayed at the hotel for several days, later wrote to The Daily Telegraph: "It having come to my knowledge there is a rumour abroad that Mr. G. F. Grace's fatal illness was caused by sleeping in a damp bed at the Red Lion Hotel, Basingstoke, I beg to contradict it. He had a bad cold before he left home, and on my arrival at Basingstoke he told me that he had received another chill whilst waiting at Reading Station. By inserting this you will greatly oblige me, and also do justice to the members of a family whose attention and kindness to my cousin all through his illness could not have been surpassed had he been at home". The "damp bed" story is refuted by evidence to the contrary, as described above, because Grace's illness began with the cold he caught during the match at The Oval and he was already ill when he arrived in Basingstoke.Rae, pp. 256–257.

Fred Grace was unquestionably a top-class cricketer through the 1870s but, like everyone else, he was overshadowed by WG, to whom he was especially close. Bernard Darwin wrote that Fred was the sibling (they were in a family of nine) to whom WG "was most devoted" and Fred's death created a "real and permanent gap" in WG's life.Darwin, p. 62. In his classic work, Beyond a Boundary, C. L. R. James observed that the three Grace brothers were a "clan", unlike other sets of cricketing brothers. James concluded that WG was "close enough" to EM but he felt the death of Fred more than other bereavements. The brothers were linked together but they were three individuals and, in character terms, there was polarity between EM and Fred with WG in between. EM, says James, "was a card" but Fred was "thoughtful and reserved".James, p. 233.