Three years before his younger brother W.G. made his first-class debut, E.M. Grace produced one of the most extraordinary all-round performances in cricket history. Playing for the MCC at Canterbury Week against Kent on 14-15 August 1862, the 20-year-old from Downend carried his bat for 192 not out of an MCC total of 344, then took all ten Kent wickets in the first innings for 69 runs. The match, played 12-a-side, would not enter the official records — but the news of it travelled around the cricket world and made E.M. Grace a household name overnight.
Canterbury Week, established in 1842, was the social and sporting highlight of the Kent cricket calendar. The MCC fielded a strong side for the 1862 fixture; Kent, captained by W.S. Norton, requested the match be played 12-a-side to give a chance to two extra young cricketers. The decision cost the match its formal first-class status but did nothing to diminish its scoring records.
E.M. Grace had a strong 1862 season for the South Wales club and for various MCC sides. By August he was averaging over 50 in important matches and was a near-automatic selection for showpiece fixtures. The Canterbury Week invitation came with the expectation that he would top-score; nobody anticipated 192 not out followed by all ten wickets.
Edward Mills Grace (born 28 November 1841, Downend) was the second of the cricketing Grace brothers and was, until W.G. emerged, the family's leading player. Right-handed, hard-hitting, with an unorthodox bat-lifting technique that earned scoldings from his uncle Alfred Pocock, he was already a Bristol legend by his late teens. In August 1862, picked by the MCC for the Canterbury Week fixture against Kent (a high-profile match in front of large crowds), E.M. Grace produced what most cricket historians regard as the greatest single all-round performance of the pre-Grace era. He carried his bat through the entire MCC innings, finishing on 192 not out from a total of 344. He then took all ten Kent first-innings wickets for 69 runs, bowling slow underarm 'lobs' that would later be his trademark. Because the match was played 12-a-side at Kent's request, it does not appear in the strict first-class record. Wisden and most contemporary chroniclers nonetheless treated it as among the most remarkable feats ever recorded. E.M. Grace went on to captain Gloucestershire from 1871 to 1891, score nearly 10,000 first-class runs, take more than 300 first-class wickets and serve as County Coroner — the role that gave him his lifelong nickname, 'The Coroner'.
14 Aug 1862: Match begins at Canterbury, MCC bat first
E.M. Grace bats throughout the MCC innings, finishing 192 not out of 344
MCC declare; Kent begin their first innings on the second day
E.M. Grace takes all ten Kent wickets for 69 runs bowling slow underarm
MCC take a lead of more than 100 runs
MCC win the match comprehensively
News of E.M. Grace's all-round feat spreads through London press
28 Nov 1841
E.M. Grace born at Downend, Gloucestershire
14-15 Aug 1862
Canterbury Week feat: 192 not out and 10 wickets
1863-64
Tours Australia with George Parr's English XII
1871-1891
Captains Gloucestershire
20 May 1911
Dies at Thornbury, Gloucestershire
“He carried his bat through the innings for 192, and then dismissed all ten Kent batsmen in their first innings.”
E.M. Grace's reputation was now national. He was selected for the All-England Eleven and joined George Parr's tour of Australia and New Zealand the following winter (1863-64), the second English tour to the colonies. He maintained his standing as the family's senior cricketer until W.G.'s emergence in the late 1860s, after which he settled into a long career as Gloucestershire's captain and as one of the game's great characters.
The greatest all-round match performance of the pre-W.G. era, played by his older brother and predating W.G.'s first-class debut by three years.
The Canterbury 192 not out and 10-for is treated by cricket historians as the high-water mark of the pre-W.G. era and the first hint that the Grace family would dominate English cricket. The match's exclusion from the strict first-class record on a technicality is one of the recurring debates in 19th-century cricket statistics. E.M.'s nickname, 'The Coroner', stuck for life and is still used in Gloucestershire club histories.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.