On 1 June 1899, the 21-year-old Yorkshire left-arm spinner Wilfred Rhodes opened England's bowling against Australia at Trent Bridge and took 4 for 58 in 35.1 overs on debut. The same Test marked W.G. Grace's last appearance. Rhodes would play another 57 Tests across the next 31 years, finishing with the longest Test career in cricket history — the only man to play with both W.G. Grace and Don Bradman.
Rhodes was born in Kirkheaton, Yorkshire, in October 1877, the same village that produced George Hirst. He worked in a railway-engine works as a teenager; his Yorkshire chance came only after Bobby Peel's sacking in 1897. By the spring of 1899 he was the most-talked-about colt in England.
Australia won the toss and elected to bat. Grace, captaining, walked across to Rhodes before the first over and gave him the new ball — an unusual gesture for a left-arm spinner.
Rhodes had been promoted to Yorkshire's first XI in April 1898 to replace the sacked Bobby Peel. He took 154 first-class wickets at 14.60 in his first season and was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1899. Selection for the First Test at Trent Bridge was almost automatic; what was less expected was that Grace, captaining, would open the bowling with him.
Rhodes bowled 35.1 four-ball overs in Australia's first innings of 252, taking 4 for 58. His first Test wicket was Monty Noble, caught off a turn-and-bounce delivery; he went on to remove Hugh Trumble (5), Jack Worrall (4) and Ernie Jones (1). He bowled tight; Wisden noted his 'remarkable steadiness for a colt.' In Australia's second innings he took 1 for 39 and helped England escape the Test by batting out the closing overs at number eleven.
The career that opened that day would run to 1930. Rhodes played 58 Tests, took 127 Test wickets, scored 2,325 Test runs (including a 179 at Melbourne in 1911-12), opened the batting with Jack Hobbs in a record 323-run partnership against Australia in 1911-12, and bowled to Don Bradman at The Oval in 1930 in his 58th and final Test. His first-class career produced 4,184 wickets — the most in cricket history — and 39,969 runs. Asked late in life what he remembered of Grace, Rhodes said: 'He could see further down the pitch than anyone I ever played with.'
Rhodes opens the bowling with Grace's blessing.
First Test wicket: Monty Noble, caught.
Bowls 35.1 four-ball overs in the first innings.
First-innings figures: 4 for 58.
Second-innings figures: 1 for 39.
Bats at eleven, helps England survive at 155/7.
Test debut alongside Grace's last Test and Trumper's first.
29 Oct 1877
Rhodes born in Kirkheaton, Yorkshire.
May 1898
First-class debut for Yorkshire after Peel's sacking.
1898 season
154 wickets at 14.60; Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
1 Jun 1899
Test debut at Trent Bridge; 4/58.
Aug 1930
58th and final Test, against West Indies, aged 52.
“Mr Rhodes bowled with steadiness and judgement remarkable for a colt.”
“He could see further down the pitch than anyone I ever played with.”
Rhodes played all five Tests of 1899 and was a fixture in the England side for the next decade. He toured Australia six times. He took his 100th Test wicket in 1903; his 4,000th first-class wicket in 1929. He came back for one last Test against the West Indies at Kingston in 1930, aged 52, and remains the oldest Test player.
The first day of the longest Test career in cricket history. The man who bowled with Grace and against Bradman opened the same Test with both.
Rhodes's debut and Grace's farewell at Trent Bridge in June 1899 is cricket's most famous transitional Test. His career — first played alongside Grace, last played against Bradman — is the human bridge across the game's first half-century. He died in 1973 aged 95, the oldest surviving Test cricketer of his time.
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.