Grace started his 1895 season on 9 May and finished it on 30 May with 1,016 first-class runs at an average over 100. Scores of 13, 103, 18, 25, 288, 52, 257, 73*, 18 and 169 made him the first player to score 1,000 first-class runs in May, a Victorian benchmark only matched twice since — by Wally Hammond in 1927 and Charlie Hallows in 1928. He was 46 going on 47.
Grace had not crossed 1,000 May runs before; only Arthur Shrewsbury and Maurice Read had even come close. The conventional first-class season started in early May and the calendar of fixtures expanded considerably from 1893. Grace had skipped much of the 1894 season with knee trouble and was widely written off as a force.
By 23 May, with 695 runs already in May from five matches, the cricket press began discussing the four-figure aggregate as a serious target. Grace had two fixtures remaining — Kent at Gravesend and Middlesex at Lord's — and needed roughly 305 runs.
The 1,000-in-May feat was conceived almost by accident. Grace had targeted only the 100th first-class hundred when he opened his 1895 season three weeks late, on 9 May at Hove. By the time he reached the milestone with 288 against Somerset on 17 May he was already on around 450 runs. The press began to chart the May aggregate; he set the target himself in conversation with the Gloucestershire committee on 23 May.
The sequence ran: 13 v Sussex (Hove, 9 May), 103 v Sussex (second innings), 18 v Yorkshire, 25 v Yorkshire, 288 v Somerset (Bristol, 16-18 May), 52 v Middlesex, 257 v Kent (Gravesend, 23-25 May), 73* v Kent, 18 v Middlesex (Lord's), 169 v Middlesex (Lord's, 30 May). The 169 took him to 1,016 by stumps.
The achievement is more remarkable for its context. Grace was 46 (he turned 47 in July), an active medical practitioner running a Bristol surgery, and carrying perhaps eighteen stone. May 1895 was unseasonably cold; tradition holds that the snowflakes settled on his beard during the 288. Across the same month, his Gloucestershire side travelled by rail to Hove, Bradford, Bristol, Lord's, Gravesend and back to Lord's — an itinerary that would tax a modern professional.
9 May: 13 v Sussex at Hove — first innings of the season.
10 May: 103 v Sussex — first hundred of May.
16-18 May: 288 v Somerset at Bristol — 100th first-class hundred.
23-25 May: 257 and 73* v Kent at Gravesend.
27 May: 18 v Middlesex at Lord's — pressure mounts.
30 May: 169 v Middlesex at Lord's — passes 1,000 May runs.
Final May aggregate: 1,016 runs at 112.88 from ten innings.
9 May 1895
Grace's season opens at Hove with 13.
10 May
103 v Sussex — first century.
17 May
100th first-class hundred — 288 v Somerset.
23-25 May
257 and 73* v Kent at Gravesend.
30 May
169 v Middlesex at Lord's takes him past 1,000.
“It is doubtful if any player will ever do as much again in May.”
The national testimonial fund opened in June 1895 raised £9,073 in three months, the largest sum ever subscribed for a sportsman in Britain. The MCC, the Daily Telegraph and Gloucestershire each ran separate funds; the Telegraph alone collected £5,000.
The defining month of Victorian cricket: 1,016 runs in May 1895 from a 46-year-old surgeon, set in cold weather by rail journeys between five grounds.
Only Walter Hammond (1,042 in May 1927) and Charlie Hallows (1,000 not out in May 1928) have repeated the feat in over 130 years. The shrinking county season after 2000 has effectively closed the door on it being matched again. Grace's May 1895 stands as the most thoroughly documented sequence in 19th-century cricket and the high point of his second career.
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.