Yorkshire and England
1929-08-31
By 1929 Wilfred Rhodes was 51 years old and still bowling left-arm orthodox spin for Yorkshire — the senior statesman of English cricket who had bowled to W.G. Grace 30 years earlier and was now coaching the next generation. His final selection for England came in the 1929-30 West Indies tour, by which time he was 52.
England v Australia
1926-08-18
Recalled to the England side aged 48 years and 165 days, Wilfred Rhodes took 4 for 44 in Australia's second innings at the Oval in August 1926, helping to win England's first Ashes series since 1912. He remains the oldest man ever to play Test cricket.
Yorkshire and English County Championship
1925-08-31
Between 1922 and 1925 Yorkshire won four consecutive County Championship titles — the longest unbroken run by any county since the championship became official in 1890. Captained by Geoffrey Wilson and then Major Lupton, the side built around Sutcliffe, Holmes, Rhodes, Macaulay and Robinson lost only 11 of 116 matches across the four seasons.
Yorkshire
1914-09-01
Yorkshire were declared County Champions for 1914 with the season abandoned in late August. The title was their seventh and the last for any county before the four-year break for war. The team contained Hirst, Rhodes, Hobbs's friend Major Booth and Roy Kilner — half of whom would not play first-class cricket again.
Australia vs England
1912-02-09
Jack Hobbs (178) and Wilfred Rhodes (179) put on 323 for the first wicket at Melbourne, setting a Test record that stood for 22 years and remains England's highest opening partnership against Australia more than a century later.
Australia vs England
1912-03-01
England's seam pair Sydney Barnes and Frank Foster shared 66 of the 95 Australian wickets to fall as Plum Warner's MCC side, captained by Johnny Douglas after Warner fell ill, lost the opening Test in Sydney and then won four in a row to take the series 4-1.
England
1910-12-15
Wilfred Rhodes had begun his Test career in 1899 batting at number eleven for England; through 1910-12 he was promoted up the order until, on the 1911-12 tour of Australia, he was opening with Jack Hobbs. The transformation produced one of cricket's great opening pairs and culminated in the 323-run stand at Melbourne.
Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, English counties
1908-09-01
Lord Hawke's Yorkshire went through the 1908 County Championship season unbeaten, winning the title for the eighth time under his captaincy. The season was capped by their dismissal of Northamptonshire for 27 and 15 — an aggregate of 42, the lowest in English first-class cricket — at Northampton in May, with Hirst taking 12 for 19 in the match.
Yorkshire CCC
1908-08-31
Under Lord Hawke's captaincy, Yorkshire won the County Championship in 1900, 1901, 1902, 1905 and 1908 — five titles in nine seasons. They went unbeaten in 1900 (their first such season) and again in 1908 ('the clean sheet championship'). Hirst, Rhodes and Haigh were the bowling backbone; Tunnicliffe, Brown and Denton scored the runs.
England, Australia
1902-08-13
Set 263 to win and tottering at 48 for 5, England were rescued by Gilbert Jessop, whose 104 in 75 minutes — with his 50 in 43 minutes — remains one of the fastest and most consequential innings in Test history. George Hirst and Wilfred Rhodes saw England home by one wicket, immortalising the (probably apocryphal) 'we'll get them in singles' exchange.
England, Australia
1902-08-13
When Bill Lockwood was bowled at 248 for 9 in England's chase of 263 at The Oval on 13 August 1902, Wilfred Rhodes joined his Yorkshire team-mate George Hirst with 15 runs still required against Trumble, Saunders and Noble. The two professionals from Kirkheaton edged, deflected and sometimes simply blocked their way to a one-wicket win — the foundation of perhaps cricket's most famous (and most disputed) quotation, 'we'll get them in singles'.
England, Australia
1902-05-29
On 29 May 1902 at Edgbaston, on a damp pitch, Wilfred Rhodes (7 for 17) and George Hirst (3 for 15) bowled Australia out for 36 — for almost a century the lowest total in Test cricket. The remarkable bowling, taking 90 minutes, is part of the Edgbaston Test legend; the match was eventually drawn after a thunderstorm washed out two days.
England, Australia
1899-06-01
Wilfred Rhodes made his Test debut at Trent Bridge in June 1899 — the same match that proved to be W.G. Grace's last Test. Rhodes' Test career would span 30 years 313 days, the longest in history; he would also be the oldest Test player ever (52 years 165 days). Through the 1900s he was first England's slow left-arm spinner and then, by 1909, an opening batsman.
England v Australia
1899-06-01
On 1-3 June 1899, in the first Test ever played at Trent Bridge, the 50-year-old W.G. Grace captained England against Australia. He made 28 and 1, dropped catches at point, and was barracked by the Nottingham crowd over his fielding. Three days after the match he resigned the captaincy and his place. The same Test marked the debuts of Wilfred Rhodes (21) and Victor Trumper (21) — Rhodes would play with Bradman in his last Test; Trumper would become Australia's first cricketing icon.
England v Australia
1899-06-01
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.
Yorkshire v Middlesex
1897-08-18
On 18 August 1897, Yorkshire's left-arm spinner Bobby Peel — at that point England's most successful slow bowler and a 100-Test-wicket man — turned up drunk on the third day of a Championship match against Middlesex at Bramall Lane. Lord Hawke ordered him from the field, and the Yorkshire committee suspended him for the rest of the season. Peel never played for Yorkshire again. The decision opened the door for the 19-year-old Wilfred Rhodes, who would take 4,184 first-class wickets across the next 33 years.