WG Grace in North America 1872
Martin Chandler |Published: 2026
Pages: 154
Author: Smith, Steve
Publisher: Private
Rating: 3 stars
The legendary WG Grace went on three overseas tours. He visited Australia twice, once in 1873/74, so four years before what is now recognised as the inaugural Test, and then again in 1891/92, by which time he was 43. Before either of those he had, in 1872, visited North America, and this book is the story of that tour culled from contemporary reports supplemented by a book written by the visiting skipper RA Fitzgerald, Wickets in the West, and the contents of WG’s 1899 autobiography, Cricketing Reminiscences and Personal Recollections.
Which is an important point to make given that, Bradman apart, there must have been more biographical works on WG Grace than any other cricketer in history. The tour of North America certainly features in all those I have, hardly surprisingly given that, as the front cover of this one quotes WG himself describing the trip as a prolonged and happy picnic.
So whilst the tourists are all introduced to Steve’s reader there are no biographies as such and in particular no account of why WG, already recognised as an exceptional talent, chose to take part in what was never going to be, playing wise, a particularly testing tour. The remainder of the tourists were certainly not representative of the strength of English cricket, if for no other reason than all the players were amateurs, but the future Lord Harris and Lancashire’s ‘Monkey’ Hornby both went on to play Test cricket. Of the others Cuthbert Ottaway is a most interesting character who would, within weeks of returning home, captain England against Scotland in what is now recognised as the first international association football match.
But what is dealt with in full is the organisation of the trip. In addition there are detailed accounts of the nine matches played and there is also a good deal on what happened off the field. The cricket itself was largely predictable, the tourists recording substantial victories in all but two of the games even though, save one match when they split in two and played a 12 a side match with the locals making up the numbers, they played against 22, so none of the matches have First Class status.
The two trickier fixtures were, firstly and unsurprisingly, against Philadelphia where the tourists did win, but with a victory target of just 34 they had only four wickets in hand at the end and seem to have benefitted from a couple of dubious umpiring decisions. The final game, against Boston, was drawn the weather having the final say although, as Steve’s reader will learn, had the conditions held for another hour the home side might well have been the team to lower the tourists’ colours.
One final warning is to not to expect too many runs. WG was, naturally, the leading batsman on the tour but despite the none too testing opposition he still averaged a relatively modest 40.91. What puts that in context is the performance of the second man in the table, Arthur Appleby, who managed just 16.75. Hornby, who made 16 First Class centuries, averaged a mere 12.00. The tourists’ individual bowling averages are impossible to calculate as not all runs are attributed to the bowlers who conceded them but, excepting the 12 a side a game, all the tourists between them took 335 wickets at an average cost of just over three runs each.
But like all of Steve Smith’s books this one definitely gives a flavour of events that are now more than 150 years in the past, and is definitely an eye opener.
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