Clarrie Grimmett

Clarence Victor "Clarrie" Grimmett (25 December 1891 – 2 May 1980) was a cricketer; although born in New Zealand, he played most of his cricket in Australia. He is thought by many to be one of the finest early spin bowlers, and usually credited as the developer of the flipper.

Clarrie Grimmett

Grimmett in 1934
Personal information
Full name	Clarence Victor Grimmett
Born	(1891-12-25)25 December 1891 Caversham, Dunedin, New Zealand
Died	2 May 1980(1980-05-02) (aged 88) Kensington Park, Adelaide, Australia
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Leg break, googly
Role	Bowler
International information
National side	Australia
Test debut (cap 121)	27 February 1925 v England
Last Test	28 February 1936 v South Africa
Career statistics
Competition Tests First-class Matches 37 248 Runs scored 557 4,720 Batting average 13.92 17.67 100s/50s 0/1 0/12 Top score 50 71* Balls bowled 14,513 73,987 Wickets 216 1,424 Bowling average 24.21 22.28 5 wickets in innings 21 127 10 wickets in match 7 33 Best bowling 7/40 10/37 Catches/stumpings 17/0 140/0
Source: Cricinfo, 13 May 2019

Early life in New Zealand

Grimmett was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, on Christmas Day 1891, leading Bill O'Reilly to say that he "must have been the best Christmas present Australia ever received from that country."[1]

A schoolmaster encouraged him to concentrate on spin bowling rather than fast bowling. He played club cricket in Wellington, and made his first-class debut for Wellington at the age of 17. At that time, New Zealand was not a Test cricketing nation, and in 1914 he moved to neighbouring Australia, then as now one of the sport's superpowers.

Life in Australia

He played club cricket in Sydney for three years. In his first match in senior cricket he took 12 wickets for 65 runs.[2] After marrying a Victorian, he moved to Melbourne, where he played first-class cricket for Victoria. He moved to South Australia in 1923, but it is for his performances in Test cricket for the Australian cricket team that he is best remembered.

Grimmett played 37 Tests between 1924 and 1936, taking 216 wickets at an average of just 24.21 runs apiece. He took two five wicket hauls on debut against England in Sydney in 1925.[3] He became the first bowler to reach the milestone of taking 200 Test wickets, and is one of only four Test bowlers that played in their first Test after the age of thirty to take more than 100 wickets, the other three being Dilip Doshi, Saeed Ajmal and Ryan Harris. He took an average of six wickets per match. Many wickets in the last four years of his Test career were taken bowling in tandem with fellow leg-spinner Bill O'Reilly. Grimmett remains the one of the few bowlers with career figures of over 200 wickets in fewer than 40 Tests. He held the record for the fastest bowler to take 200 wickets in Tests, doing so in his 36th match.[4] The record stood for 82 years, until Yasir Shah of Pakistan broke that mark in December 2018.[5]

He took a five-wicket haul on 21 occasions, seven times finishing with ten wickets or more in a match. His Test career only began when he was aged 33, and ended when he was 44, playing his last Test against South Africa in Durban. Despite taking 44 wickets in the series, and continued success in first-class cricket, he was dropped for the 1936/7 series at home against England, replaced by Frank Ward, and did not join the 1938 tour to England.

His first-class records holds a total of 1,424 wickets in 248 matches between 1911 and 1941, again at a rate close to six wickets per match. This total included 5 wicket bags on over 120 occasions and – in one performance for a touring Australian side against Yorkshire in 1930, he took 10 wickets for 37 runs off 22.3 overs, one of only a very small number of players to have claimed all of the wickets in an innings. He took 513 wickets in his 79 Sheffield Shield matches.

Grimmett was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1931, the same year as Donald Bradman. He died in Adelaide in 1980, but was posthumously inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 1996 as one of the ten inaugural members. On 30 September 2009, Clarrie Grimmett was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.[6]

See also

• List of international cricket five-wicket hauls by Clarrie Grimmett

References

1. Bill O'Reilly, "Clarrie Grimmett", in John Woodcock (ed.) Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1981 (Queen Anne Press, London, 1981) 103–105 at 103.
2. "Outdoor Sports and Pastimes". Free Lance: 20. 27 February 1915. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
3. "5th Test: Australia v England at Sydney, Feb 27 – Mar 4, 1925". espncricinfo. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
4. "Yasir Shah fastest to 200 Test wickets, breaks 82-year-old record". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
5. "Yasir Shah becomes fastest to 200 Test wickets". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
6. "Sutcliffe, Grimmett, Trumper, Wasim and Waugh new inductees into Cricket Hall of Fame".

External links

• Media related to Clarrie Grimmett at Wikimedia Commons
• Clarrie Grimmett at ESPNcricinfo

Records
Preceded by Sydney Barnes	Most career wickets in Test cricket 216 wickets (24.21) in 37 Tests Held record 4 January 1936 to 24 July 1953	Succeeded by Alec Bedser