Clarrie Grimmett

Grimmett in 1937

Personal information

Full name

Clarence Victor Grimmett

Born

25 December 1891
Caversham, Dunedin, New Zealand

Died

2 May 1980 (aged 88)
Kensington Park, Adelaide, Australia

Batting style

Right-handed batsman (RHB)

Bowling style

Leg break googly (LBG)

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	4720
Batting average	13.92	17.67
100s/50s	0/1	0/12
Top score	50	71*
Balls bowled	14513	73987
Wickets	216	1424
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

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.

Grimmett was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, on Christmas Day, 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.

He played club cricket in Sydney for 3 years. 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.^[2] 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 took a five-wicket 'bag' 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.^[3]

References

↑ Bill O'Reilly, "Clarrie Grimmett", in John Woodcock (ed.) Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1981 (Queen Anne Press, London, 1981) 103-105 at 103.
↑ "5th Test: Australia v England at Sydney, Feb 27-Mar 4, 1925". espncricinfo. Retrieved 2011-12-13.
↑ "Sutcliffe, Grimmett, Trumper, Wasim and Waugh new inductees into Cricket Hall of Fame".

External links

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

Australian first-class cricket season leading wicket-takers (1900–01 to 1949–50)

1900–01: Saunders/Travers 1901–02: Braund 1902–03: Saunders 1903–04: Rhodes 1904–05: Collins 1905–06: Garnsey 1906–07: Garnsey 1907–08: Crawford/Saunders 1908–09: O'Connor 1909–10: Saunders 1910–11: Whitty 1911–12: Foster 1912–13: Massie 1913–14: Kelleway 1914–15: Ironmonger 1915–16: – 1916–17: – 1917–18: – 1918–19: McDonald 1919–20: Hendry 1920–21: Mailey 1921–22: McDonald 1922–23: Mailey 1923–24: Hartkopf/Williams 1924–25: Tate 1925–26: Grimmett 1926–27: Williams 1927–28: Grimmett 1928–29: Grimmett 1929–30: Grimmett 1930–31: Grimmett 1931–32: Grimmett 1932–33: O'Reilly 1933–34: Grimmett 1934–35: Fleetwood-Smith 1935–36: Ward 1936–37: Fleetwood-Smith/Ward 1937–38: Fleetwood-Smith/O'Reilly 1938–39: Fleetwood-Smith 1939–40: Grimmett 1940–41: O'Reilly 1941–42: O'Reilly 1942–43: – 1943–44: – 1944–45: – 1945–46: Tribe 1946–47: Wright 1947–48: Mankad 1948–49: Johnson

Leading run-scorers: 1850–51 to 1899–00 1900–01 to 1949–50 1950–51 to 1999–00 2000–01 onwards Leading wicket-takers: 1850–51 to 1899–00 1900–01 to 1949–50 1950–51 to 1999–00 2000–01 onwards

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 53381948 LCCN: n94069736 ISNI: 0000 0000 6390 7313

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Clarrie Grimmett

See also

References

External links