“18 December
Self bowled by A Attewell when not looking.
W Marshall bowled by self if bails had been on, but stumped same ball.
W Marshall clean bowled by Gunn.
Self clean bowled Henson.
Present: A Shrewsbury, Henson, Marshall, J Gunn, A Attewell
Noddy was present but did not play.
Dark day, light very bad.”
Of course one can understand a young cricketer keeping detailed notes of indoor practice in the winter. However, the date of the entry was December 18, 1900. The diary was maintained from December 1900 to March 1902. By then Arthur Shrewsbury was in his mid-40s, with 25 years of First-Class cricket behind him. All his contemporaries had long left the game.
However, he was still one of the very best batsmen of England. In 1902, in his final season at the age of 46, he topped the season’s batting average, pipping two batsmen whose names read Victor Trumper and KS Ranjitsinhji.
This curious character was never seen without a hat. On the field he wore a cricket cap, and immediately on the completion of the day’s play, he would change it for a hat — preferably with no one noticing the sleight of hand. He quite matched the peculiarity of Clarrie Grimmett in this regard.
Perhaps it was to hide the increasing baldness, that would have prompted questions about his age. As a professional cricketer, he could not really afford the stereotypical selectorial contemplations about infusion of youth and all that.
There were other outcomes of his being a professional cricketer. The needless qualifier associated with the evaluation of his competence. “The greatest professional batsman of England” or “The greatest professional batsman of the world.”
Batting, the occupation of privileged laziness, was after all the accepted domain of the carefree amateurs. Running in with the ball under a cruel sun was what professionals were for. That is why they were paid.
However, for several seasons in the 1880s and 1890s, Shrewsbury was simply the best batsman, in England and elsewhere … no qualifier required.
In 1887, he scored 1653 runs at 78.71. No one, including WG Grace, came within 20 runs of his per-innings prowess. He missed the 1888 season and played only half of 1889. Other than that he topped the batting averages of every season from 1885 to 1892. And he scored 1000 or more in 13 of the 14 full seasons that he played up to 1902.
A complex and troubled man, Shrewsbury died by his own hands, putting a bullet through his head in early May 1903.
Arthur Shewsbury was born on 11 April 1856.