by Abhishek Mukherjee
1876. WG Grace's watershed year.
Grace had topped the runs charts for every single season between 1868 and 1877 with the exception of 1875, when medical responsibilities forced him to cut down his cricket commitments.
He scored 2,622 runs in that season, at 59. Nobody else got even half as much. And only Alfred Shaw got more wickets than his 130.
In August that year he scored 839 runs in eight days, including scores of 344 and 318 not out – the first ever triple-hundreds in First-Class cricket. He also took 15 wickets, held 6 catches, and travelled 370 kilometres over this span of time.
But now we are talking about what he did on about a month before that.
The match was played at Grimsby, where a team of 22 locals took on Grace's United South of England XI.
Grace was, by common consensus, plumb leg-before when the team score had reached six. He was ruled not out. By stumps he had raced to 130, his team to 217/2.
Soon after play resumed next day, a boy ran on to the ground ran on to the ground with a telegram. Mrs Agnes Grace had given birth to their second child.
Play was stopped immediately. Grace treated all cricketers and all umpires to champagne, raised a toast to Agnes, then announced a line that almost certainly sent a chill down the spines of the Grimsby cricketers: "I should like to break a record and celebrate it".
There were 22 men on the field, but Grace kept accumulating runs at breakneck pace. By stumps he was 314, his team 537/3.
But there was no overnight declaration, and as news got out, the crowd decided to stay home for this irrelevant last day's cricket. None of that mattered to Grace, who killed the match in his pursuit of that quadruple hundred.
He was dropped twice after 350, and eventually remained unbeaten on 399 as his team were bowled out for 680.
Grace obviously had to confirm from the scorers how much he had got. Then he instructed them in that famous high-pitched voice: "Oh, make it 400."
So 680 became 681, and 399 became 400. The bowling figures, to quote the CricketArchive footnote, reads: "Bowling in the United South of England Eleven first innings adds 1 run under."
All this happened on 12 July 1876. A result was out of the question (they had to take 42 wickets, remember?). Grimbsy finished on 88/11
The next day he opened batting for United South against United North.