WG Grace's 152 — First Test Century on English Soil, 1880

England had hosted Australian touring sides since 1878 but had played only exhibition matches against them. The Sydney crowd riot during Lord Harris's 1879 tour had soured relations and made an English Test fixture politically delicate. CW Alcock, secretary of Surrey CCC and editor of Cricket: A Weekly Record, eventually brokered the September 1880 match.

WG Grace had toured Australia in 1873-74 and 1891-92 but had not played in the inaugural 1877 Tests. By 1880 he was already a national institution: Gloucestershire captain, MCC member, and box-office draw whose name on a fixture poster could double the attendance.

The Australians arrived at The Oval underprepared and without Spofforth. England fielded a strong XI under Lord Harris's captaincy. The pitch was good and the weather warm. Grace and EM walked out at the start to a crowd of around 20,000.

The match had been pulled together at six weeks' notice. Lord Harris, who was managing England's interests, had refused for years to play the touring Australians under Test conditions; only the August 1880 collapse of the planned fixture list — and pressure from CW Alcock at The Oval — produced the game.

WG Grace had not played a Test before, although he had captained representative sides against the Australians in 1878. Aged 32, he was already the most famous cricketer in the world. Walking out to open with his elder brother EM, he batted three hours fifty-five minutes for 152 from 294 balls, dominating a partnership of 91 with EM and a further stand with AP Lucas. England were dismissed for 420.

Australia, missing Spofforth (injured), made 149 in their first innings. Following on, they were rescued by an extraordinary 153 not out from Billy Murdoch — at the time the highest individual Test score, and made on his 25th birthday. Set 57 to win, England got there for the loss of five wickets, the wickets falling to nerves rather than bowling.

WG's 152 was the first century by an England batsman in a Test, the first century by anyone in a Test in England, and the foundation of an England win that should, in another reality, have been the start of regular home Tests. As it happened, the next Test in England would not come until 1882, two years away.

“My heart stopped beating as I went on waiting for the ball to come.”

“Between 1870 and 1880, Shaw was perhaps the best bowler in England.”

GF Grace caught a chill during the match, returned to the Bristol area, and died of pneumonia on 22 September — exactly two weeks after the Test ended. He was 29. The match thus carries one of the most poignant family stories in Test history: the only Test in which three brothers appeared, the youngest of whom was dead within a fortnight.

Murdoch's 153* would stand as the Test record until Tip Foster's 287 at Sydney in 1903. Grace's 152, while not the global record (Charles Bannerman's 165* from 1877 still held), was the start of an England century-making tradition that runs through to the present day.