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'Clarence Victor "Clarrie" Grimmett' (December 25, 1891 - May 2, 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, Otago, New Zealand, on Christmas Day. 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 became the first bowler to reach the milestone of taking 200 Test wickets, and is one of only two Test bowlers that played in their first Test after the age of thirty to take 100 wickets, the other being Dilip Doshi. That he should amass so many wickets in so few Tests - almost 6 wickets per match - is remarkable, more so in that he was a leg-spin bowler. Many wickets in the last 4 years of his Test career were taken bowling in tandem with fellow leg-spinner Bill O'Reilly. Grimmett remains the only bowler 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 are equally impressive, with a grand 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 memorable 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.

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External links

★ Cricinfo page for Clarrie Grimmett