GC Grant was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad in 1907, one of ten children and twin brother of Janet together with whom he made the eighth and ninth. George and Janet were known as Jack and Jill and the Jackie stuck for the rest of his life. Jackie attended Queens Royal College where he captained the school cricket and football teams. Distinguished alumni of the school include the cricket writer CLR James and West Indies wicket keeper Deryck Murray who played in 62 tests between 1963 and 1980.
From Queens Jackie went to Cambridge University where he gained his blue for both cricket and football, the round ball version. His first first class match was at Wantage Road in June 1928, his only first class game that year and although his contribution was modest he had the pleasure of being on the winning side and playing in the same team as Duleepsinhji. Modest also best describes his performances in the two varsity matches he played but he had the satisfaction of being on the winning side at Lord's in 1930, Oxford, Nawab of Pataudi and all, being bowled out on the last day for 101, the last seven wickets going down for fifteen runs.
After Lord's Grant was selected to captain West Indies for their first tour of Australia in 30-31 which surprisingly began with a two day game at The Basin Reserve v Wellington. Ten days later Grant, who had not captained since his school days, led his men against New South Wales at the SCG, the start of a tour that was to be financially disastrous and during which they were to spend a lot of time watching a young Bradman take them to the cleaners. They came to the first test in Sydney on the back of three defeats by state sides and had the team been selected on form Jackie would have struggled to be picked. The match was lost by ten wickets and Jackie became the first man in test history to make two unbeaten fifties in the same match. Bradman batted only once and made only four. The second, third and fourth games were lost by similarly wide margins and Jackie did little with the bat and perhaps wisely bowled only one over. That was in the third test at Brisbane when Bradman scored 223, good call skipper.
By the time of the fifth test, back at Sydney, the financial situation was such that the West Indians had to use trams rather than taxis to travel to the ground for practice. After four defeats few would have given Grant's men any chance of avoiding defeat but having persuaded the Australian authorities to prepare a wicket with more pace the visitors rattled up 350 for 6, centuries for Martin and Headley and 62 for Grant, they restricted Bradman to 43 and a second innings duck and ran out winners by 30 runs.
It was two years before GC was to captain his country again, such was the gap between tests at that time, when he brought a nucleus of fifteen to England in 1933 for a demanding programme of thirty first class matches with the squad supplemented by recruits from league cricket. The most notable of these was Learie Constantine but he played in only one of the three test matches. The summer was a good one and batsmen thrived but only Headley of the tourists took full advantage of the firm wickets. He scored over 2000 runs including seven scores of over 100. Jackie Grant fared well enough with the bat to score almost 1200 runs but his test match performances were poor.
If this was disappointing Wisden could not speak highly enough of his captaincy, words like 'clever', 'enthusiastic', astute, 'sporting spirit' appear against Grant's name in editor Sydney J Southerton's report of the tour. Much too is made of his brilliant close fielding, especially at gully. The last match of the tour was played against Leveson-Gower's XI at Scarborough in early September 1933 and Grant did not lead his country again until they faced England in Barbados in January 1935, during which intervening period he had played only two first class matches, both for Trinidad. England, captained by Bob Wyatt, whilst not at full strength, took a stronger side to the Caribbean than in 1929-30. Not strong enough however.
The first match played on a freakish pitch was remarkable for its low scores and declarations, England declared their first innings at 81 for 7 and West Indies their second at 51 for 6. Despite Martindale taking five wickets England got home by four wickets. Hammond kept back in the order to number six hit the winning runs with a six. That was the height of it for England for at Port of Spain and Sabina Park they lost heavily with a draw at Georgetown in between. GC Grant was joined by his brother Rolph for all four tests. Sadly Jackie was off the field when the series was clinched in Jamaica and this was to be his last first class match. Still only 28 and at his moment of triumph he gave up cricket to join a missionary school in Durban. Life was far from dull for him there but that is a story for another time and perhaps another place.
Finally I must welcome Brian back to the team after a sabbatical of over three years. We look forward to more of his Yorkshire reminiscences as we all seek ways of enduring isolation and social distancing. From me next time more about the Grants and particularly brother Rolph, the tenth and last child of the family who succeeded brother Jackie as captain of his country. .
George Copeland 'Jackie' Grant
1907- 1978
A man who deserved more than the eight lines Wisden could spare for his obituary.
A man who deserved more than the eight lines Wisden could spare for his obituary.
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