Willie Quaife

Who was Willie Quaife?

William Quaife, known as "Willie", born at Newhaven, Sussex on 17 March 1872 and died at Edgbaston, Birmingham, on 13 October 1951, was a cricketer who played for Sussex, Warwickshire and England.

A diminutive right-handed batsman with a strong defence, Quaife played one match for Sussex before moving, with his older brother Walter, to Warwickshire in 1894. He made a century on his debut and, 35 years later at the age of 56, made another on his last appearance for the county in 1928. In between, he scored more than 36,000 runs with a further 70 centuries and, for good measure, took 900 wickets with leg break bowling that, early in his career, was suspected to be illegal. He passed the 1,000 run mark in 25 seasons and was the leading batsman as Warwickshire won the County Championship for the first time in 1911. His career total of 36,012 runs puts him 36th on the all-time list of run-getters.

Quaife made only seven Test match appearances, starting with two matches against the Australians in 1899, and then featuring in all five games on the 1901-02 tour to Australia under Archie MacLaren. He met with little success, except at Adelaide, where he scored 68 and 44 in the third Test.

Quaife also played for W. G. Grace's London County team and spent the winter of 1912-13 playing for Griqualand West in South Africa. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1902.