Clarence Victor "Clarrie" Grimmett (25 December 1891 – 2 May 1980) was a New Zealand-born Australian cricketer. He is thought by many to be one of the finest early spin bowlers, and usually credited as the developer of the flipper. Early life in New Zealand Grimmett was born in Caversham, Dunedin, New Zealand, on Christmas Day 1891, leading Bill O'Reilly to say that he "must have been the best Christmas present Australia ever received from that country." 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. Life in Australia He played club cricket in Sydney for three years. In his first match in senior cricket, he took 12 wickets for 65 runs. 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 took two five wicket hauls on debut against England in Sydney in 1925. He became the first bowler to reach the milestone of taking 200 Test wickets, and is one of only five Test bowlers that played in their first Test after the age of thirty to take more than 100 wickets, the other four being Dilip Doshi, Saeed Ajmal, Ryan Harris and Mohammed Rafique. He took an average of six wickets per match. Many wickets in the last four years of his Test career were taken bowling in tandem with fellow leg-spinner Bill O'Reilly. Grimmett remains the one of the few bowlers with career figures of over 200 wickets in fewer than 40 Tests. He held the record for the fastest bowler to take 200 wickets in Tests, doing so in his 36th match. The record stood for 82 years, until Yasir Shah of Pakistan broke that mark in December 2018. He took a five-wicket haul 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