Fred. Otherwise, Grace played for expenses but these were loaded as, for example, he is known to have claimed £15 per appearance for Gloucestershire and £20 for representing the Gentlemen. Although the money he was paid is "small beer" compared with 21st-century sports stars, there is no doubt he had a comfortable living out of cricket and made far more money than any contemporary professional. To put it in context, a domestic servant earned less than £50 a year. First-class career statistics According to the statistical record used by CricketArchive, Grace's final first-class appearance in 1908 was his 870th, and concluded a first-class career that had lasted 44 seasons from 1865 to 1908, equalling the record for the longest career span held by John Sherman, who played from 1809 to 1852. But according to an older version of Grace's career record, published by Wisden in 1916, Grace played in 878 first-class matches over the same span, and other sources list Grace as playing 880 first-class matches. Grace himself regarded the South Wales matches in 1864 as first-class fixtures, and refers to them in his Cricketing Reminiscences as "really big" games. He was supported in his view by Lillywhite's Guide to Cricketers (1865 edition) which included his innings at Hove in a list called Scores of 100 or more made since 1850 in first-class matches. Grace's score was one of only six that exceeded 150. Despite Grace's own views on the matter, his "first-class career record" was effectively confirmed by F.S. Ashley-Cooper who produced a list of season-by-season figures to supplement Grace's obituary in the 1916 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. These figures came to be known as Grace's "traditional" career record and granted him 126 first-class centuries, a total that remained a record until it was broken by Jack Hobbs in 1925; it was not until Roy Webber's research in the 1950s that Ashley-Cooper's list was challenged. Following further research by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) in the 1970s and 1980s, an "amended" career record was published which reduced Grace's total of centuries to 124. This was challenged, for historical reasons, by Wisden in 1983 and the current situation regarding this controversy is that both sides generally accept each other's views. For example, Rae points out that the statisticians are right to criticise Victorian compilers for "including minor matches to enable Grace to reach certain milestones", but