that period frequently contradicted each other, and that the averages given in one seldom, if ever, agreed with those tabulated in another, that is not surprising. Ashley-Cooper compiled Grace's batting averages to the end of the 1896 season, and these were published in a series of articles in Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game in late 1896 and early 1897. In the first article, Ashley-Cooper says: I have included MCC v Herts and MCC v Staffordshire, which, although not really first-class, have always been reckoned in WG's averages for 1873. Between this 1896 article and the 1916 obituary, Ashley-Cooper omits three matches played by Grace for the South Wales Cricket Club during its tour of the London area in the latter half of July 1865: Middlesex Club & Ground v South Wales I Zingari v South Wales Surrey Club & Ground v South Wales Furthermore, Ashley-Cooper includes the Oxford University v Gentlemen of England match at Oxford in May 1866 which he had previously omitted. This demonstrates that even after 1896, the career figures were sufficiently uncertain that he revised the list of first-class matches. It would have been difficult for Ashley-Cooper to include and exclude matches in which Grace scored a century, but clearly the career run total was sufficiently uncertain that matches in which he did not score a century could be added or removed without much comment. One aspect of Ashley-Cooper's analysis that must be questioned is his assertion that the performances of Grace in a certain match should be regarded as first-class but that performances by other players should not. Clearly, if a match is first-class, then all players taking part must have the match included in their own first-class records. Incidentally, the 1896 Wisden includes Grace's career figures to the end of the 1895 season: this also gives the same number of centuries as the 1916 edition, but his season totals differ in some respects. 1868 match Gloucestershire matches are generally regarded as first-class from 1870 onwards. The 1869 edition of John Lillywhite's Cricketer's Companion (aka "Green Lilly") does not include the 1868 MCC v Gloucestershire match in Grace's first-class figures, but Ashley-Cooper retrospectively chose to add it to his totals for the season. 1873 matches The 1873 games typify the loose manner in which statistics were compiled in those days. Grace's first-class batting aggregate for that season included his scores in the MCC