England won the toss and EM and WG went out to open the batting for their country. They put on 91 runs together. And though EM was out for 32, WG carried on to score the first test century on English soil. What could young Fred do to top that? Nothing. He was out second ball for a duck.
England then bowled Australia out twice, with WG inevitably taking a few wickets. What could young Fred do to top that? Nothing. He didn't bowl in the first innings, and he didn't bowl in the second. England required just 57 runs to win the match, a paltry target. Perhaps because of his first-innings duck, young Fred was given the chance to open the batting. He was out second ball for a duck, again.
Panic set in after his dismissal and five wickets fell, before, inevitably, big brother WG came to the crease to calm things down and win the game for England.
To top it all, Fred had caught a cold during the match. He went back to Gloucestershire the next day to play in another game, during which he was twice caught in rain showers and his cold got worse. And on the way to yet another cricket match he became so ill he was forced to take a room in the Red Lion Hotel in Basingstoke.
It was rumoured at the time that his hotel bed was damp but the evidence is inconclusive. What is for sure is that a doctor attended to him and declared an infection of the lung. Fred seemed nevertheless to be recovering but then all of a sudden deteriorated and died. The cause of death was pneumonia. It was just two weeks after his one and only test match in which he scored no runs and took no wickets. But in a twist of fate, that is frankly atypical, he still had cause to look back on that match with affection.
In the Australian second innings, George Bonner, six foot six inches tall and a famous hitter, sent a ball so high in the air that he and his partner were able to complete two runs and be halfway through the third before it came down. And where it came down was in the hands of young Fred Grace. The crowd erupted. Even to this day it is remembered as being among the greatest outfield catches of all time.
And with the sort of sentimentality that the Victorians loved, I like to think that as Fred Grace's eyes closed for the last time in that Basingstoke hotel the fingers of memory were closing once again around that famous catch.
By the way, can you guess what happened to his fiancée, Annie Robinson? Dead right. She married EM. Poignantly.