Cricket is under a cloud again with allegations of skulduggery, match-fixing and too much intimacy with the betting fraternity.

Some pundits are bewailing the fact that the phrase 'it's not cricket' may have been devalued. But was cricket ever a wholly-unblemished pastime? Probably not.

One of the greatest players of all time - according to his supporters - was W G Grace. And if ever there was a man who bent the rules, demanded his own way and squawked like a five-year-old when he didn't get it, it was Grace.

One victim of Grace's imperious manner was Herbert John Knutton, a fast bowler who played for Bradford in the early part of the last century. He later went on to found the sports outfitter's which bore his name in Town Hall Square. Generations of schoolchildren were clothed there.

But H J Knutton was, in his youth, a fast bowler - very fast. One of the quickest in the history of the Bradford League, in fact. He wasn't very big in stature but the size of his reputation in the Lancashire League - he took 509 wickets in six seasons for Little Lever - prompted Abe Sowden to sign him for Bradford in 1897.

In that first year at Park Avenue, he turned down an offer of £20 a week to return to Lancashire. That was a phenomenal amount - well over £5,000 in today's money. In his dozen years at Bradford, between 1897 and 1909, he took 1,196 wickets at an average of 9.9 in league games, and in all he took 1,500.

Once he found himself playing for All England. It was 1902 and the touring Australians under Darling came to Bradford. In the only Aussie innings, Knutton took 9-100, prompting the opposing skipper to say he would have played for any representative side if he had been born Down Under.

There had been suggestions that Knutton was a 'chucker', bowling with a bent arm, but the Australians had made no complaint.

It was different when Bradford took a side on a southern tour and played London County at Crystal Palace.

W G Grace was the London manager and opening bat. In his first over, Knutton found the edge of Grace's bat and the keeper took the catch. The umpire, much in awe of the Great Bearded One, shouted 'no-ball' and Grace, clearly alarmed by the speed, told the umpire that the bowler should be called for throwing.

What the blazes it had to do with Grace is a complete mystery, since the only man on the field entitled to call 'no ball' if throwing is suspected is the square leg umpire. But such was Grace's dominance in the game (and disregard for its laws) that Knutton was taken out of the attack, to his great distress.

Knutton was by now established in business as a sports outfitter and one of the first things he did on his return to Bradford was to design a leather splint, looking like a cut-down batting pad, to keep the arm straight while bowling. Whether he ever used it is unknown, because he never bowled at Grace again.

But he must have had some fellow-feeling for the great Australian fast bowler Ernest Jones, who on his first encounter with the Doctor managed to whistle a delivery though his beard. Grace began to bleat 'what, what, what..?', sorely affronted that he should be subjected to such treatment. This acted as a red rag to 'Jonah', who peppered the great man severely for the rest of his shorter-than-usual innings.

If he had been the owner of the only bat, the game would have ended there and then, because he would have taken it home.

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