James Coupe "Jem" Shaw (11 April 1836 – 7 March 1888) was an English professional

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er who played for

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

from 1865 to 1875 making 115 appearances. According to WG Grace, few bowlers had a better record. Shaw was born at Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. He joined Nottinghamshire in 1865 and played every consecutive Notts game over a ten-year period. He also made numerous appearances in representative teams such as the Players in the

Gentlemen v Players Gentlemen v Players was a long-running series of English first-class cricket matches. Two matches were played in 1806, but the fixture was not played again until 1819. It became an annual event, usually played at least twice each season, exc ...

series, the

North of England cricket team The North of England appeared in first-class cricket between 1836 and 1961, most often in the showcase North v South matches against the South of England, although there were also games against touring teams, MCC and others. The inaugural Nor ...

and the

All-England Eleven In English cricket since the first half of the 18th century, various ''ad hoc'' teams have been formed for short-term purposes which have been called England (or sometimes "All-England"; i.e., in the sense of "the rest of England") to play against, ...

. He played against

W G Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He played first-class cricket for a record-equa ...

many times and had some successes, including twice dismissing him for nought in 1871. Grace said after the second of these that he "would pay particular attention to J C Shaw". In the next innings, Grace scored a double-century. Shaw's comment afterwards was famous for its ruefulness and it has often been quoted: "I puts the ball where I likes and he puts it where he likes". Shaw was a left-arm round arm fast bowler and took 642 first-class wickets at an average of 14.41 and a best performance of 9 for 86. WG Grace noted that he had a high-delivery that was sometimes difficult to play, and brought his arm from behind with a very quick action making it difficult to see. Shaw still has the best ever bowling figures for Nottinghamshire, taking 10 wickets for 20 runs in a match against an England XI in 1870 He was a right-hand batsman and played 176 innings in 115 matches with an average of 4.24 and a top score of 18 not out. Grace described him as a very poor bat – in fact Shaw did not reach double figures until his seventy-second first-class innings, setting a record since equalled only by

Eric Hollies William Eric Hollies (5 June 1912 – 16 April 1981) was an English cricketer, who is mainly remembered for taking the wicket of Donald Bradman for a duck in Bradman's final Test match innings, in which he needed only four runs for a Test aver ...

for consecutive single-figure innings.Webber, Roy; ''The Playfair Book of Cricket Records''; p. 317. Published 1951 by Playfair Books. Indeed, for Nottinghamshire Shaw reached double figures only once in 109 visits to the crease. Shaw died at Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, at the age of 51.

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Bibliography

Simon Rae Simon Rae is a British poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates ...

, ''W G Grace: A Life'', Faber & Faber, 1998 {{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Jem 1836 births 1888 deaths English cricketers Nottinghamshire cricketers Players cricketers Players of the North cricketers All-England Eleven cricketers Married v Single cricketers Non-international England cricketers Left-Handed v Right-Handed cricketers North v South cricketers R. Daft's XI cricketers Cricketers from Sutton-in-Ashfield