Grace made 26 first-class appearances in 1898, scoring 1,513 runs, with a highest score of 168, at an average of 42.02 with 3 centuries and 8 half-centuries. In the field, he took 20 catches and 36 wickets with a best analysis of 7–44. His bowling average was 25.41; he had 5 wickets in an innings 3 times and 10 wickets in a match once. Grace had received an invitation from the Crystal Palace Company in London to help them form the London County Cricket Club. Grace accepted the offer and became the club's secretary, manager and captain with an annual salary of £600. As a result, he severed his connection with Gloucestershire during the 1899 season. Grace captained England in the First Test of the 1899 series against Australia at Trent Bridge, when he was 51. By this time his bulk had made him a liability in the field and, afterwards, realising his limitations all too clearly, he decided to stand down and surrendered both his place and the captaincy to Archie MacLaren. It is evident that Grace "plotted" his own omission from the England team by asking C.B. Fry, another selector who had arrived late for their meeting, if he thought that MacLaren should play in the Second Test. Fry answered: "Yes, I do." "That settles it", said Grace, and he promptly retired from international cricket. Explaining his decision later, Grace ruefully admitted of his diminished fielding skills that "the ground was getting a bit too far away". Grace last played at Lord's for the Gentlemen in 1899 though he continued to represent the team at other venues until 1906. Grace made 13 first-class appearances in 1899, scoring 515 runs, with a highest score of 78, at an average of 23.40 with 0 centuries and 3 half-centuries. In the field, he took 7 catches and 20 wickets with a best analysis of 5–86. His bowling average was 24.10; he had 5 wickets in an innings once. • a) As described in Grace's first-class career statistics, there are different versions of Grace's first-class career totals as a result of disagreement among cricket statisticians re the status of some matches he played in. Note that this is a statistical issue only and has little, if any, bearing on the historical aspects of Grace's career. In the infobox, the "traditional" first-class figures from "Wisden 1916" (as reproduced by Rae, pp. 495–496), are given first and the "amended" figures from "CricketArchive" follow in parentheses.