Clarrie Grimmett was born in 1891 in Caversham, Dunedin, but grew up in Mt Cook, Wellington. He practised cricket at the Basin Reserve and was chosen to play nine first-class games for Wellington. In 1914, aged 23, he headed across the Tasman and eventually established his reputation as a clever leg-spinner playing for South Australia. He was not chosen for Australia until 1925, when he was 33. He continued to play for that country until he was 44. Over that time he played 37 tests and took 216 wickets at an average of 24.21. On retirement he had taken the most wickets of any bowler in test cricket. As a bowler he usually wore his cap, and his arsenal of balls included the conventional leg break, the googly (turning from the off) and a top-spinner or flipper which spun fast straight-on and often trapped batsmen out leg-before-wicket.