Career
He made a century on his debut and, 35 years later at the age of 56, made another on his last appearance for the county in 1928. In between, he scored more than 36,000 runs with a further 70 centuries and, for good measure, took 900 wickets with leg break bowling that, early in his career, was suspected to be illegal. His career total of 36,012 runs puts him 36th on the all-time list of run-getters.
Quaife made only seven Test match appearances, starting with two matches against the Australians in 1899, and then featuring in all five games on the 1901-1902 tour to Australia under Archie MacLaren.
He met with little success, except at Adelaide, where he scored 68 and 44 in the third Test. Quaife also played for West. G. Grace"s London County team and spent the winter of 1912-1913 playing for Griqualand West in South Africa.
In his playing career, Quaife was usually listed as "West.G.Quaife" and Wisden lists him as "William George Quaife" in its obituary in 1952. On one occasion, for Warwickshire against Derbyshire at Derby in 1922, the Quaifes played against the father-son combination of Billy Bestwick and Robert Bestwick.
The Smart brothers Jack and Cyril also played for Warwickshire in this match.
After retirement, Quaife became a cricket bat manufacturer.