G&C 272
GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 272
August 2025
Spot the Ball
Out and About with the Professor
The Yorkshire County Cricket Club is “reaching out” to its members. There are, it seems, some 10,000 of us and the “reaching” consists of another questionnaire about, well, er, the Yorkshire County Cricket Club. We are asked about the facilities at Headingley and the “out grounds” (now two: Scarborough and York), communications with the Club, “value for money” (always a live topic in this part of the Country), and so on. Other counties do something similar, but I’m not sure to what end.
Last year I spoke to a “researcher” who undertook some of this work and he said that the results were always overwhelmingly complaints about catering. Personally, I’ve never quite understood this. I don’t mean to imply that the catering is wonderful at Headingley – worthy of an entry into MasterChef (with or without trousers) – but rather that I don’t really care much about it. I don’t go to cricket matches to eat. When I was much younger, I used to be intensely annoyed by the “hospitality” tents and boxes at county grounds where the best viewing spots were occupied by people who were eating and drinking with their backs to the play.
The afficionados of the North East Terrace (Upper) generally bring their catering with them which may, of course, be a comment on the catering, or may relate to matters of economy. If you don’t have a watch, it is easy to tell when there are ten minutes or so left before lunch, by the repeated sound of Tupperware boxes being opened and Thermos flasks be unscrewed. For my part, 11 am to 6pm doesn’t seem an impossible stretch to go without a three-course meal.
The “reaching” also (and more interestingly) sought our views about the domestic structure of professional cricket…and the North East Terrace (Upper) has a very clear view about that. The prompt for this is the Professional Game Committee (PGC) which has developed “a series of options” to share with “key stakeholders”. Several of those seated in the NET (Upper) would have liked to tell the PGC where they could shove their “options” …but it is worth some (slightly) more considered reflection.
The issue is, as we all know, that the structure of domestic County cricket is, at present, a shambles. At the time of writing, we are about to enter the fallow month of August when almost no First-Class cricket will be played anywhere in the country. Moreover, the existing County Championship has two unequal divisions with a bizarre arrangement in Division One where the ten sides play 14 matches which (obviously) involves playing some, but only some, teams twice. Many Googlies readers will recall the deliberations of a previous committee that got us into this position. It also consigned the County Championship to (largely) Spring and Autumn.
But not to worry! There are five “options”. They are:
Maintaining the existing set-up of 14 games but with Div One being reduced to eight teams and, possibly, just one side demoted.
The existing structure with a reduction to 12 matches. (expletives from the NET (Upper) deleted).
An almost inscrutably complex structure of two sets of 6 “top teams” and one of 6 lower teams and various “rounds” of 10 matches in the first stage and then 3 further “rounds” between the “top rivals” with the “highest seeded clubs having the incentive of earning a seventh home match”. Please god they don’t opt for this one.
A variant of “C” with the three “sets” now being called “conferences” but with play offs and a final (presumably sometime before Christmas).
Another three-sixes model with intermediate play offs too daft to bother a self-respecting Googlies reader with.
Presumably, with 18 teams, this kind of exercise could go on for much longer. How about two divisions of 9, or four of 4 with the two extras tacked on randomly, or five of 3 with the extra three arraigned in some fashion. How about nine divisions of 2, with Yorkshire perpetually playing Lancashire all season. I assume the PGC has ruled out 18 divisions of one, with each team playing itself; that, after all, would be silly.
We are also asked our opinion on the Vitality Blast (“get rid ‘o bugger” – NET (Upper) view) – yet another complex regional and non- regional arrangement and The Metro Bank One Day Cup – no change envisaged. There is no reference to The Hundred (unprintable remarks from fellow spectators).
One prompting for these proposed changes is, apparently, “concerns for the physical and mental health” of the players (“war aboot our mental bloody ‘ealth”) and the feeling that the players are “unable to perform at full capacity”.
I will look forward to reading the results of the survey.
We were not asked, obviously, about our views on the other restructuring under discussion, that of a two-tier Test championship. The ICC – another deep-thinking imaginative committee – has established an eight-strong “working-group” (god help us) to report by Christmas on proposed new arrangements which establish two divisions of six and would result in the “big three”: Australia, England and India, playing each other twice over three years. The principal argument in favour of this is, em… money. It would also make more sense of the World Test Championship – should anyone want it to make more sense…or want it at all, for that matter.
The obvious problem would be that if there is promotion and relegation (and without it, what would be the point) that the Big Three might become a Big Two and every Test venue in the Country might not sell out for England v Kenya (or somesuch…presumably there would be a way in for “lesser” nations to the lower division). Should England be demoted, one suspects that some “special” arrangements would be made for the Ashes. Given the spell-binding nature of the current India Test series, it would also be a good idea to make special arrangements for that as well. So why not: one division of three and three other divisions…. oh no! Let’s not go round all that again.
This & That
Middlesex have named Leus du Plooy as captain of the club's County Championship and T20 Blast teams. Stephen Eskinazi has stepped down as T20 captain due to personal reasons, while former red-ball skipper, Toby Roland-Jones, has left his role by mutual consent. Du Plooy moved to Middlesex from Derbyshire ahead of the 2024 season and has scored 1,601 runs in 36 appearances across both formats for the club.
Tim David hit the fastest T20 International century by an Australian as they beat the West Indies. He hit 11 sixes and six fours as he ended 102 not out off 37 deliveries, with Australia cruising to a six-wicket victory at Warner Park in Basseterre, Saint Kitts. Josh Inglis held the previous record, with his century against Scotland in 2024 coming off 43 balls. It is the joint third fastest T20I century in a match between sides who are full members of the International Cricket Council. David Millar scored a 35-ball century for South Africa against Bangladesh in 2017, a feat matched by Rohit Sharma for India against Sri Lanka later that year. David's effort matches that of Abhishek Sharma for India against England in February 2025. The fastest T20I is Sahil Chauhan's 27-ball effort for Estonia against Cyprus in 2024.
In the fourth innings of the Worcestershire versus Warwickshire match at Edgbaston the home side were set 393 to win. They achieved this comfortably in 93.2 overs for the loss of five wickets after being 12 for 2. This was a similar victory to England’s in the first test on the same ground.
Wiaan Mulder found himself captain off South Africa in their test against Zimbabwe. He loss the toss and after being put in on Day 1 he had personally reached 264. He was bowled on 247 by Zimbabwe's Tanaka Chivanga, only for replays to show Chivanga had over-stepped for a no-ball. By lunch he had reached 367 and opted to declare. His triple-century was only the second by a South African, after Hashim Amla's 311 not out against England at The Oval in 2012. Mulder reached 300 from 297 balls, the second-fastest in Test cricket after the 278 taken by India's Virender Sehwag against South Africa in 2008. Overall, this was the 33rd individual scores in excess of 300 in Test cricket. Mulder also passed up the opportunity to notch only the 12th quadruple century in first-class cricket. Coincidentally, Mulder was on the field for the last quadruple-century in first-class cricket - he was in the Leicestershire side against whom Glamorgan's Sam Northeast amassed 410 not out in 2022.
Kent won the toss and batted against Northants at Canterbury and scored a creditable 566 for 8 before declaring. However, this was nowhere near enough for Northants who amassed 722 for 6 before declaring. Zaib (196 not out) and Broad (157 not out) added 298 unbroken for the seventh wicket. Zaib has scored 1045 runs (inc 5 hundreds) this season and is only behind Ben Compton (1146) and the Australian, Caleb Jewell (1061) in the County Championship rankings.
Essex batted first at York against Yorkshire and made 368. In reply Yorkshire struggled to 263 for 8 when Ben Coad joined Matthew Brevis at the crease. They added 169 for the ninth wicket before Coad fell for 89. Yorkshire were finally all out for 459. In their second innings Essex were rolled over for 131 leaving Yorkshire the simple task of getting 41 to win which they duly did without loss.
It is rare for a player to score a hundred and also take ten wickets in a match but it took George to point out to me that it actually happened twice in the same round of County Championship matches. Rehan Ahmed scored 115 batting at three for Leicestershire in the match against Derbyshire and then took 6 for 51 and 7 for 93. Tom Hartley batted at number ten for Lancashire against Gloucestershire and scored 130. He then took 6 for 116 and 5 for 99.
On Finals Day of the Vitality Blast League Two at Northampton Middlesex Women took the trophy without losing a wicket. In the semi-final Issy Routledge and Finty Trussler reached 109 for 0 in 10.4 overs to give their side a DL victory over Leicestershire. In the final they reached 103 for 0 in 13.1 overs to overhaul Yorkshire’s 101 for 9.
And, of course, mention should be made of the Aussies bowling the West Indies out for 27 with Mitchell Starc taking 6 of 9. They can’t blame Kookaburra balls and so it must have been global warming…
Thompson Matters
Steve makes a duty call
Firstly, an apology for consistently omitting the ‘e’ in Headingley in last month’s piece. Of all the letters to omit in a Yorkshire place name the ‘e’ must be the most appropriate.
Some cricket-related decisions are better than others. Our decision not to take up the Club Chairman’s kind offer to park our beloved thirty-year-old VW camper at deep long off at the Sidmouth Road end of the ground at South Hampstead on the occasion of the club’s 150th celebrations will go down as one of the better ones. There was some evidence in advance that it would not be wise. The recently erected and very impressive sixty-foot plus high fencing which now circumferences the ground. Then the knowledge that the modern-day club batsmen are armed with bats seemingly twice the size of any used fifty years earlier during the last celebrations added to their desire to produce their own individual highlights package of big hits, ramps and reverse everythings in the space of just a few balls made the decision to leave the van at home a very wise one.
To be fair, if the South Hampstead deep long off fielder had been guarding the van throughout the day she would have been quite safe since the reverse one-handed catch he took was arguably the best any of us present who were on the ground fifty years earlier could remember. Indeed, she may have been in more danger parked on the far side of Milverton Road where no amount of netting would have saved her such was the carry from one MCC bludgeon. Lost ball.
As ever with these celebratory fixtures, the cricket is merely a backdrop for those who have come to reacquaint themselves with each other and the ground. Fifty years has sadly but inevitably taken its toll but by lunchtime there were enough of the Old Guard present to field a six-a-side team albeit very thin on bowling and decidedly difficult to hide in the field.
Had the old place changed? In some ways, of course yes. The parched brown outfield certainly, but clearly temporarily, made it look different from the striped green sward so redolent of yesteryear. The Nuffield Health Centre where once woods were lazily rolled on the green of the Bowls Club does nothing for the ground’s aesthetics but perhaps something more for its balance sheets. The beautiful old scorebox has gone from the bottom of the ground, its digital replacement now controlled from a laptop in the pavilion but the willow tree remains in front of the groundsman’s hut, she, like many who fielded beneath her now slightly wider than memory serves.
It would be naive to think that fifty years on from the last recognition of its history, South Hampstead would be any different from any cricket club that has been in existence for decades. Times have changed. Participation rates for amateur sport are universally lower than they were even a quarter of a century ago. Where fifty years ago there were a dozen cricket clubs within a five-mile radius of my home city of Hereford now there are merely three and none in the city itself. Those few clubs do have quite thriving junior sections but it is debatable whether those two-hour colts sessions are there to develop young talent or are merely a child-minding facility where parents can boost bar-take on summer evenings. Given the paucity of cricket played in state schools today the onus on clubs to grow the game through those junior sections is arguably greater than it ever has been and so any facility that encourages and promotes the game at youth level has to be welcomed and South Hampstead certainly ticks that box.
As the little gathering of those of us that had been on the ground to see the club raise its bat fifty years earlier said their farewells, I wondered just how many who were playing for the club on this day would return to celebrate the 200th? The newly laid extensive and impressive patio in front of the pavilion should certainly last half a century. Let’s hope that despite all of the above there is as little change in the next fifty years as there has been in the last and the club can raise its bat once again in 2075.
A week earlier in London and there was no hanging around the champagne tents on the morning of the second day of the Third Test at Lord’s. Root on 99. Barely a white seat visible. The hush then the roar. Eased behind square cover. Bat raised and helmet badge kissed. Sadly apart from a truly stunning slip catch that was pretty much it from Joe for the day but before too long my young grandchildren will be old enough for me to tell them that I saw Joe Root bat.
Mane Matters: It’s somewhat ironic that the overwhelming majority of top professional women footballers, the English team being a perfect case in point, wear their hair in an almost identical utilitarian style whereas, as we read regularly in this organ, their male counterparts appear to be in competition to see who can sport the most outlandish and idiosyncratic coiffure.
Carlin Matters
Paddy updates us on events in Hertfordshire. Complimentary nooses will be provided to readers requesting them.
I have little interest in the IPL, Big Bash, or any of the myriad 20 over competitions. I am sure in another dozen years there will be no County Cricket and only the occasional test match. If Middlesex leave Lord’s for Uxbridge it will be the end of my Middlesex watching.
On the same pessimistic note things are not great at WGCCC. After seven league games its record is two wins and seven losses. We lost three good players last year, who in the play off match that got us back into the Premier League again contributed 220 out of the 340 runs scored. We only just won the fifty over match with that score! They also took five wickets.
So we had to find these runs and wickets elsewhere this season. Our talisman, Owais Shah, is not with us this year and is impossible to replace. He averaged 70 with the bat over a ten year period. We screwed up also in overseas player recruitment having previously acquired some quality there. So this year we have a young Indian who is doing good work in the twos and in the first XI we have a seventeen year old from New Zealand who is in his regional development squad and will, I am sure, be very good in a couple of years time, but not especially now when we need it.
We have inherited five new players, all Asian, to go with the two who already play for us. The problem here is that they are team members not club members and they are not as good as the players we lost. So the club must, I fear, write off this season and regroup. Also, I might add, most of the these guys expect to be paid and I don’t think that they pay a sub to WGC. They leave as soon as the match finishes and do not mix with other club members. A sad story. Is this happening in the Middlesex League too?
We have managed to beat Bishop Stortford and Flitnick but in some games have been thrashed. The only club below us is North Mymms and they too have lost players, two of them to us! They beat us rather luckily in the only rain affected Duckworth Lewis game this season which had we won would have given us a chance of survival.
So, it’s a bit doom and gloom at WGC but until we can develop more of our own players and add what has helped us in the past, namely one bloody good pro and a decent overseas player, nearly every other Herts Premier League team has one, it will be a struggle. Still it is only a game but it is nicer when you win!
At the moment nearly all clubs pay players. Is it the same in other Home Counties leagues? The best four teams currently are Harpenden, Totteridge, Potters Bar and Radlett. The first three of these were not even in the top division a few years ago. Radlett has always been strong and are today if de Caires and Cornwell play.
South Hampstead 150th Anniversary Celebration Day
It was with some trepidation that I travelled down to London for the South Hampstead 150th Anniversary Day celebrations. There had been no official invites or announcements from the club. Rumour had circulated that the club was struggling to raise a side to play against the MCC and so the match itself was in doubt.
I arrived during the lunch interval. It took me some time to park outside the ground not because of a shortage of spaces but the intricacies of the methods of paying for the parking. Once in the ground I soon bumped into Steve Thompson and started to regale him with these vehicular problems only to discover that he had suffered a similar experience. Indeed, his was later compounded by receipt of a fine which subsequently transpired to be spam.
We wandered through to the bar where I was welcomed by Bob Peach, who was dressed incongruously in apricot coloured trousers. He was keen to show off the ground developments which were impressive. The entire ground is now enclosed in very high netting which is supported by metal stanchions with the girth of giant redwoods. The sightscreens are a lightweight design and can be moved without the backbreaking efforts required to shift their predecessors. In front of the tennis courts were four covers which are used to protect the entire playing strip from the elements. The area in front of the pavilion replacing the grass area up to the picket fence has been paved over with what looked suspiciously like York stone. On these are a series of pub garden style picnic tables and benches with giant umbrellas.
Inside, the pavilion had the same layout and configuration from its building in the sixties and modifications in the seventies. But it was in good repair and had been recently decorated. There were even pictures on the walls of earlier successful sides.
What was lacking was any evidence of members. The lunch and tea was of the highest order and appeared to be supplied by caterers. Apart from the players, umpires and scorers there didn’t appear to be any other members in attendance. Likewise, the MCC side did not seem to have any followers. The “crowd” was made up of those already mentioned along with Diana Peach, Heather Thompson, Bob Baxter, Ian Mackintosh, Terry Cordaroy, Allen Bruton, Gus Fraser (briefly), Mike d’Silva and John Williams, who seems to turn up everywhere but is always most welcome. Appropriately the Mayor put in a late appearance. He looked absurdly young and it seemed like it could have been a prank.
But what of the cricket? Bazball may have gone out of favour in Stokes’ side but it was alive and kicking at Milverton Road. The MCC side racked up 170 for 1 before lunch and declared on 284. The South Hampstead side, which could have included ringers, played a shot a ball and the ball repeatedly twanged back off the new netting. But, of course, in between wickets fell regularly and the match ended long before the scheduled close.
South Hampstead are in the Third Division of the Middlesex League, which is actually the fourth as the top division is called the Premier Division. SHCC is below Bessborough and Chiswick and above Stoke Newington, whilst Wembley are bottom. Shepherds Bush are top of the Premier League ahead of North Middlesex and Crouch End. Ealing are bottom.
Paddy Carlin’s article goes some way to explain the massive changes in the club game since our era. Taking a regulation walk around the ground Terry, Steve, Allen and I reflected that we were fortunate to have played in the final golden era of club cricket.
The Spot the Ball picture features Micky d’Silva, Steve Thompson, Allen Bruton, Terry Cordaroy and Jim Sharp.
Colin Price
Allen Bruton sent me this
Having not heard from Colin for some time it was with much trepidation that I decided to investigate. A visit to the Mosman Cricket Club website confirmed my worst fears that he had died on 21st August 2024.
Unlike most Australians who came and played for just one season, Colin registered four seasons with South Hampstead 1971-74. To say he was a popular member of the club and dressing room would be a massive understatement. On the field he put in many fine performances with the bat and occasionally with his off spin bowling. A match winning innings of 96 not out against a Mitcham side containing the likes of Eaton Swabey and Denis Marriott is just one that springs to mind.
A testament to Colin’s ability and personality is that he was selected to captain Australian Old Collegians on their UK tour circa 1979/80. Further visits to the UK followed where he would catch up with old teammates including the SHCC Reunion 2008 at Lords. In my last communication with him he was planning another UK trip with a group of friends in the form of a cycling tour of the Cotswold. Typically, he assured me he would look forward to buying me a pint of Hook Norton Bitter. A pint I was looking forward to but sadly won’t now be getting.
Miller Matters
Douglas Miller joins in the Professor’s thesis
May I offer a thought on the bowling of no balls. I have just umpired the match between Radley and Tonbridge, where the problem was seen on a grand scale. ‘Four – three’ I said at one stage to the non-striker when he enquired how many balls still to go, - four that didn’t count and three that did.
After the match I offered the explanation that it was perhaps linked to the modern practice of measuring a run up ahead of the match and setting it in stone as it were by painting a line with the bowler’s initials. In older, less scientific days, as one’s stride lengthened (mine always did), one moved the marker back. Rocket science.
Dingbats Corner
Lewis McManus won the toss for Northants against Middlesex at Merchant Taylors' School Ground and decided to put them in. At the end of Day 1 Middlesex had reached 319 for 1. On Day 2 they finally declared after 146 overs with the score on 625 for 8. In reply Northants managed 261 and following on added 257. Darren Lehman is the county coach. Was he behind this insanity?
Ben Brown, the Hampshire skipper won the toss at the Rose Bowl and invited his guests, Notts, to bat first. After 132.3 overs Notts declared on 578 for 8, their number seven batsman, Lyndon James, contributing 203 not out. In reply Hants made 454 but were unable to make any progress towards a victory.
Crocks Corner
In this era when bowlers have to carry out inappropriate fitness regimes and then spend more time on the treatment bench than actually bowling this feature celebrates the manifold complaints of these elite athletes. Feel free to submit anything you notice
“Ben Stokes' side toiled throughout the second day at Edgbaston as India piled up 587 before reducing the hosts to 77-3. Brydon Carse struggled with a recurrence of his foot issues while Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes did not bowl after their first spells. "Clearly there's a problem with Brydon Carse and we're two Test matches into a five-match series in England and then it's not too long after we've got five matches in Australia in the heat on those slabs, some of those drop-in pitches with a Kookaburra ball," Vaughan said. "England's tactic after 30 overs pretty much is just to whack the ball into the pitch with a square-of-the-wicket field. They're going to need some wheelbarrows to get some of these bowlers off the park in Australia. It's so tough on the body."
“Carse was ruled out for three months earlier this year because of serious cuts and blisters on his toes – an issue that first emerged on tours of Pakistan and New Zealand before Christmas. Although he remained on the field in Birmingham, he was seen hobbling at various times when fielding and in his bowling follow-through. Stokes, meanwhile, has returned to bowling this year following hamstring surgery. He was seen stretching his groin on day one and, after a lengthy warm-up before play, opened the bowling on day two. He delivered four overs for 16 runs but did not return to the attack in the remaining 58 overs of India's innings. Similarly, Woakes did not feature after his four overs for 22 runs at the start of the day.”
“England captain Ben Stokes says his latest injury will not impact his participation in this winter's Ashes after he was ruled out of the fifth and final Test against India, which starts on Thursday. Stokes misses out at The Oval with a shoulder problem, sustained during the draw at Old Trafford, with a tight turnaround of just four days between Tests. But the all-rounder says he is only expecting to be sidelined for around six or seven weeks.”
This may have to become the “Stokes Crocks Corner” as more is written about his lack of fitness than all other athletes added together.
Fast Test match Hundreds
Ken Molloy sent me this article by Simon Wilde
Ian Botham never managed it. Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff never managed it, and nor did any of England’s great swashbucklers of the past 100 years. It has even eluded Ben Stokes’ Bazballers, who have set the record books ablaze during the past three years.
England’s fastest Test century, perhaps the most prestigious of all quick-scoring landmarks, remains in the possession of the celebrated hitter Gilbert Jessop, and dates from a match against Australia at the Oval in 1902. Remarkably, England have played more than 1,000 Tests since then and yet no one has been able to knock him off top spot, despite more athletic players wielding bigger, more powerful bats.
The recent crop of players, notably Jonny Bairstow and Harry Brook, have come close to eclipsing Jessop on a number of occasions, but it has not happened yet.
For many years it has been accepted that Jessop got to his hundred in 76 balls. This prompted me to investigate in detail Jessop’s great innings, which came during a nerve-jangling fourth innings run chase leading to a one-wicket win. What I discovered led to a book, Chasing Jessop: The Mystery of England Cricket’s Oldest Record, which will be published on July 31.
I conclude that the Bazballers’ task just got harder: Jessop actually scored his hundred off fewer than 76 balls.
The 76-ball claim rested on what was an unidentified newspaper cutting in the possession of the Jessop family which contained a ball-by-ball list of the deliveries Jessop faced and how many he scored off each. The cutting was referenced in The Croucher, a biography of Jessop written by Gerald Brodribb in 1974, the centenary of his birth.
Neither of the two scorebooks compiled by the game’s official scorers survive, and in any case the method of “linear scoring” — in which every ball faced by each batsman is recorded against their name as well as the bowler’s — was rare before the 1960s, when radio and television broadcasters employed scorers such as Bill Frindall to provide commentary teams with more in-game information.
Hence the shortage of details surrounding Jessop’s innings — and many others played in the early days of Test cricket. Then, a batsman’s stay at the crease was typically measured in minutes rather than balls faced.
During my research, I discovered that the cutting cited by Brodribb came from the Athletic News, a respected sports weekly published in Manchester, five days after the Oval Test finished. Crucially, I also unearthed a report in a London paper, the Morning Leader, the day after the match, which contained its own ball-by-ball breakdown of Jessop’s innings — a list that had lain undiscovered.
This list closely tallied with the Athletic News but contained fewer “dot balls” (balls off which no run was scored), and indicated that Jessop faced only 71 balls to reach his hundred. It was far more detailed, too, identifying who bowled each of the balls Jessop faced; and, in the case of the dot balls, whether Jessop played the ball, or left it — remarkably sophisticated data for the period. The Morning Leader, set up in 1892 and owned by Colman’s, the mustard family, provided comprehensive and illuminating coverage of the 1902 Test series. It merged with The Daily News in 1912.
Using these two breakdowns, especially the Morning Leader’s identification of who bowled each ball, plus contemporary reports from more than 30 newspapers, it was possible to reconstruct what happened during Jessop’s innings with a high degree of accuracy. I determined that Jessop must have scored his hundred in 72-74 balls.
Through the reconstruction I was able to identify small discrepancies in both lists (in each case, relating to just one over) but also two instances where it is unclear off precisely which ball of an over the strike changed from one batsman to the other, hence the final figure ranging from 72 to 74.
For all but 19 balls of his time at the crease, Jessop’s partner was Stanley Jackson, the Yorkshire batsman and future England captain. Jessop joined Jackson with England in dire straights at 48 for five, but they stayed together for 24 overs, in which time Jessop contributed a whirlwind 83 and Jackson just 18 to a partnership of 109. Jessop was eventually dismissed for 104, four balls after reaching his century.
Under the modern Laws of Cricket, Jessop would have reached his century even faster but in England at that time over-the-boundary hits were only awarded four unless the ball was hit out of the ground, in which case it was six. This law remained until 1911. Jessop hit three balls over the rope (but not out of the ground) during his century; had they been awarded six, he would have reached his hundred in one ball fewer. It has been estimated that Jessop hit 600 to 700 “sixes” during a first-class career that lasted from 1894 to 1914.
Jessop used unusually long-handled bats but — like all bats of his era — they were much thinner, front to back, than today’s equivalents, and thus lacked the power that allows even mishits to carry for six in the modern game.
Jessop was such a fast scorer that journalists occasionally kept a note of the number of balls he faced. Earlier in the 1902 series, it was calculated that he scored 55 from 49 deliveries opening the batting in the third Test. Often mistrusted as too attacking, he played only 18 Tests.
It was commonly reported that Jessop batted 75 minutes to reach his record hundred, but a close analysis of newspaper reports suggests 80 minutes is more likely — still England’s fastest in terms of time batted.
“Jessop’s match” was one of the great Ashes Tests, fit to compare with the Headingley games of 1981 and 2019 made famous by heroic centuries from Botham and Stokes respectively. Tests in England were only scheduled to last three days in 1902 but, at a time when bowlers maintained a rate of around 20 overs per hour, the Oval match still spanned 311.4 overs, longer than many recent England Tests.
Jessop was out with England still requiring 76 but they crept to their target of 263 with their last pair together, two Yorkshiremen from the same village of Kirkheaton, George Hirst and Wilfred Rhodes. Their 15-run partnership spawned the apocryphal remark “we’ll get them in singles” though in fact it contained one four, one two and nine singles.
The result led to an outpouring of national rejoicing. England had not beaten Australia on home soil since 1896 and the country was still recovering from the trauma of the Boer War, resolved with the Treaty of Vereeniging only ten weeks earlier.
In 2022, Bairstow scored a century off 77 balls — England’s second fastest in Tests — against New Zealand at Trent Bridge (having got to 96 from 71); and in Rawalpindi the same year Brook became the third fastest after reached a hundred off 80 balls in the first innings against Pakistan and then hit 87 off 65 in the second.
The nearest anyone has come to toppling Jessop’s 1902 record was Jessop himself: against South Africa at Lord’s in 1907, he was out for 93 from 64 balls. Little wonder he was a darling of the crowds. He died in 1955.
It is particularly ironic that England have not yet challenged the very fastest hundreds scored in Test cricket given that Brendon McCullum, their head coach and inspiration, holds the world Test record, racing to a 54-ball century in his final Test for New Zealand in 2016.
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 272
August 2025
Spot the Ball
Out and About with the Professor
The Yorkshire County Cricket Club is “reaching out” to its members. There are, it seems, some 10,000 of us and the “reaching” consists of another questionnaire about, well, er, the Yorkshire County Cricket Club. We are asked about the facilities at Headingley and the “out grounds” (now two: Scarborough and York), communications with the Club, “value for money” (always a live topic in this part of the Country), and so on. Other counties do something similar, but I’m not sure to what end.
Last year I spoke to a “researcher” who undertook some of this work and he said that the results were always overwhelmingly complaints about catering. Personally, I’ve never quite understood this. I don’t mean to imply that the catering is wonderful at Headingley – worthy of an entry into MasterChef (with or without trousers) – but rather that I don’t really care much about it. I don’t go to cricket matches to eat. When I was much younger, I used to be intensely annoyed by the “hospitality” tents and boxes at county grounds where the best viewing spots were occupied by people who were eating and drinking with their backs to the play.
The afficionados of the North East Terrace (Upper) generally bring their catering with them which may, of course, be a comment on the catering, or may relate to matters of economy. If you don’t have a watch, it is easy to tell when there are ten minutes or so left before lunch, by the repeated sound of Tupperware boxes being opened and Thermos flasks be unscrewed. For my part, 11 am to 6pm doesn’t seem an impossible stretch to go without a three-course meal.
The “reaching” also (and more interestingly) sought our views about the domestic structure of professional cricket…and the North East Terrace (Upper) has a very clear view about that. The prompt for this is the Professional Game Committee (PGC) which has developed “a series of options” to share with “key stakeholders”. Several of those seated in the NET (Upper) would have liked to tell the PGC where they could shove their “options” …but it is worth some (slightly) more considered reflection.
The issue is, as we all know, that the structure of domestic County cricket is, at present, a shambles. At the time of writing, we are about to enter the fallow month of August when almost no First-Class cricket will be played anywhere in the country. Moreover, the existing County Championship has two unequal divisions with a bizarre arrangement in Division One where the ten sides play 14 matches which (obviously) involves playing some, but only some, teams twice. Many Googlies readers will recall the deliberations of a previous committee that got us into this position. It also consigned the County Championship to (largely) Spring and Autumn.
But not to worry! There are five “options”. They are:
Maintaining the existing set-up of 14 games but with Div One being reduced to eight teams and, possibly, just one side demoted.
The existing structure with a reduction to 12 matches. (expletives from the NET (Upper) deleted).
An almost inscrutably complex structure of two sets of 6 “top teams” and one of 6 lower teams and various “rounds” of 10 matches in the first stage and then 3 further “rounds” between the “top rivals” with the “highest seeded clubs having the incentive of earning a seventh home match”. Please god they don’t opt for this one.
A variant of “C” with the three “sets” now being called “conferences” but with play offs and a final (presumably sometime before Christmas).
Another three-sixes model with intermediate play offs too daft to bother a self-respecting Googlies reader with.
Presumably, with 18 teams, this kind of exercise could go on for much longer. How about two divisions of 9, or four of 4 with the two extras tacked on randomly, or five of 3 with the extra three arraigned in some fashion. How about nine divisions of 2, with Yorkshire perpetually playing Lancashire all season. I assume the PGC has ruled out 18 divisions of one, with each team playing itself; that, after all, would be silly.
We are also asked our opinion on the Vitality Blast (“get rid ‘o bugger” – NET (Upper) view) – yet another complex regional and non- regional arrangement and The Metro Bank One Day Cup – no change envisaged. There is no reference to The Hundred (unprintable remarks from fellow spectators).
One prompting for these proposed changes is, apparently, “concerns for the physical and mental health” of the players (“war aboot our mental bloody ‘ealth”) and the feeling that the players are “unable to perform at full capacity”.
I will look forward to reading the results of the survey.
We were not asked, obviously, about our views on the other restructuring under discussion, that of a two-tier Test championship. The ICC – another deep-thinking imaginative committee – has established an eight-strong “working-group” (god help us) to report by Christmas on proposed new arrangements which establish two divisions of six and would result in the “big three”: Australia, England and India, playing each other twice over three years. The principal argument in favour of this is, em… money. It would also make more sense of the World Test Championship – should anyone want it to make more sense…or want it at all, for that matter.
The obvious problem would be that if there is promotion and relegation (and without it, what would be the point) that the Big Three might become a Big Two and every Test venue in the Country might not sell out for England v Kenya (or somesuch…presumably there would be a way in for “lesser” nations to the lower division). Should England be demoted, one suspects that some “special” arrangements would be made for the Ashes. Given the spell-binding nature of the current India Test series, it would also be a good idea to make special arrangements for that as well. So why not: one division of three and three other divisions…. oh no! Let’s not go round all that again.
This & That
Middlesex have named Leus du Plooy as captain of the club's County Championship and T20 Blast teams. Stephen Eskinazi has stepped down as T20 captain due to personal reasons, while former red-ball skipper, Toby Roland-Jones, has left his role by mutual consent. Du Plooy moved to Middlesex from Derbyshire ahead of the 2024 season and has scored 1,601 runs in 36 appearances across both formats for the club.
Tim David hit the fastest T20 International century by an Australian as they beat the West Indies. He hit 11 sixes and six fours as he ended 102 not out off 37 deliveries, with Australia cruising to a six-wicket victory at Warner Park in Basseterre, Saint Kitts. Josh Inglis held the previous record, with his century against Scotland in 2024 coming off 43 balls. It is the joint third fastest T20I century in a match between sides who are full members of the International Cricket Council. David Millar scored a 35-ball century for South Africa against Bangladesh in 2017, a feat matched by Rohit Sharma for India against Sri Lanka later that year. David's effort matches that of Abhishek Sharma for India against England in February 2025. The fastest T20I is Sahil Chauhan's 27-ball effort for Estonia against Cyprus in 2024.
In the fourth innings of the Worcestershire versus Warwickshire match at Edgbaston the home side were set 393 to win. They achieved this comfortably in 93.2 overs for the loss of five wickets after being 12 for 2. This was a similar victory to England’s in the first test on the same ground.
Wiaan Mulder found himself captain off South Africa in their test against Zimbabwe. He loss the toss and after being put in on Day 1 he had personally reached 264. He was bowled on 247 by Zimbabwe's Tanaka Chivanga, only for replays to show Chivanga had over-stepped for a no-ball. By lunch he had reached 367 and opted to declare. His triple-century was only the second by a South African, after Hashim Amla's 311 not out against England at The Oval in 2012. Mulder reached 300 from 297 balls, the second-fastest in Test cricket after the 278 taken by India's Virender Sehwag against South Africa in 2008. Overall, this was the 33rd individual scores in excess of 300 in Test cricket. Mulder also passed up the opportunity to notch only the 12th quadruple century in first-class cricket. Coincidentally, Mulder was on the field for the last quadruple-century in first-class cricket - he was in the Leicestershire side against whom Glamorgan's Sam Northeast amassed 410 not out in 2022.
Kent won the toss and batted against Northants at Canterbury and scored a creditable 566 for 8 before declaring. However, this was nowhere near enough for Northants who amassed 722 for 6 before declaring. Zaib (196 not out) and Broad (157 not out) added 298 unbroken for the seventh wicket. Zaib has scored 1045 runs (inc 5 hundreds) this season and is only behind Ben Compton (1146) and the Australian, Caleb Jewell (1061) in the County Championship rankings.
Essex batted first at York against Yorkshire and made 368. In reply Yorkshire struggled to 263 for 8 when Ben Coad joined Matthew Brevis at the crease. They added 169 for the ninth wicket before Coad fell for 89. Yorkshire were finally all out for 459. In their second innings Essex were rolled over for 131 leaving Yorkshire the simple task of getting 41 to win which they duly did without loss.
It is rare for a player to score a hundred and also take ten wickets in a match but it took George to point out to me that it actually happened twice in the same round of County Championship matches. Rehan Ahmed scored 115 batting at three for Leicestershire in the match against Derbyshire and then took 6 for 51 and 7 for 93. Tom Hartley batted at number ten for Lancashire against Gloucestershire and scored 130. He then took 6 for 116 and 5 for 99.
On Finals Day of the Vitality Blast League Two at Northampton Middlesex Women took the trophy without losing a wicket. In the semi-final Issy Routledge and Finty Trussler reached 109 for 0 in 10.4 overs to give their side a DL victory over Leicestershire. In the final they reached 103 for 0 in 13.1 overs to overhaul Yorkshire’s 101 for 9.
And, of course, mention should be made of the Aussies bowling the West Indies out for 27 with Mitchell Starc taking 6 of 9. They can’t blame Kookaburra balls and so it must have been global warming…
Thompson Matters
Steve makes a duty call
Firstly, an apology for consistently omitting the ‘e’ in Headingley in last month’s piece. Of all the letters to omit in a Yorkshire place name the ‘e’ must be the most appropriate.
Some cricket-related decisions are better than others. Our decision not to take up the Club Chairman’s kind offer to park our beloved thirty-year-old VW camper at deep long off at the Sidmouth Road end of the ground at South Hampstead on the occasion of the club’s 150th celebrations will go down as one of the better ones. There was some evidence in advance that it would not be wise. The recently erected and very impressive sixty-foot plus high fencing which now circumferences the ground. Then the knowledge that the modern-day club batsmen are armed with bats seemingly twice the size of any used fifty years earlier during the last celebrations added to their desire to produce their own individual highlights package of big hits, ramps and reverse everythings in the space of just a few balls made the decision to leave the van at home a very wise one.
To be fair, if the South Hampstead deep long off fielder had been guarding the van throughout the day she would have been quite safe since the reverse one-handed catch he took was arguably the best any of us present who were on the ground fifty years earlier could remember. Indeed, she may have been in more danger parked on the far side of Milverton Road where no amount of netting would have saved her such was the carry from one MCC bludgeon. Lost ball.
As ever with these celebratory fixtures, the cricket is merely a backdrop for those who have come to reacquaint themselves with each other and the ground. Fifty years has sadly but inevitably taken its toll but by lunchtime there were enough of the Old Guard present to field a six-a-side team albeit very thin on bowling and decidedly difficult to hide in the field.
Had the old place changed? In some ways, of course yes. The parched brown outfield certainly, but clearly temporarily, made it look different from the striped green sward so redolent of yesteryear. The Nuffield Health Centre where once woods were lazily rolled on the green of the Bowls Club does nothing for the ground’s aesthetics but perhaps something more for its balance sheets. The beautiful old scorebox has gone from the bottom of the ground, its digital replacement now controlled from a laptop in the pavilion but the willow tree remains in front of the groundsman’s hut, she, like many who fielded beneath her now slightly wider than memory serves.
It would be naive to think that fifty years on from the last recognition of its history, South Hampstead would be any different from any cricket club that has been in existence for decades. Times have changed. Participation rates for amateur sport are universally lower than they were even a quarter of a century ago. Where fifty years ago there were a dozen cricket clubs within a five-mile radius of my home city of Hereford now there are merely three and none in the city itself. Those few clubs do have quite thriving junior sections but it is debatable whether those two-hour colts sessions are there to develop young talent or are merely a child-minding facility where parents can boost bar-take on summer evenings. Given the paucity of cricket played in state schools today the onus on clubs to grow the game through those junior sections is arguably greater than it ever has been and so any facility that encourages and promotes the game at youth level has to be welcomed and South Hampstead certainly ticks that box.
As the little gathering of those of us that had been on the ground to see the club raise its bat fifty years earlier said their farewells, I wondered just how many who were playing for the club on this day would return to celebrate the 200th? The newly laid extensive and impressive patio in front of the pavilion should certainly last half a century. Let’s hope that despite all of the above there is as little change in the next fifty years as there has been in the last and the club can raise its bat once again in 2075.
A week earlier in London and there was no hanging around the champagne tents on the morning of the second day of the Third Test at Lord’s. Root on 99. Barely a white seat visible. The hush then the roar. Eased behind square cover. Bat raised and helmet badge kissed. Sadly apart from a truly stunning slip catch that was pretty much it from Joe for the day but before too long my young grandchildren will be old enough for me to tell them that I saw Joe Root bat.
Mane Matters: It’s somewhat ironic that the overwhelming majority of top professional women footballers, the English team being a perfect case in point, wear their hair in an almost identical utilitarian style whereas, as we read regularly in this organ, their male counterparts appear to be in competition to see who can sport the most outlandish and idiosyncratic coiffure.
Carlin Matters
Paddy updates us on events in Hertfordshire. Complimentary nooses will be provided to readers requesting them.
I have little interest in the IPL, Big Bash, or any of the myriad 20 over competitions. I am sure in another dozen years there will be no County Cricket and only the occasional test match. If Middlesex leave Lord’s for Uxbridge it will be the end of my Middlesex watching.
On the same pessimistic note things are not great at WGCCC. After seven league games its record is two wins and seven losses. We lost three good players last year, who in the play off match that got us back into the Premier League again contributed 220 out of the 340 runs scored. We only just won the fifty over match with that score! They also took five wickets.
So we had to find these runs and wickets elsewhere this season. Our talisman, Owais Shah, is not with us this year and is impossible to replace. He averaged 70 with the bat over a ten year period. We screwed up also in overseas player recruitment having previously acquired some quality there. So this year we have a young Indian who is doing good work in the twos and in the first XI we have a seventeen year old from New Zealand who is in his regional development squad and will, I am sure, be very good in a couple of years time, but not especially now when we need it.
We have inherited five new players, all Asian, to go with the two who already play for us. The problem here is that they are team members not club members and they are not as good as the players we lost. So the club must, I fear, write off this season and regroup. Also, I might add, most of the these guys expect to be paid and I don’t think that they pay a sub to WGC. They leave as soon as the match finishes and do not mix with other club members. A sad story. Is this happening in the Middlesex League too?
We have managed to beat Bishop Stortford and Flitnick but in some games have been thrashed. The only club below us is North Mymms and they too have lost players, two of them to us! They beat us rather luckily in the only rain affected Duckworth Lewis game this season which had we won would have given us a chance of survival.
So, it’s a bit doom and gloom at WGC but until we can develop more of our own players and add what has helped us in the past, namely one bloody good pro and a decent overseas player, nearly every other Herts Premier League team has one, it will be a struggle. Still it is only a game but it is nicer when you win!
At the moment nearly all clubs pay players. Is it the same in other Home Counties leagues? The best four teams currently are Harpenden, Totteridge, Potters Bar and Radlett. The first three of these were not even in the top division a few years ago. Radlett has always been strong and are today if de Caires and Cornwell play.
South Hampstead 150th Anniversary Celebration Day
It was with some trepidation that I travelled down to London for the South Hampstead 150th Anniversary Day celebrations. There had been no official invites or announcements from the club. Rumour had circulated that the club was struggling to raise a side to play against the MCC and so the match itself was in doubt.
I arrived during the lunch interval. It took me some time to park outside the ground not because of a shortage of spaces but the intricacies of the methods of paying for the parking. Once in the ground I soon bumped into Steve Thompson and started to regale him with these vehicular problems only to discover that he had suffered a similar experience. Indeed, his was later compounded by receipt of a fine which subsequently transpired to be spam.
We wandered through to the bar where I was welcomed by Bob Peach, who was dressed incongruously in apricot coloured trousers. He was keen to show off the ground developments which were impressive. The entire ground is now enclosed in very high netting which is supported by metal stanchions with the girth of giant redwoods. The sightscreens are a lightweight design and can be moved without the backbreaking efforts required to shift their predecessors. In front of the tennis courts were four covers which are used to protect the entire playing strip from the elements. The area in front of the pavilion replacing the grass area up to the picket fence has been paved over with what looked suspiciously like York stone. On these are a series of pub garden style picnic tables and benches with giant umbrellas.
Inside, the pavilion had the same layout and configuration from its building in the sixties and modifications in the seventies. But it was in good repair and had been recently decorated. There were even pictures on the walls of earlier successful sides.
What was lacking was any evidence of members. The lunch and tea was of the highest order and appeared to be supplied by caterers. Apart from the players, umpires and scorers there didn’t appear to be any other members in attendance. Likewise, the MCC side did not seem to have any followers. The “crowd” was made up of those already mentioned along with Diana Peach, Heather Thompson, Bob Baxter, Ian Mackintosh, Terry Cordaroy, Allen Bruton, Gus Fraser (briefly), Mike d’Silva and John Williams, who seems to turn up everywhere but is always most welcome. Appropriately the Mayor put in a late appearance. He looked absurdly young and it seemed like it could have been a prank.
But what of the cricket? Bazball may have gone out of favour in Stokes’ side but it was alive and kicking at Milverton Road. The MCC side racked up 170 for 1 before lunch and declared on 284. The South Hampstead side, which could have included ringers, played a shot a ball and the ball repeatedly twanged back off the new netting. But, of course, in between wickets fell regularly and the match ended long before the scheduled close.
South Hampstead are in the Third Division of the Middlesex League, which is actually the fourth as the top division is called the Premier Division. SHCC is below Bessborough and Chiswick and above Stoke Newington, whilst Wembley are bottom. Shepherds Bush are top of the Premier League ahead of North Middlesex and Crouch End. Ealing are bottom.
Paddy Carlin’s article goes some way to explain the massive changes in the club game since our era. Taking a regulation walk around the ground Terry, Steve, Allen and I reflected that we were fortunate to have played in the final golden era of club cricket.
The Spot the Ball picture features Micky d’Silva, Steve Thompson, Allen Bruton, Terry Cordaroy and Jim Sharp.
Colin Price
Allen Bruton sent me this
Having not heard from Colin for some time it was with much trepidation that I decided to investigate. A visit to the Mosman Cricket Club website confirmed my worst fears that he had died on 21st August 2024.
Unlike most Australians who came and played for just one season, Colin registered four seasons with South Hampstead 1971-74. To say he was a popular member of the club and dressing room would be a massive understatement. On the field he put in many fine performances with the bat and occasionally with his off spin bowling. A match winning innings of 96 not out against a Mitcham side containing the likes of Eaton Swabey and Denis Marriott is just one that springs to mind.
A testament to Colin’s ability and personality is that he was selected to captain Australian Old Collegians on their UK tour circa 1979/80. Further visits to the UK followed where he would catch up with old teammates including the SHCC Reunion 2008 at Lords. In my last communication with him he was planning another UK trip with a group of friends in the form of a cycling tour of the Cotswold. Typically, he assured me he would look forward to buying me a pint of Hook Norton Bitter. A pint I was looking forward to but sadly won’t now be getting.
Miller Matters
Douglas Miller joins in the Professor’s thesis
May I offer a thought on the bowling of no balls. I have just umpired the match between Radley and Tonbridge, where the problem was seen on a grand scale. ‘Four – three’ I said at one stage to the non-striker when he enquired how many balls still to go, - four that didn’t count and three that did.
After the match I offered the explanation that it was perhaps linked to the modern practice of measuring a run up ahead of the match and setting it in stone as it were by painting a line with the bowler’s initials. In older, less scientific days, as one’s stride lengthened (mine always did), one moved the marker back. Rocket science.
Dingbats Corner
Lewis McManus won the toss for Northants against Middlesex at Merchant Taylors' School Ground and decided to put them in. At the end of Day 1 Middlesex had reached 319 for 1. On Day 2 they finally declared after 146 overs with the score on 625 for 8. In reply Northants managed 261 and following on added 257. Darren Lehman is the county coach. Was he behind this insanity?
Ben Brown, the Hampshire skipper won the toss at the Rose Bowl and invited his guests, Notts, to bat first. After 132.3 overs Notts declared on 578 for 8, their number seven batsman, Lyndon James, contributing 203 not out. In reply Hants made 454 but were unable to make any progress towards a victory.
Crocks Corner
In this era when bowlers have to carry out inappropriate fitness regimes and then spend more time on the treatment bench than actually bowling this feature celebrates the manifold complaints of these elite athletes. Feel free to submit anything you notice
“Ben Stokes' side toiled throughout the second day at Edgbaston as India piled up 587 before reducing the hosts to 77-3. Brydon Carse struggled with a recurrence of his foot issues while Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes did not bowl after their first spells. "Clearly there's a problem with Brydon Carse and we're two Test matches into a five-match series in England and then it's not too long after we've got five matches in Australia in the heat on those slabs, some of those drop-in pitches with a Kookaburra ball," Vaughan said. "England's tactic after 30 overs pretty much is just to whack the ball into the pitch with a square-of-the-wicket field. They're going to need some wheelbarrows to get some of these bowlers off the park in Australia. It's so tough on the body."
“Carse was ruled out for three months earlier this year because of serious cuts and blisters on his toes – an issue that first emerged on tours of Pakistan and New Zealand before Christmas. Although he remained on the field in Birmingham, he was seen hobbling at various times when fielding and in his bowling follow-through. Stokes, meanwhile, has returned to bowling this year following hamstring surgery. He was seen stretching his groin on day one and, after a lengthy warm-up before play, opened the bowling on day two. He delivered four overs for 16 runs but did not return to the attack in the remaining 58 overs of India's innings. Similarly, Woakes did not feature after his four overs for 22 runs at the start of the day.”
“England captain Ben Stokes says his latest injury will not impact his participation in this winter's Ashes after he was ruled out of the fifth and final Test against India, which starts on Thursday. Stokes misses out at The Oval with a shoulder problem, sustained during the draw at Old Trafford, with a tight turnaround of just four days between Tests. But the all-rounder says he is only expecting to be sidelined for around six or seven weeks.”
This may have to become the “Stokes Crocks Corner” as more is written about his lack of fitness than all other athletes added together.
Fast Test match Hundreds
Ken Molloy sent me this article by Simon Wilde
Ian Botham never managed it. Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff never managed it, and nor did any of England’s great swashbucklers of the past 100 years. It has even eluded Ben Stokes’ Bazballers, who have set the record books ablaze during the past three years.
England’s fastest Test century, perhaps the most prestigious of all quick-scoring landmarks, remains in the possession of the celebrated hitter Gilbert Jessop, and dates from a match against Australia at the Oval in 1902. Remarkably, England have played more than 1,000 Tests since then and yet no one has been able to knock him off top spot, despite more athletic players wielding bigger, more powerful bats.
The recent crop of players, notably Jonny Bairstow and Harry Brook, have come close to eclipsing Jessop on a number of occasions, but it has not happened yet.
For many years it has been accepted that Jessop got to his hundred in 76 balls. This prompted me to investigate in detail Jessop’s great innings, which came during a nerve-jangling fourth innings run chase leading to a one-wicket win. What I discovered led to a book, Chasing Jessop: The Mystery of England Cricket’s Oldest Record, which will be published on July 31.
I conclude that the Bazballers’ task just got harder: Jessop actually scored his hundred off fewer than 76 balls.
The 76-ball claim rested on what was an unidentified newspaper cutting in the possession of the Jessop family which contained a ball-by-ball list of the deliveries Jessop faced and how many he scored off each. The cutting was referenced in The Croucher, a biography of Jessop written by Gerald Brodribb in 1974, the centenary of his birth.
Neither of the two scorebooks compiled by the game’s official scorers survive, and in any case the method of “linear scoring” — in which every ball faced by each batsman is recorded against their name as well as the bowler’s — was rare before the 1960s, when radio and television broadcasters employed scorers such as Bill Frindall to provide commentary teams with more in-game information.
Hence the shortage of details surrounding Jessop’s innings — and many others played in the early days of Test cricket. Then, a batsman’s stay at the crease was typically measured in minutes rather than balls faced.
During my research, I discovered that the cutting cited by Brodribb came from the Athletic News, a respected sports weekly published in Manchester, five days after the Oval Test finished. Crucially, I also unearthed a report in a London paper, the Morning Leader, the day after the match, which contained its own ball-by-ball breakdown of Jessop’s innings — a list that had lain undiscovered.
This list closely tallied with the Athletic News but contained fewer “dot balls” (balls off which no run was scored), and indicated that Jessop faced only 71 balls to reach his hundred. It was far more detailed, too, identifying who bowled each of the balls Jessop faced; and, in the case of the dot balls, whether Jessop played the ball, or left it — remarkably sophisticated data for the period. The Morning Leader, set up in 1892 and owned by Colman’s, the mustard family, provided comprehensive and illuminating coverage of the 1902 Test series. It merged with The Daily News in 1912.
Using these two breakdowns, especially the Morning Leader’s identification of who bowled each ball, plus contemporary reports from more than 30 newspapers, it was possible to reconstruct what happened during Jessop’s innings with a high degree of accuracy. I determined that Jessop must have scored his hundred in 72-74 balls.
Through the reconstruction I was able to identify small discrepancies in both lists (in each case, relating to just one over) but also two instances where it is unclear off precisely which ball of an over the strike changed from one batsman to the other, hence the final figure ranging from 72 to 74.
For all but 19 balls of his time at the crease, Jessop’s partner was Stanley Jackson, the Yorkshire batsman and future England captain. Jessop joined Jackson with England in dire straights at 48 for five, but they stayed together for 24 overs, in which time Jessop contributed a whirlwind 83 and Jackson just 18 to a partnership of 109. Jessop was eventually dismissed for 104, four balls after reaching his century.
Under the modern Laws of Cricket, Jessop would have reached his century even faster but in England at that time over-the-boundary hits were only awarded four unless the ball was hit out of the ground, in which case it was six. This law remained until 1911. Jessop hit three balls over the rope (but not out of the ground) during his century; had they been awarded six, he would have reached his hundred in one ball fewer. It has been estimated that Jessop hit 600 to 700 “sixes” during a first-class career that lasted from 1894 to 1914.
Jessop used unusually long-handled bats but — like all bats of his era — they were much thinner, front to back, than today’s equivalents, and thus lacked the power that allows even mishits to carry for six in the modern game.
Jessop was such a fast scorer that journalists occasionally kept a note of the number of balls he faced. Earlier in the 1902 series, it was calculated that he scored 55 from 49 deliveries opening the batting in the third Test. Often mistrusted as too attacking, he played only 18 Tests.
It was commonly reported that Jessop batted 75 minutes to reach his record hundred, but a close analysis of newspaper reports suggests 80 minutes is more likely — still England’s fastest in terms of time batted.
“Jessop’s match” was one of the great Ashes Tests, fit to compare with the Headingley games of 1981 and 2019 made famous by heroic centuries from Botham and Stokes respectively. Tests in England were only scheduled to last three days in 1902 but, at a time when bowlers maintained a rate of around 20 overs per hour, the Oval match still spanned 311.4 overs, longer than many recent England Tests.
Jessop was out with England still requiring 76 but they crept to their target of 263 with their last pair together, two Yorkshiremen from the same village of Kirkheaton, George Hirst and Wilfred Rhodes. Their 15-run partnership spawned the apocryphal remark “we’ll get them in singles” though in fact it contained one four, one two and nine singles.
The result led to an outpouring of national rejoicing. England had not beaten Australia on home soil since 1896 and the country was still recovering from the trauma of the Boer War, resolved with the Treaty of Vereeniging only ten weeks earlier.
In 2022, Bairstow scored a century off 77 balls — England’s second fastest in Tests — against New Zealand at Trent Bridge (having got to 96 from 71); and in Rawalpindi the same year Brook became the third fastest after reached a hundred off 80 balls in the first innings against Pakistan and then hit 87 off 65 in the second.
The nearest anyone has come to toppling Jessop’s 1902 record was Jessop himself: against South Africa at Lord’s in 1907, he was out for 93 from 64 balls. Little wonder he was a darling of the crowds. He died in 1955.
It is particularly ironic that England have not yet challenged the very fastest hundreds scored in Test cricket given that Brendon McCullum, their head coach and inspiration, holds the world Test record, racing to a 54-ball century in his final Test for New Zealand in 2016.
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