|
|
|
  |
| Sunday, 8 May 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Bizarre batting records by A.C. de Silva Batting is the brightest part of the game of cricket and the present day has been fortunate, as the game has some outstanding personalities like Brian Lara of the West Indies, Shahid Afridi and Inzamam-Ul-Haq of Pakistan, Graeme Smith and D. Villiers of South Africa, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid of India and Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka. In the good old days there was none to catch the tune of Australian 'great' Don Bradman and even before The Don's thrilling batting, there were some outstanding cricketers who kept the game alive with their fine batsmanship. With fine exhibitions of batting, there were also instances of uncommon batting records that were a big draw in the years gone by and they will no doubt be great hits in the present day as well. Talking of the past one cannot forget the deeds of two colossi of the bat who need no introduction are the Graces - W.G. and E.M. the Doctor was leading the United South against the XXII of Grimsby. The Grimsby Worsley Club, who were sponsoring the match, were worried that their team would not be good enough to last the full three days. As luck would have it a telegram arrived on the second day addressed to W.G. Grace. Since he was then batting, play was halted while the telegram was taken out to the wicket. From it W.G. learned that his wife had just given birth to a son, and he immediately ordered a longer halt in play while both teams took champagne with him. After a while W.G. said: "I would like to break a record to celebrate this," and in honour of his wife, battered the Grimbsy bowling for 400 not out. E.M. Grace, in his appearances for Thornbury, stuck so many balls so hard and so far, many of them never to be seen again, that one umpire, the local postmaster, took to weighing down his coat pockets with up to nine spare balls. This worked well enough to preserve continuity of play until the day E.M. hit an earth-shaking double century and used up the postmaster's entire quota of spares. Oddest survival In the 1983 final of the Oxford Inter-College Cricket Cup, Balliol College won by scoring 243 and then bowling out New College for 165 - but without dismissing either opener. One retired hurt after top-edging a hook on to the nose and breaking it, and the other carried his bat for 58. Big invasion Wilson Hartley pulled off what may be remembered as the ultimate humilation of a bowler when he hit Walsdeb's Peter Green for six while playing for Rochadale in the Central Lancashire League. This was no ordinary six: It travelled enormous distance and in a direction that many readers will find uncanny. The ball crossed into nearby Strines Street, smashed an upper window in one of the houses and came to rest on a bed - the bed of bowler Perer Green. Lovestruck innings A.J. Artfield who played for Gloucestershire and A. Witshire was married one morning in June 1903, at St. George's Hanover Square, then sped on the wings of Love to Lord's where he exchanged his black outfit for a white one and struck a century before lunch in the Cross Arrows match. Continued next week
|
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
