Ask Steven

Batted on all five days, and 268 in a one-day game

The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket

Steven Lynch
Steven Lynch
13-Nov-2006
The regular Monday column in which Steven Lynch answers your questions about (almost) any aspect of cricket:
I heard that Geoffrey Boycott once batted on all five days of a Test match. When was this, and has anyone else achieved this feat? asked Rayed Mamun from Australia


Kim Hughes - the only player to bat all five days of a Test and hit a six on each day © The Cricketer International
Geoff Boycott did it during the third Ashes Test of 1977, at Trent Bridge, on his comeback to Test cricket after a three-year self-imposed exile. He scored 107 and an unbeaten 80, and was one of the not-out batsmen at the end of the first, second and fourth days. He was the second person to achieve this feat, after ML Jaisimha of India, who managed it against Australia at Calcutta in 1959-60. It has now been done six times in all: the ones since Boycott were Kim Hughes, for Australia against England in the Centenary Test at Lord's in 1980; Allan Lamb, for England against West Indies, also at Lord's, in 1984; Ravi Shastri, for India against England at Calcutta in 1984-85; and most recently by Andrew Flintoff, for England against India at Mohali in 2005-06. Hughes, uniquely, managed to hit a six on all five days of that 1980 match.
Who has made the highest score in a domestic one-day match in England? asked Andrew Soames from Cheltenham
There have been four double-centuries in inter-county limited-overs matches in England - and Surrey's Alistair Brown has made two of them. His 268 against Glamorgan in the C&G Trophy at The Oval in 2002 is the highest innings ever made in a "List A" one-day match anywhere in the world, and he also scored 203 against Hampshire in the 40-over Sunday League at Guildford in 1997. The other double-centuries in English domestic one-day cricket date from when the Minor Counties were often pummelled in the early rounds of the NatWest Trophy: Alvin Kallicharran biffed 206 for Warwickshire against Oxfordshire at Edgbaston in 1984 (he also took 6 for 32, so not much doubt about the Man of the Match award!) and Vince Wells hit 201 for Leicestershire against Berkshire at Leicester in 1996.
Where was the first "off-shore" one-day international played? asked Ramesh Reddy from Trivandrum
I suppose a case could be made for the St Helen's ground in Swansea, in Wales, which staged a one-day international between England and New Zealand in 1973, but apart from that the first ground outside the established Test nations to hold an official ODI was Sharjah, which staged the first of its 198 ODIs in April 1984, when Pakistan played Sri Lanka.
Who wrote a book called The Cricket Pro's Lot? asked Christopher Dangerfield from Bedford


'A cricketer is as old as he fields' writes Root in A Cricket Pro's Lot © Edward Arnold
The author of what is an interesting and quirky cricket book was Fred Root, the former Worcestershire fast-medium bowler who played three Tests for England against Australia in 1926 without ever batting, although he did take eight wickets. In all first-class cricket Root took 1512 wickets at 21.11: he perfected a pre-Bodyline form of leg theory, bowling inswingers at leg stump at a rather gentler pace than Harold Larwood, with a well-stocked leg-side field. Among the adages propounded in his book, which was published in 1937, is "A cricketer is as old as he fields": it also includes a plea for "an English Cup for cricket", which pre-dated the one-day Gillette Cup competition by 26 years, and "a plea for the transfer system", which was about 60 years ahead of its time. Gideon Haigh wrote more about Root and his book in an article on Cricinfo in January 2006.
I was wondering whether the Australian umpire Ian Lock is the son of the great English spinner Tony Lock? He was born in England, and lives in Western Australia, Tony's old Shield team, so I thought he might be. How many father/son combinations have umpired at international level? asked Noel Edwards from Australia
We asked Ric Evans, the umpiring manager of the Western Australian Cricket Association, and he says: "Definitely no relation at all - although Ian is English." It is quite a coincidence: Ian Lock was born in Wiltshire in 1958, shortly before Tony moved out to Perth to play for WA. There have been a few instances of father-and-son umpires, although perhaps understandably not many cases where they appeared in the same match! One current pair that bucks that trend is the Modis - Kenya's sometime captain Hitesh Modi has played in three one-day internationals umpired by his father, Subhash. In the third of those, against Bangladesh in Nairobi in August, father gave son out lbw.
Which former New Zealand cricketer was nicknamed "The Hornet"? asked Chandramohan from India
I'm afraid this isn't one of cricket's more original nicknames: the player concerned was Matt Horne, who played 35 Tests for New Zealand between 1996-97 and 2002-03, scoring 1788 runs at 28,.38, with four centuries. His older brother, Phil, played cricket for New Zealand too - and also represented them at badminton.
  • Steven Lynch's new book, The Cricinfo Guide to International Cricket 2007, is out now. Click here for more details, or here for our review.
  • Steven Lynch is the deputy editor of The Wisden Group. For some of these answers he was helped by Travis Basevi, the man who built Stats Guru. If you want to Ask Steven a question, contact him through our feedback form. The most interesting questions will be answered each week in this column. Unfortunately, we can't usually enter into correspondence about individual queries