Wally Hammond's 1927 — 1,000 Runs by End of May

Hammond had nearly died of a parasitic infection contracted on the 1925-26 MCC tour of the West Indies, and had missed all of 1926. His 1927 season was a comeback as well as an arrival.

Hammond had been a Gloucestershire player since 1920 but his early career had been disrupted by a serious illness contracted on MCC's 1925-26 West Indies tour. He returned in 1927 fully fit, and the 1927 English county season was a procession of his hundreds. Through April and May he scored 1,042 runs at an average above 86, with five centuries — the first 1,000 by end of May since W.G. Grace's 1,016 in 1895.

The centuries came against Yorkshire, Surrey, Middlesex, Lancashire and the South Africans. The Yorkshire 187 was made on a damp Headingley surface against Macaulay and Robinson; the South Africans 192 came at Bristol in five-and-a-half hours of pure off-side strokeplay. Wisden, naming Hammond one of its Five Cricketers of the Year for 1928, wrote: 'There has been no better off-side player in living memory.'

Hammond made his Test debut in February 1928 in South Africa and broke into the side as a regular Test batsman during the 1928-29 Ashes (905 series runs in five Tests, an Ashes record that stood for 60 years). The 1927 May figure was, in retrospect, the moment when English cricket realised it would not need to wait long for a successor to Jack Hobbs.

“There has been no better off-side player in living memory.”

Hammond made his Test debut in February 1928 in South Africa and immediately became a Test regular. In the 1928-29 Ashes he made 905 runs in five Tests, an Ashes record. He played 85 Tests, scored 7,249 runs at 58.45 and was England captain through the 1930s.