#batsman

13 incidents tagged

Graeme Pollock — South Africa's Greatest Batsman and a Career Cut Short, 1963–1970

South Africa vs Various

1965-07-06

Graeme Pollock of Eastern Province was one of the two or three best batsmen in the world in the 1960s — a left-hander of such natural genius that Don Bradman rated him alongside Sobers as the finest post-war player he had seen. In 23 Tests he scored 2,256 runs at 60.97. South Africa's isolation ended his career at 26, depriving him of at least a decade of Test cricket.

#graeme-pollock#south-africa#batsman

⭐Mild

Rohan Kanhai — The Most Exciting Batsman in the World, England Tour 1963

West Indies vs England

1963-07-01

Rohan Kanhai of British Guiana was, on the 1963 England tour, the most exciting batsman in the world — a right-hander capable of playing every shot in the manual and several that were not, including his famous falling sweep that he played while sitting on the ground having lost his footing. On the 1963 tour he scored 497 runs in five Tests at 49.70, including a dazzling 77 at Headingley and 92 at The Oval.

#rohan-kanhai#west-indies#1963

⭐Mild

Richard Daft — Nottinghamshire's Prince and England's Premier Batsman, 1860s

Nottinghamshire and All-England representative sides

1864-07-01

Richard Daft of Nottinghamshire was, in the mid-1860s, the successor to George Parr as the country's leading professional batsman — elegant, technically correct, and prolific on the rough wickets of the early county cricket era. His Trent Bridge centuries and his representative appearances for the Players against the Gentlemen defined the standard of professional batsmanship in the decade before W.G. Grace's arrival reset all comparisons.

#overarm-era#early-county-cricket#1860s

😂Mild

Harry Jupp — The Surrey Stonewaller and His Impenetrable Defence, 1860s

Surrey and England representative sides

1863-06-01

Harry Jupp of Surrey was one of Victorian cricket's great defensive batsmen — a stonewaller of such impenetrable technique that contemporaries called him 'Young Stonewall' and marvelled at his ability to bat through entire sessions without apparent risk of dismissal. His method was unromantic but effective; he scored over 23,000 first-class runs at an average of 22, represented England in the first two Test matches of 1876–77, and drove bowlers to distraction with a patience that the entertainment-hungry Victorian public occasionally found trying.

#overarm-era#early-county-cricket#1860s

⭐Mild

E.M. Grace — The Coroner Who Was England's Best Bat Before His Brother, 1860s

Gloucestershire and All-England representative sides

1862-06-01

Edward Mills Grace — E.M. — the elder of the famous Grace cricketing brothers, was in the early 1860s the most talked-about young batsman in England, predating his younger brother W.G.'s dominance by several years. A Gloucestershire man who worked as a country coroner, E.M. Grace combined an astonishing eye with an unorthodox but devastatingly effective style, and his all-round performances in the late 1850s and early 1860s marked him as a coming great before W.G. had played his first first-class match.

#overarm-era#early-county-cricket#1860s

⭐Mild

Richard Daft — Nottinghamshire's Next Great Batsman Makes His First-Class Debut, 1858

Nottinghamshire and All-England elevens

1858-06-01

Richard Daft of Nottingham made his first-class debut for Nottinghamshire in 1858, at twenty years of age, and immediately announced himself as the finest young batsman in the north of England. An elegant right-hander with a perfect upright technique and an exceptional off-drive, Daft would by the mid-1860s succeed Parr as Nottinghamshire's leading professional and England's most admired batsman after Grace.

#roundarm-era#early-victorian#1850s

⭐Mild

George Parr — 'The Lion of the North' Established as England's Premier Batsman, 1855

Nottinghamshire and All-England elevens

1855-07-01

With Fuller Pilch's retirement in 1854, George Parr of Nottinghamshire assumed the mantle of England's premier batsman. Known as 'the Lion of the North' for his ferocious pull shot to leg — the celebrated stroke that hit the ball into the elm tree at Trent Bridge that would bear his name — Parr was the acknowledged best in the country from 1855 until the emergence of W.G. Grace in the late 1860s.

#roundarm-era#early-victorian#1850s

⭐Mild

Joseph Guy — Nottinghamshire's Veteran Batsman in His Final Years, 1853

Nottinghamshire and All-England Eleven

1853-07-01

Joseph Guy of Nottingham, one of the leading professional batsmen of the 1840s, continued to play for Nottinghamshire through the early 1850s, providing a bridge between the Pilch era and the Parr generation. A technically correct batsman with a strong forward game, Guy scored over 5,000 first-class runs and was regarded by Pilch himself as one of the finest players of the forward stroke in the country.

#roundarm-era#early-victorian#1850s

⭐Mild

Julius Caesar — Surrey's Dashing Middle-Order Professional of the 1850s

Surrey and All-England elevens

1850-06-01

Julius Caesar of Godalming — his real name — was Surrey's hard-hitting middle-order professional through the county's golden age of the 1850s, a fixture in every major representative eleven and a member of both the 1859 North America tour and the 1861–62 and 1863–64 Australian tours. His punishing off-side hitting and safe slip fielding made him one of the most popular professionals of his generation.

#roundarm-era#early-victorian#1850s

⭐Mild

Nicholas Felix — Artist, Author and Batsman: His Playing Peak in the 1840s

Kent and various representative elevens

1845-07-01

Nicholas Felix — whose real name was Nicholas Wanostrocht — was in the 1840s simultaneously the author of Felix on the Bat, the most important batting manual of the period, and an active first-class batsman for Kent and representative sides. As a schoolmaster-amateur who played for the love of the game, he combined technical elegance with the artistic sensibility that made his watercolour sketches of contemporaries the most beautiful cricket portraits of the era.

#roundarm-era#early-victorian#1840s

⭐Mild

George Parr's Early Career — The Lion of the North Emerges, 1845–1847

Nottinghamshire and All-England elevens

1845-07-01

George Parr of Nottinghamshire made his first-class debut in 1844 and by 1845–47 had established himself as the most promising young batsman in England, succeeding Fuller Pilch as the country's leading run-scorer in the 1850s. In the mid-1840s his leg-side hitting — which would eventually send a famous elm branch into orbit at Trent Bridge — was already drawing comment from critics who regarded him as the game's next great figure.

#roundarm-era#early-victorian#1840s

⭐Mild

Tom Marsden of Sheffield — Yorkshire's Leading Batsman of the Early 1830s

Yorkshire, North

1833-09-05

Tom Marsden of Sheffield was the leading northern batsman of the early 1830s and the man who carried Yorkshire cricket through the decade. A left-handed bat of unusual power, he had scored 227 in a single innings as early as 1826 — at the time the highest individual score in English cricket. By the early 1830s he was the natural counterweight to Pilch in any North vs South discussion.

#tom-marsden#sheffield#yorkshire

⭐Mild

Fuller Pilch — Cricket's Best Batsman of the Pre-Grace Era Emerges from Norfolk

Norfolk and various

1820-07-01

Fuller Pilch, born in Horningtoft, Norfolk in March 1804, made his first appearance at Lord's at the age of sixteen in 1820, playing for Norfolk against MCC. By the mid-1820s he was acclaimed as the best batsman in England, a status he held for nearly thirty years until W.G. Grace appeared in the 1860s. He pioneered forward play against the new roundarm bowling and gave his name to a famous attacking stroke called 'Pilch's Poke'.

#fuller-pilch#norfolk#kent