One Test Blunders

[SillyCowCorner1]

Top of my head I'm thinking Leon Garrick, Brandon Bess...

There's gotta be more.

 

[ImpatientLime]

darren pattinson

a bit like robert patinson's ****** brother who works on home and away getting sent to hollywood

 

[Flem274*]

iirc darren pattinson bowled reasonably well in his one appearance. i can't remember if he was injury cover or what but england got a job out of him.

 

[tony p]

Late call up for the ashes 6th Test 1997 @ The Oval- Shaun Young.

 

[mr_mister]

Matt Nicholson nearly was nearly a batting hero in his only test but ended up starting the late evening flurry of wickets that cost us the game at the MCG in the '98 ashes

 

[Line and Length]

Fred Grace (brother of W.G.) and Jack MacBryan.

Fred made a 4 ball 'pair' while Jack remains the only player from anywhere to play Test cricket but not bat, bowl or make a catch or a stumping.

 

[Line and Length]

Matt Nicholson nearly was nearly a batting hero in his only test but ended up starting the late evening flurry of wickets that cost us the game at the MCG in the '98 ashes

A bit harsh on Nicholson. His bowling (particularly in the second innings - 3 for 56) hardly qualifies him for a "blunder" tag!

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Fred Grace (brother of W.G.) and Jack MacBryan.

Fred made a 4 ball 'pair' while Jack remains the only player from anywhere to play Test cricket but not bat, bowl or make a catch or a stumping.

Lovin Jack’s work, great story that

 

[Dendarii]

Gavin Hamilton

 

[tony p]

Somerset Amateur & Oxford University Player, N.S.(Mandy), Mitchell-Innes.

Scored 5 v South Africa at Trent Bridge in 1935, was selected for the second test at Lords, but then got hay fever, had to drop out, and never got picked again.

Also , Bryce McGain, 18-2-149-0, smashed by Prince, Kallis, & De Villiers at Cape Town 2009.

 

[Bijed]

iirc darren pattinson bowled reasonably well in his one appearance. i can't remember if he was injury cover or what but england got a job out of him.

It was just a pretty random selectio iirc, but yeah, in terms of what we got out out him it could have been a lot worse.


I often mention Bryce McGain (edit: and tony p has anyway), but him and Simon Kerrigan definitely count in terms of playing a single, dreadful test even though they were pretty reasonable selections (fitness notwithstanding for McGain, I think)

On the flipside, you've got Andy Ganteaume who batted once, made 112 and never played again. Retired to preserve his average, I presume

 

[tony p]

Fred Grace (brother of W.G.) and Jack MacBryan.

Fred made a 4 ball 'pair' while Jack remains the only player from anywhere to play Test cricket but not bat, bowl or make a catch or a stumping.

MacBryan was a temperamental sort of bloke, didn't help his cause. There is a great book by David Foot called Cricket's Unholy Trinity which features MacBryan, about 40 pages on him.

 

[vcs]

There's got to be a lot of disastrous one Test experiments from India in the '90s, especially if they were thrown to the wolves overseas. Can't think of any right now though.

 

[fredfertang]

Gavin Hamilton

A perfect illustration of the problem with quotas

 

[AndrewB]

iirc darren pattinson bowled reasonably well in his one appearance. i can't remember if he was injury cover or what but england got a job out of him.

He was picked because Ryan Sidebottom was injured the day before the Test, and (according to Vaughan some years later) Matthew Hoggard was too hung over from a benefit function to be called up.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Selecting an unfit Boyd Rankin at the SCG in 2014 would be a good shout for this topic if he didn't eventually get another crack at Tests for Ireland.

However his fellow debutant in that Sydney Test, Scott Borthwick (picked as a specialist spinner to succeed Swann) definitely qualifies.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Might be a bit early to write the boy off just yet, but Mason Crane has a long road back from here if he's going to add to his one cap.

FC bowling average currently north of 50.

 

[Pothas]

Yeah we don't see all that many one cap wonders for England anymore but that last Test on an Ashes tour still seems to be the one.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

In the days when it still took forever to get from England to New Zealand Tony Piggot was picked to play a Test for England when the entire tour party got injured and he happened to be playing club cricket in New Zealand at the time. He would have been about 20th choice. He cancelled his wedding to play and England lost by an innings in two days. I guess he played for England and no one can take that away so he probably has no regrets as he wasn't a Test cricketer in a million years.

Another unfortunate was Andy Lloyd. He earnt his chance through weight of County runs but was never a Test cricketer in the making and was knocked out inside half an hour by Malcolm Marshall and was never seen again. He allegedly holds the distinction of being the only England opening batsman to never be dismissed.

 

[AndrewB]

Another unfortunate was Andy Lloyd. He earnt his chance through weight of County runs but was never a Test cricketer in the making and was knocked out inside half an hour by Malcolm Marshall and was never seen again. He allegedly holds the distinction of being the only England opening batsman to never be dismissed.

You can lose the "allegedly" there (and the "England").

Bit harsh to dismiss his prospects at the time so quickly - he was England's leading scorer in the ODI series that summer (OK, 101 runs in 3 matches isn't a huge amount, but this was a debutant playing against an attack including Marshall, Garner and Holding - it's also more than Greenidge, Haynes or Lloyd scored in the same series).