"Born before Tests" draft

[AndrewB]

Poll now posted.

Thanks to everyone for taking part, and good luck!

 

[a massive zebra]

Just because a side has two exceptional batsmen, it doesn't necessarily mean their pitches are featherbeads. At the beginning of the 20th century Sussex didn't just play at Hove. If their pitches were so easy for batting, I wonder why all their other batsmen struggled to maintain an average of 30, and none achieved a seasonal average of over 40.

In the 1899 county championship Ranji scored 2,285 runs at 76.16 with 7 centuries and Fry 1,579 at 42.67 with 3 centuries. The next best Sussex batsman was George Brann with 1,224 at 32.21 with 2 centuries.

In the 1900 county championship Ranji scored 2,563 runs at 85.43 with 9 centuries and Fry 1,830 at 63.10 with 9 centuries. The next best Sussex batsman was Ernest Killick with 1,177 at 34.61 with 2 centuries.

In the 1901 county championship Ranji scored 2,067 runs at 76.55 with 7 centuries and Fry 2,382 at 74.43 with 9 centuries. The next best Sussex batsman was Ernest Killick with 1,186 at 37.06 with 2 centuries.

In the 1902 county championship Ranji scored 866 runs at 66.61 with 3 centuries and Fry 1,072 at 41.23 with 3 centuries. The next best Sussex batsman was Joe Vine with 1,083 at 30.08 with no centuries.

In the 1903 county championship Ranji scored 1,394 runs at 58.08 with 4 centuries and Fry 2,413 at 80.43 with 8 centuries. The next best Sussex batsman was Ernest Killick with 1,026 at 33.09 with no centuries.

In the 1904 county championship Ranji scored 1,330 runs at 73.88 with 4 centuries and Fry 2,376 at 79.20 with 9 centuries. The next best Sussex batsman was Joe Vine with 1,189 at 36.03 with 4 centuries.

Also, Fry didn't just play for Sussex. In 1909 he moved to Hampshire and played for them for the remainder of his career. Despite not joining Hampshire until age 36 and playing for them until he was almost 50, he still has the best career average in the county’s history. If Fry benefited from the "easy" Hove pitch, why was he able to achieve even better returns as a relatively old man after moving to Hampshire?

Fry headed the English first class batting averages (qualification minimum 20 innings) for six English seasons (1901, 1903, 1905, 1907, 1911 and 1912). Against Yorkshire, the strongest county bowling attack of Fry's time, he averaged a remarkable 63.60 over the course of his career, including back to back scores of 177 and 229 in 1904.

This is what Wisden had to say about Fry and Ranji in each of these years.

1899
Their success was, of course, chiefly brought about by the return of Ranjitsinhji, who was absent from England during the whole of 1898. The loss of one season's first-class play had not in any way affected the great cricketer's skill, and though he disappointed himself and his friends in several of the matches in which he met the Australians, he did marvels for Sussex, scoring 2285 runs in county fixtures alone, and obtaining the wonderful average of 76. Nineteen times out of twenty this would have been the biggest county average of the year, but splendid as it was, it fell short of Major Poore's average for Hampshire. Seven times in the county matches did Ranji make over a hundred, his highest and probably his best innings being 197 against Surrey at the Oval at the end of June. He had never before done half so well at the Oval, which had always for him been the most unlucky of grounds. In the return match with Surrey at Brighton, he was almost as successful, playing a very fine innings of 174. It is only right to add here that as a result of the season's work in first-class matches Ranjitsinhji scored over 3,000 runs, thus beating his own record of 2,780 runs in 1896. C.B. Fry and George Brann did first-rate work, as their averages will show, but they were both quite over-shadowed by Ranjitsinhji. Fry made three hundreds in county matches and Brann two. In itself Fry's record in county matches of 1579 runs, with an average of 42, was a great one, small as it seems in comparison with Ranjitsinhji. In reality, however, the difference between the two averages is not quite so great as it looks on paper, Ranjitsinhji having played five not-out innings and Fry only one.

1900
The county possessed a number of dependable run-getters, but Ranjitsinhji and Fry did such extraordinary things as to reduce all the other players to insignificance. It may be questioned whether two batsmen on the same side have ever kept in finer form during the whole of a long season. Between them they scored in county matches alone 4393 runs, Ranjitsinhji making 2563 with an average of 85, and Fry 1830 with an average of 63. Fry was at the top of his form from the beginning of the season to the end, and Ranjitsinji, when once he had shaken off a slight lameness, due probably to the cold weather in May, distanced all the batsmen of the year. Each scored nine hundreds in the county fixtures, Ranjitsinji making his first on the 4th of June and his last on the 30th August, and Fry his first on the 28th of May and his last on the 20th of August. Ranjitsinhji's scores were much the heavier, among his long innings being 275 against Leicestershire at Leicester, 220 against Kent at BVrighton, 202 against Middlesex at Brighton, and 192 against Kent at Tonbridge. Fry's highest score was 229 in the second innings against Surrey at Brighton. The match was an especially important one for him, as he made 125 in the first innings and thus for the second time in his career made two separate hundreds in one match in first-class cricket. It would be impossible to praise the two batsmen beyond their deserts. They made the Sussex team so great in run-getting power that every match, whatever the strength of the opposing county, could be entered with the hope of an even fight.

1901
At Taunton, however, they were put out for a moderate score, and had their bowling so mercilessly punished that Somerset ran up a total of 560 for eight wickets. It was in connection with this match that Mr. Fry told an amusing story. On the Friday evening there was a small sub-committee meeting of some of the Sussex team, and it was agreed they should not lose more than two wickets the next day, and that Ranjitsinhji should stop in all afternoon and score 300. Ranjitsinhji fell in with the humour of both suggestions, and promised that, whatever else he did, he would not play the ball with his legs. On the whole he justified the confidence his committee reposed in him, for although play was curtailed for about forty minutes by a couple of little showers, he scored 285 and was still not out at the close of the game. Moreover, the ball only touched his pads two or three times during the whole of his innings.

For the third year in succession the general interest in Sussex cricket centered mainly in the doings of Ranjitsinhji and Fry. Two seasons previously, Ranjitsinhji, after a summer in India, had finished with a vastly superior record than that of his famous colleague, averaging 76 to 42, while in 1900, although Fry improved his figures to 63 runs an innings, Ranjitsinhji advanced to 85. Last season, Ranjitsinhji once again secured the place of honour, but there was a much closer struggle, only two runs an innings separating the great batsmen, and Fry, taking part in two matches more than his captain, obtained an aggregate bigger by more than three hundred runs. As in the two previous summers, Ranjitsinhji scored over 2,000 runs for Sussex in championship matches, and the fact that his having done so attracted little notice was in itself a striking testimony to his abilities. Such marvelous batting triumphs have been achieved by the Sussex captain that followers of the game accept hundreds from him as in the ordinary course of things. Last summer he reached three figures on seven separate occasions. Three of these innings amounted to over 200, and one of them - his 285 not out against Somerset at Taunton - is the highest score he has ever made in first-class cricket. He exceeded the hundred in the home as well as the out matches with Somerset, and was similarly successful in both games with Lancashire. His 219 in all probability saved Sussex from their second defeat at the hands of Essex, and his 170 not out at Manchester enabled his side to beat Lancashire at Old Trafford. He had his few days of ill success, as did Fry, but they never really both failed. When Ranjitsinhji was out for a duck, at Trent Bridge, Fry made 170 not out, and on the occasion of Fry failing to score against Essex, his captain put together 219. Again, down at Worcester, when in the second innings Fry did not get a run, Ranjitsinhji made 139, and when Ranjitsinhji was dismissed at the Oval without scoring, Fry put together an admirable 105. Even in the disastrous match against Yorkshire at Bradford, when Sussex were put out for 52 and 155, Fry made 15 and 29, and Ranjitsinhji 11 and 57. Between them they scored 4,449 runs, thus beating their wonderful aggregate of the previous summer. The Sussex captain, it should be added, became more and more a driving player. Opposing teams endeavoured to cramp his game by putting on additional short legs, but, without abandoning his delightful strokes on that side of the wicket, or his beautifully-timed cuts, he probably got the majority of his runs by drives - a notable change, indeed, from his early years as a great cricketer.

To C.B. Fry the season of 1901 brought quite unparalleled honours. Handicapped by a slight injury, his work during May in no way foreshadowed his later triumphs, for at the end of the month he had only scored 127 runs as the result of participating in three matches. The turning point of his fortunes came with the visit of Sussex to Nottingham in the first week of June. There he played a masterly second innings of 170 not out, and from that time he never looked back. He followed this success with 244 against Leicestershire, and a little later made over 200 against each of the Universities in one week. In July he put together only one three-figure innings for Sussex, and that score - 116 against Middlesex - was very far from being one of his best efforts. In August, too, he had to rest content up to the middle of the month with one more hundred - 110 not out against Somerset at Taunton, the credit of the performance being due more to the position of the match when it was played than from any exceptional skill characterising the innings. On Friday, August 16, at Portsmouth, however, he commenced the most wonderful series of consecutive hundreds ever recorded in the game of cricket. The wicket afforded the bowlers a lot of assistance, yet Fry in the second innings made 106 out of a total of 212. In the following week he batted twice at Brighton, scoring 209 against the champion county, and 149 against Middlesex. On the following Monday, Sussex appeared against Surrey at the Oval, and there, on a wicket considerably affected by rain, Fry put together 105, winding up the week and the Sussex season by making 140 against Kent, at Brighton. Following upon this - his fifth successive hundred - he was absent from the cricket field for ten days, and then at Lord's, batting for C.I. Thornton's England Team against Yorkshire, he scored 105, thus accomplishing the truly phenomenal feat of making six successive hundreds. Altogether, he played thirteen three-figure innings during the season - eleven of them for Sussex, nine in championship matches. Of the skill and patience displayed in obtaining this remarkable number of big innings it is impossible to speak too highly, for C.B. Fry, with all his greatness, makes nearly all his runs on the on-side. He rarely cuts, he scores scarcely at all in the slips, and he often puts together a big innings without making any appreciable number of off-drives. In on-driving, in placing the ball in front of square-leg, and in putting the ball away to leg, however, he has rarely been excelled, while it may scarcely be added that he possesses the invaluable qualities of judgement and self-restraint in an exceptional degree. His present position amongst the batsmen of the day affords a wonderful illustration of what a man can accomplish by intelligence and application, for during the four years he was at Oxford there was nothing about his play to suggest that he would one day take really high rank, and two years afterwards he had still his reputation to make as an England cricketer.

1902
Ranjitsinhji only took part in 11 of the 24 county matches, and C.B. Fry, though much more faithful than his captain to the side, was compelled to be absent on several occasions. Thus, though the two great batsmen came out with far better averages than anyone else, they were not of the same enormous value to the eleven as in 1901 and previous years. For some reason which was not allowed to become public Ranjitsinhji dropped out of the team altogether during the last few weeks of the county season, finishing up with the Australian match at the beginning of August. Rumours were freely circulated as to his having had differences with one or more of the professionals, but on this point, in the absence of definite information, we can say nothing. The fact remains, however, that, for the first time at least, the great cricketer withdrew himself from the team with which his fame has been so closely associated. Ranjitsinhji was last season not half such a dependable batsman as in previous years, but his absence of course made a great difference, and it says much for the general excellence of the Sussex eleven that even with their captain away they went through their August matches with only one defeat. On three occasions Ranjitsinhji was quite himself in county matches, scoring 234 not out, against Surrey at Hastings, 230 against Essex, at Leyton, and 135 against Surrey at the Oval. That he had some bad failures to counterbalance these brilliant successes may be judged from the fact that, despite his three big scores, his aggregate of rubs in county cricket only amounted to 866. In a word he became for the first time in his career an uncertain batsman. Brilliant as ever at his best, he could no longer be looked to with confidence for a big score. His falling off was not limited to his efforts for Sussex, as in the three Test matches in which he took part he failed dismally. C.B. Fry, who also, strangely enough, failed three times for England, played far more consistently than Ranjitsinhji for Sussex, but, making full allowance for the difference in character of the two summers, he fell a long way below his wonderful form of 1901. He played some very fine innings, scoring 159 not out, against Middlesex, at Eastbourne, 159 against Surrey at Hastings, and 122 against Middlesex at Lord's.

1903
Last season the two great batsmen were far more constant to the side with which their fame is so closely associated, Fry taking part in 23 county matches and Ranjitsinhji in 21. Everything else in Sussex cricket was dwarfed by the truly magnificent batting of C.B. Fry, even Ranjitsinhji, as well as he played, being quite overshadowed. It was of course a big advantage for Fry to play so many of his matches at Brighton, the wickets there suffering less from the rain than those at most other grounds, but making full allowance for this, his record, in such a summer, of 2413 runs in county matches, with an average of 80, was almost incredible. In the wet seasons of twenty to twenty-five years ago no batsmen even distinctly approached such figures. He led off with an innings of 174 against Worcestershire at Brighton in the opening match, and remained at the top of his form till the last game had been played. He made in all seven scores of over a 100 - two of them in one match against Kent - and so consistent was his play that his failures against Worcestershire at Worcester, and Yorkshire at Brighton, caused quite a sensation. He was such a sure run-getter that people could not understand his being out twice in the same game for a single figure. The two bowlers who had the distinction of checking his successful career were G.A. Wilson and George Hirst - both of whom, by the way, depend to a large extent upon a swerving ball. Fry's highest score, and, having regard to the importance of the match, his greatest triumph, was his 234 against Yorkshire at Bradford, but several other innings were of higher merit and much more characteristic of his style. Against the Yorkshiremen he set himself to play a sternly defensive game, and threw nothing away. In point of brilliancy and variety of hitting, his 2000 against Surrey at Brighton, his 181 against Lancashire at Old Trafford, and his 174 against Worcestershire were far finer displays, and naturally better worth looking at. As usual his batting varied a good deal in different matches. On one day he would make a great proportion of his runs on the on side of the wicket, and on the next his off-driving would be superb. Taking the whole summer through he was a greater batsman than he had ever been before, the conditions under which he had to play being so much more trying than in 1901 - the year of his biggest aggregate. One secret of his extraordinary success was his complete self-control. He seemed able to play whatever game he wanted to, his restraint, when he thought caution necessary, reminding one of Arthur Shrewsbury in the Nott's batsman's best days. It is no secret that Ranjitsinhji considered him a better bat than ever, alleging as the reason for his advance that he had learned the limits of his own resources and played accordingly. Watching him as he played hundred after hundred one could not help regretting that he had not been in the same form in 1902, when he was so anxious to get runs against the Australians.

Ranjitsinhji was by no means so consistent as Fry, and only scored 1394 runs against his colleagues 2413, but when he played a big innings he showed not a trace of declining skill, batting indeed on all sorts of wickets with the same incomparable ease and grace as ever. Especially fine was his 105 on a fiery pitch at Manchester, and nothing, from the spectators point of view, could have been better than his 204 at the end of the season against Surrey at the Oval.

1904
As in several previous years, the great strength of the eleven lay in the presence of C.B. Fry and Ranjitsinhji. The two batsmen were entirely themselves, and stood right out from the other players in the team. With their assistance, there was always a chance of surpassing the opponents total, no matter how big it might be. Unfortunately, Ranjitsinhji did not give so much time to the game as in 1903, only taking part in sixteen county matches as against twenty-one. Still, instead of being over-shadowed by Fry as in the previous year, he fairly divided honours with him, the difference in their wonderful averages being less than five runs an innings. Among Ranjitsinhji's many fine innings, the best by general consent was the 207 not out, with which he saved his side against Lancashire at Brighton, in August. From the first ball to the last in that superb display he was at his highest pitch of excellence, and beyond that the art of batting cannot go. Despite the advantage derived from the fine weather, Fry did not quite equal either the aggregate or the average he obtained during the abnormally wet summer of 1903, but as regards quality of play, he was just as good as before. Including the match against Cambridge University he played ten innings of over a hundred for Sussex, his highest being 229, 226, and 191. As has often been the case before, he met with striking success against the Yorkshire bowlers, scoring 177 at Sheffield and 229 at Brighton. It is needless to say that Fry and Ranjitsinhji were a greater pair of batsmen than any other county possessed, the men who together showed the nearest approach to their form, being A.O. Jones and Iremonger for Notts, and Tylesley and R.H. Spooner for Lancashire.

 

[AndrewB]

And here's what "man who was annoying AA Milne at Lord's in 1912" had to say about CB Fry (from an article in Punch):

"Some people call him a good bat, but I don't. Not what I call first-class. Good against bad bowling, but no good against the best."

 

[Line and Length]

Unfortunately, I don't think any of these players are eligible.

Allan Rae was picked by AndrewB.

John Goddard was picked by Line and Length.

Franz (Gerry) Alexander was born in November 1928 but West Indies had already played their first test in June 1928.

Ramakant Desai was born in 1939 but India played their first test in 1932.

Why would John Goddard (born 1919), West Indies player, be ineligible?

What happened to the poll? Not many respondents.

 

[Teuton]

John Goddard was picked for a second time - so he was ineligible to SCC only because you picked him already.

The poll may need a bump