On 31 July 1899, in a tour match between MCC and the touring Australians at Lord's, Middlesex's Australian-born all-rounder Albert Trott — playing for MCC — hit Monty Noble for what is still the only six ever struck clean over the Lord's pavilion. The ball glanced a chimney stack and landed in pavilion attendant Philip Need's garden behind the building. The blow has not been matched in 125 years of cricket at Lord's.
MCC batting; Trott in at six. Noble bowling around medium pace from the Pavilion End.
Trott had moved to England in 1896 to qualify for Middlesex after his omission from Australia's team. By 1899 he was the country's leading all-rounder; he would do a double of 1,000 runs and 200 wickets in 1899, the first man ever to manage that feat.
The MCC v Australians fixture at Lord's on 31 July was an end-of-series tour match. Trott batted at six for the MCC and met Monty Noble's medium pace with a straight drive. The ball cleared the front of the Lord's pavilion, struck a chimney stack on the roof, deflected, and landed in the garden of pavilion attendant Philip Need behind the building.
Under the laws of 1899, only fully-cleared boundaries counted as six; balls landing inside the ground counted four. The pavilion garden was within the ground and so Trott's hit was officially scored as four. Modern Lord's marks the spot in the pavilion roof with a stone disk. No other batsman has cleared the pavilion since: not Bradman, not Sobers, not Botham, not Pietersen.
The pavilion was 70 yards from the wicket and around 95 feet high. Trott himself reportedly said later: 'I broke my f-ing duck on it.' He died in 1914, aged 41, by his own hand.
Trott in at six for MCC v Australians.
Noble bowling medium pace from Pavilion End.
Trott meets a length ball with a clean straight drive.
Ball clears the front of the pavilion roof.
Glances chimney stack on the roof.
Lands in pavilion attendant Philip Need's garden.
Counted four under 1899 laws (within ground).
Still the only ball ever struck clean over the Lord's pavilion.
31 Jul 1899
MCC v Australians at Lord's.
Afternoon
Trott meets Noble's length ball with a straight drive.
Same over
Ball clears pavilion, hits chimney, lands in garden.
Scoring
Counted as four under 1899 laws.
1925
Lord's marks the spot with a stone disk in the pavilion roof.
“The ball was a half-volley on middle stump and Trott met it square.”
Trott played for Middlesex through to 1910 and ended his playing career as the only man to do the 1,000 runs / 200 wickets first-class double in a season (1899 and 1900). His commercial life never thrived; he killed himself in his Willesden lodgings in July 1914 aged 41, leaving a single line: 'My possessions to my landlady.'
The most famous individual stroke in Lord's history, by an Australian-born MCC player on the only ball that has ever cleared the building.
The pavilion six is a Lord's institution. A small stone disk in the pavilion roof marks where the ball passed; Father Time, the weather vane added in 1926, looks down on it. Many famous strikers have hit the pavilion (notably Kim Hughes in 1980 and Andrew Flintoff in 2005), but no one has cleared it. The stroke is one of cricket's three or four most-discussed individual hits, alongside Garry Sobers's six sixes and Adam Hollioake's at Edgbaston.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.