Fuller Pilch, by general agreement the leading batsman in England, scored 153 not out for Kent against an England eleven at Town Malling in August 1841. It was the highest individual score made in a major fixture for several years and confirmed Pilch as the dominant batsman of the pre-Grace generation.
The Kent eleven of the 1830s and 1840s, anchored by Alfred Mynn at his peak and Pilch at his, was widely held to be the strongest county side in England. Town Malling, owned and run by Selby, was the focus of Kent cricket in the years before Canterbury became established.
The Kent v England matches were the marquee fixtures of the early 1840s. Pilch had been a regular for Kent since 1836; by 1841 his name on a card was a guarantee of crowd interest.
Pilch was a Norfolk-born professional who had been engaged by Thomas Selby, the proprietor of the Town Malling ground, to play for Kent on a reputed retainer of £100 a year. By 1841 he was 38 and at the peak of his powers; his upright forward play and command of length bowling had been the model for a generation of batsmen. The Town Malling fixture of 1841 brought him face to face with the strongest England side of the day, including the slow underarm bowler William Lillywhite and the fast roundarmer Sam Redgate. Kent batted first, lost early wickets, and saw Pilch come in at three. He made 153 not out from a total of around 280, batting through the innings and treating bowling that had dismissed everyone else with the calm forward defence that Nyren had identified ten years earlier as 'the model of all batting'. The innings stood for several years as the highest score in a leading match. Kent won by an innings, the high point of the brief Town Malling era before Canterbury Week superseded it.
Day 1: Kent lose early wickets; Pilch comes in at three
Pilch defends through the afternoon, reaches 50 then 100
Day 2: Pilch passes 150, the highest score of the season
Pilch carries his bat for 153 not out
Kent total around 280; England fail twice and lose by an innings
23 Aug 1841
Match begins at Town Malling
24 Aug 1841
Pilch passes 150 and is left not out
25 Aug 1841
Kent win by an innings
“Pilch's forward play was the very poetry of cricket; his style has never been surpassed.”
The innings cemented Pilch's contract with Kent and his reputation. He continued to play first-class cricket for another decade and finished as the highest-scoring batsman of the underarm and roundarm era.
The signature innings of the man Wisden would later call 'the best batsman ever known up to that time'.
Until W.G. Grace's emergence in the late 1860s, Pilch was the conventional yardstick for English batsmanship. His Town Malling 153 was retold as the proof of his eminence; his forward technique was the model copied by every coach in the country.
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.