George Bonnor stood six feet six, weighed 17 stone and could throw a cricket ball further than any man of his era. The 'Bathurst Giant' played 17 Tests for Australia in the 1880s, hit a six measured at 164 yards out of the MCG, completed three runs from a single shot before being caught at the boundary, and is supposed to have smashed the Melbourne pavilion clock with one stroke. He was the era's tallest, heaviest, biggest-hitting Test cricketer.
Bonnor came from rural NSW and made his first-class debut for NSW in 1880. He was selected for the 1880 tour of England almost on the strength of his colonial reputation as a six-hitter.
Australian sides of the 1880s rotated around a small, established core. Bonnor was the headline batting attraction even when his form dipped, drawing crowds wherever he played.
George John Bonnor was born in Bathurst, NSW, in 1855. By his twenties he was 6 ft 6 in tall and weighed 108 kg, with golden hair and a flowing beard that earned him the press tag 'a reincarnation of the Viking gods'. He was, with Spofforth and Murdoch, one of the headline names of the 1880, 1882, 1884, 1886 and 1888 Australian tours of England.
In the famous September 1880 Oval Test he was caught by GF Grace 115 yards from the bat off Alfred Shaw — a hit so high that the batters had completed three runs and were going for a fourth when Grace took it. The catch (now part of cricket folklore) is sometimes called the most famous deep field catch in history; the hit itself, equally extraordinary, is less often celebrated.
In an inter-colonial match in Melbourne, he is supposed to have hit a six measured at 164 yards out of the ground over the pavilion. In another, he allegedly smashed the pavilion clock with a straight drive. In a Scarborough Festival match in 1882 he hit 20 runs off four balls of one over.
His throwing arm was as legendary as his hitting. He could regularly throw a cricket ball 120 yards on the full from the boundary; one demonstration at the MCG was reportedly measured at 131 yards. His Test record (17 Tests, 512 runs at 17.06) doesn't capture his impact: he was a crowd-puller in an era when batting was technical and grim.
Bonnor died in 1912 in Sydney, a relatively forgotten figure by then. His story is sometimes told as cricket's first Beefy Botham — power-hitting freak in an era of careful accumulation.
1880 Oval Test: caught by GF Grace 115 yards from the bat after three completed runs.
1882 Scarborough Festival: 20 off four balls in one over.
MCG inter-colonial: six measured at 164 yards over the pavilion.
Reportedly smashes the MCG pavilion clock with a straight drive.
Throws cricket ball 131 yards in one demonstration.
1881 Test top score: 87 v England.
1885: 128 v England at Sydney — his only Test century.
1888: last Test, then back to grazing in NSW.
25 Feb 1855
Bonnor born in Bathurst, NSW.
Sep 1880
Caught by GF Grace 115 yards from the bat at Oval.
1882
20 runs off four balls at Scarborough Festival.
1884-85
128 v England at Sydney — only Test century.
1888
Last Test for Australia.
27 Jun 1912
Dies in Sydney, aged 57.
“He stood six feet six inches and weighed seventeen stone, with golden hair and a flowing beard.”
“A reincarnation of the Viking gods.”
Bonnor returned to NSW after his cricket career ended in 1888 and ran a sheep station. He died in 1912 of complications from an old back injury, aged 57. His legend was sustained more by anecdote than statistics — he averaged only 17 in Tests — but his crowd impact was significant.
The 19th century's Andrew Symonds, Chris Gayle and Beefy Botham combined — six-foot-six, 17 stone, big-hitting and big-throwing, the 'Bathurst Giant' was Test cricket's first power-hitting celebrity.
Bonnor is the prototype of the big-hitting, crowd-pulling Test batsman. Every later 'natural force' player from Constantine through Botham, Gilchrist and Gayle has Bonnor in his lineage. The 115-yard catch and the various measured throws and hits remain in cricket trivia and are regularly cited in discussions of Test cricket's tallest, heaviest or hardest-hitting players.
Zimbabwe vs England
1996-12-22
The first Test between Zimbabwe and England at Bulawayo in December 1996 ended in a draw with the scores level — the first ever in Test history. Coach David 'Bumble' Lloyd, frustrated by Zimbabwe's defensive tactics, told a press conference 'we flippin' murdered em'. He was reprimanded by the ECB.
England vs Australia
4 August 1975
On 4 August 1975, during the second Ashes Test at Lord's, a 24-year-old merchant seaman from Liverpool named Michael Angelow leapt the boundary fence wearing only socks and trainers, hurdled both sets of stumps to the amusement of the players, and was wrestled to the ground by police. He had taken a £20 bet from his shipmates. He was fined £20 in court the next morning, and the BBC commentary by John Arlott — "we have got a freaker, not very shapely, and it is masculine — and I would think it has seen the last of its cricket for the day" — became one of the most replayed pieces of cricket commentary of the decade.
Australia
1981-12-12
Australian captain Greg Chappell, the most prolific batsman in the country, made four ducks in a row across Tests and ODIs during the 1981-82 home summer — and seven ducks across the season — earning the temporary nickname 'Chappello'.