In 1906 Yorkshire's George Hirst scored 2,385 first-class runs at 45.86 and took 208 wickets at 16.50 — a 'double-double' (2,000 runs and 200 wickets) that no cricketer before or since has achieved in a single season. Wisden called it 'a feat unique in the history of the game' and it remains so 120 years on.
Hirst had been a Yorkshire regular since 1891. By 1906 his bowling action was being studied and his 'swerve' written about in coaching manuals. His batting was equally robust: a flat-bat hitter and a powerful driver who could be relied on to score quickly down the order.
The 1906 season was an unusually good summer for batsmen — 1,000-run seasons were achieved by 11 players — but only one batsman doubled it with 200 wickets. Hirst's stamina was as remarkable as his skill: he bowled over 1,400 overs in the season.
Yorkshire had won the championship four times in the previous five years. The 1906 side, captained by Lord Hawke, included Hirst, Rhodes, Schofield Haigh, David Denton and Tom Hayward as opponents at Surrey. The platform was set for an exceptional all-round campaign.
George Herbert Hirst, born in Kirkheaton in 1871, had been Yorkshire's first-choice all-rounder since the mid-1890s. By 1906, aged 35, he was a fast-medium left-arm bowler famous for the 'swerve' (a kind of in-swinger) and a hard-hitting middle-order batsman. The 1906 county season was an English summer of unusually fine weather, but no one expected what followed.
In 35 first-class matches Hirst scored 2,385 runs at 45.86, including six centuries, and took 208 wickets at 16.50. Both numbers were extraordinary on their own; together, they are unique. He passed the 1,000-run / 100-wicket double by the end of June, two weeks faster than anyone else in the history of first-class cricket. By the end of August he had passed 2,000 runs and 200 wickets — the first man to do so in a single season, and (over a century later) still the only one.
Yorkshire won the County Championship by a wide margin. Hirst's individual highlights included 169 not out and 6 for 28 in the same match against Somerset at Bath, in which he became the first man to score a hundred and take both six- and seven-fors in the same first-class fixture. He was named one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year for the 1906 almanack (in respect of the 1905 season) but the 1906 performance dwarfed even that recognition.
Hirst passes 1,000 runs and 100 wickets by end of June — fastest ever.
169* and 6 for 28 against Somerset at Bath — a unique match performance.
Six first-class centuries through the summer.
208 wickets at 16.50 — a season's haul few specialist bowlers match.
Yorkshire win the County Championship by a clear margin.
Hirst becomes the first (and only) man to score 2,000 runs and take 200 wickets in a season.
Wisden the following year calls it 'unique in the history of the game'.
May 1906
Hirst opens the season with a Yorkshire hundred.
End of June
Hirst reaches 1,000 runs and 100 wickets — fastest ever.
July
169* and 6/28 v Somerset at Bath.
August
Passes 200 wickets and 2,000 runs in same week.
End of season
Final tally: 2,385 runs at 45.86; 208 wickets at 16.50.
Spring 1907
Wisden hails the season as 'unique'.
“A feat unique in the history of the game.”
“I don't know — but whoever does it will be very tired.”
Hirst's 1906 summer made him a household name. A testimonial was raised the following year that, for a Yorkshire professional, set new records. He continued to play for Yorkshire until 1921 and went on to coach at Eton from 1920 to 1937.
The 'double-double' record was challenged briefly by Wilfred Rhodes (his Kirkheaton neighbour) in 1911 with 2,261 runs and 117 wickets, but Rhodes' wicket tally fell short. It has not been seriously approached in the century since.
A statistical achievement that has stood for 120 years and almost certainly always will. The lengthening county season, the post-war contraction of fixtures, and the rise of one-day cricket have all combined to make a 2,000-runs-and-200-wickets season effectively impossible for anyone else.
The 2,000/200 double is the most cited individual record in first-class cricket history. Hirst's broader career — 36,323 runs and 2,742 wickets, both Yorkshire records when he retired — would be enough on its own; the 1906 season elevated him to legendary status.
When asked late in life whether he thought anyone would equal it, Hirst is reported to have said, 'I don't know — but whoever does it will be very tired.' He died in 1954, aged 82.
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.