Jack Hobbs (178) and Wilfred Rhodes (179) put on 323 for the first wicket at Melbourne, setting a Test record that stood for 22 years and remains England's highest opening partnership against Australia more than a century later.
Hobbs and Rhodes had only opened together a handful of times before this match. Rhodes' transformation from spinner-tailender into Test-class opener is one of cricket's odder career arcs.
Rhodes had begun his Test career at number eleven; the move to opening with Hobbs was one of Plum Warner's tour selections that paid off spectacularly. With the series safely at 2-1 in England's favour, the pair came together at Melbourne and methodically broke Australia. They batted through the first day and into the second, leaving the Australian attack of Hordern, Cotter, Whitty, Minnett and Macartney chasing leather. Hobbs was eventually out for 178 with the score 323; Rhodes added one more before being dismissed for 179. The stand was the highest for any wicket in Test cricket at the time. England won by an innings and 225 runs and went 3-1 up in the series.
Hobbs and Rhodes survive late on day one
Both pass fifty before lunch on day two
Hobbs reaches 178; out with the score 323
Rhodes dismissed for 179; partnership ends one short of 324
Day 1
Australia all out 191; England openers come out
Day 2
Hobbs and Rhodes bat through to tea
Day 2 evening
Hobbs out 178, partnership 323
Day 4
England win by an innings and 225 runs
“Innings after innings they gave us a wonderful start.”
England won by an innings and 225 runs. The 323 stood as the Test record for any wicket until Bradman and Ponsford added 388 in 1934, and as the first-wicket record until Hutton and Washbrook in 1948.
A first-wicket stand of 323 — England's highest opening partnership against Australia, then and now.
The partnership is the founding moment of the Hobbs-and-Rhodes legend as an opening pair. Between 1910 and 1921 they opened 36 times for England with eight century stands, an average of 61.31 runs per partnership that remains among the highest in Test history.
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.