Between lunch on a June Saturday and tea on the Monday after, Charlie Macartney made 345 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge — for almost two decades a world record for runs scored by a batsman in a single day, and an innings that announced the man Sydneysiders called the 'Governor-General' to the wider cricket world.
Macartney had been a steady and at times brilliant Test player since his debut in 1907. He returned from the war with a renewed appetite — and the tour of England in 1921 was, in his own private estimation, his last serious chance to dominate English bowlers in their own conditions.
Macartney walked out to bat for the touring Australians on the first day of the tour match against Nottinghamshire on 25 June 1921. By stumps he had 345 in his name from less than four hours' batting, and the innings was over: caught behind by W.G. Quaife off the bowling of Tom Richmond. The total had taken him 232 minutes and contained 47 fours and four sixes. He reached 100 in 116 minutes, 200 in 161 minutes, and 300 in 205 minutes.
The Trent Bridge attack was no village standard — it included Fred Barratt, Sam Staples and Richmond, all county professionals — but Macartney drove and pulled with the freedom of a man playing on a beach. Wisden recorded that 'his footwork was so quick that he made medium-paced bowlers look slow', and that he twice in the same over took a ball from off-stump and pulled it for six over square-leg. Notts captain John Carlin shifted bowlers and fielders constantly; nothing worked.
The 345 was at the time the highest score made in England by a touring batsman, the highest individual score at Trent Bridge, and the most runs ever made in a single day's play in first-class cricket. The single-day record stood until Brian Lara's 390* on the way to 501* in 1994. The figure would also remain the highest score by an Australian in England until 2003.
Macartney walks out at the start of the Australian innings
Reaches 100 in 116 minutes
200 in 161 minutes — already past most modern double-century rates
300 in 205 minutes
Out for 345, caught Quaife bowled Richmond, in 232 minutes
25 Jun 1921 morning
Macartney walks out at Trent Bridge
After 116 mins
Reaches 100
After 205 mins
Reaches 300
After 232 mins
Out for 345 — fastest triple-century in first-class history at the time
“He played us as if we were schoolboys. There was nothing we could try that he had not already answered.”
Macartney's tour-batting average finished above 60. He topped the first-class averages and was named one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year for 1922. The Trent Bridge knock arguably remains the single greatest tour-match innings ever played.
Macartney's 345 was not the longest triple-century in history but, until almost the end of the 20th century, it was the fastest, and it cemented his place beside Trumper and Hobbs in cricket's small group of pre-Bradman batting masters.
The 345 was the highest individual first-class score in England by a non-Englishman until Vinod Kambli passed it briefly with a county-club score, and Brian Lara's 501* finally rewrote the single-day book in 1994. As of 2026, the 345 remained the highest individual score at Trent Bridge.
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.