On 31 August 1968 at the St Helen's ground in Swansea, Nottinghamshire captain Garfield Sobers became the first batsman to strike six sixes in a single first-class over. The bowler was Glamorgan's Malcolm Nash, experimenting with slow left-arm round the wicket as Notts pushed for a declaration. A BBC Wales camera crew, on site for training, captured the fifth and sixth sixes — and Wilf Wooller's commentary — for posterity.
Sobers in 1968 was 32 and at the height of his powers. He had captained West Indies since 1965, scored 365* against Pakistan in 1958, and routinely bowled three different styles in the same Test. His Notts contract — signed for the 1968 season — had given him a county to lead and an outlet for his all-round game.
Notts had won the toss and batted; Sobers came in midway through the morning session. Nash had bowled tight medium pace earlier; Lewis switched him to slow left-arm to chase a wicket and a declaration.
Nottinghamshire had been chasing quick runs all morning. By the early afternoon Sobers, the West Indies captain and the world's most complete cricketer, had moved into the seventies. Glamorgan captain Tony Lewis, hoping to hurry the declaration, asked Nash — primarily a left-arm seamer — to bowl slow left-arm round the wicket. Nash agreed. Sobers, six down to his last recognised batsman Brian Bolus, decided to attack.
Ball one: pitched up, swung high over square leg into a garden behind the boundary. Six. Ball two: same length, same shot, same garden. Six. Ball three: full, driven over long-off into the pavilion. Six. Ball four: short, pulled hard over midwicket onto the road. Six. Ball five: an attempted yorker, lofted straight; Roger Davis at long-off caught it cleanly above his head and tumbled backwards over the boundary rope. Under the law clarified by MCC earlier in 1968, that counted as six. Ball six: the over's last delivery, pitched up, swung over midwicket and out of the ground onto Gorse Lane. Six.
Sobers had taken 36 from one over — the first ever in any form of first-class or Test cricket. He declared shortly afterward on 308 for 5 with his own innings unbeaten on 76. Nash, 23 years old, accepted his place in the record books with grace; he later said he had bowled exactly the deliveries he intended to and Sobers had simply been better. The pair remained on cordial terms until Nash's death in 2008.
The BBC camera crew had been at the ground primarily to test new equipment and were filming intermittently. They captured the fifth and sixth sixes. The footage — accompanied by Wilf Wooller's exclamation "and he's done it! He has done it! He's hit six sixes!" — became one of the most replayed clips in cricket television.
Ball 1: Six over square leg.
Ball 2: Six over square leg.
Ball 3: Six over long-off.
Ball 4: Six pulled over midwicket.
Ball 5: Caught by Roger Davis at long-off, fielder over the rope — six under 1968 law.
Ball 6: Six over midwicket out of the ground onto Gorse Lane.
31 Aug 1968, morning
Nottinghamshire batting; Sobers comes in.
Early afternoon
Sobers on 76; Lewis brings on Nash bowling slow left-arm.
The over
6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 — 36 runs.
Shortly after
Sobers declares on 308/5.
End of match
Notts win by 166 runs.
“And he's done it! He has done it! He's hit six sixes!”
“I bowled the balls I wanted to bowl. He just hit them better.”
Sobers declared on 308/5 shortly after; Notts won by 166 runs. The ball used was retrieved from Gorse Lane and is held by Notts. Nash continued his county career until 1983 and remained known for the over for the rest of his life — a fact he handled with humour.
Sobers's six sixes were not a tail-ender's slog or a meaningless exhibition. They came in a Championship match against a Test bowler operating on a flat pitch trying to push for a declaration result. The feat has been equalled in first-class cricket only once — by Ravi Shastri off Tilak Raj in 1985.
The footage played on television every time the feat was repeated or approached. Ravi Shastri equalled it in 1985 in the Ranji Trophy. Herschelle Gibbs and Yuvraj Singh have done it in international cricket but in limited-overs formats. In first-class cricket, only Sobers and Shastri have managed it. The St Helen's ground placed a plaque on Gorse Lane to mark the spot where the sixth six landed.
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.