Ted Pooley in a Christchurch Jail — England's Wicketkeeper Misses the First Test, 1877

Pooley had taken 12 catches in a single first-class match for Surrey against Sussex in 1868 — a record that still stands. He was the leading professional wicketkeeper in England and Lillywhite's first-choice gloveman for the tour.

After the Canterbury XXII match Pooley was drinking with locals at the Carlton Hotel and proposed his wager — naming the score of every Canterbury batsman in the next match. He wrote zero against every name on the card.

Pooley was a complicated man — brilliant gloveman, heavy drinker, compulsive gambler. On the New Zealand leg of Lillywhite's tour, the English party played a XXII of Canterbury at Christchurch in February 1877. At the Carlton Hotel afterwards Pooley made a wager with a local named Ralph Donkin: he would name the score of every Canterbury batsman in advance, and Donkin would pay him a pound for every correct guess and receive a shilling for each wrong one. Pooley wrote 0 against every name. The traditional 'duck' rate was high enough in colonial cricket that he won handsomely. Donkin refused to pay; a fight followed in which Pooley and the team's bowler Alfred Bramall allegedly assaulted him and damaged the hotel. Both were arrested. The English party sailed for Australia without them. Pooley was eventually acquitted by a Christchurch jury, who saw him as the victim of a welching gambler, but by then the first Test had been played and lost. England's reserve keeper, Henry Jupp, deputised behind the stumps with no great distinction.

“He was the best wicketkeeper in England, and the saddest end of any cricketer of his time.”

Pooley returned to England and resumed playing for Surrey but never recovered his form. His drinking worsened. He played his last first-class match in 1879 and died in poverty at the Lambeth workhouse infirmary in 1907. A subscription was raised for his funeral by Surrey CCC and Wisden.