#first class

11 incidents tagged

Garry Sobers Hits Six Sixes off Malcolm Nash — Swansea, 31 August 1968

Glamorgan vs Nottinghamshire

1968-08-31

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.

#garry sobers#malcolm nash#swansea

⭐Serious

Bradman's 100th First-Class Hundred — SCG, 15 November 1947

An Australian XI v India

1947-11-15

On 15 November 1947 at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Don Bradman became the first Australian — and the first non-Englishman — to make 100 first-class centuries. He reached the milestone with a single off the off-spin of Gogumal Kishenchand, a player Lala Amarnath had brought on for that very over despite Kishenchand having bowled barely an over all tour. Bradman went on to 172 in 177 minutes; he would finish his first-class career with 117 hundreds, a figure no Australian has approached since.

#bradman#100-hundreds#scg

⭐Serious

Ranji Trophy Founded — India's National Championship, 1934-35

Indian first-class teams

1934-07-10

On 10 July 1934 the Indian Cricket Control Board, meeting at Simla, voted to inaugurate a national first-class championship in memory of KS Ranjitsinhji, who had died in April 1933. The first 'Cricket Championship of India' — known almost immediately as the Ranji Trophy — was contested in 1934-35 with 15 teams; Bombay won it, beating Northern India in the final at Bombay Gymkhana. The trophy itself, a gold cup donated by the Maharaja of Patiala, modelled the structure of Indian first-class cricket for the next nine decades.

#india#ranji-trophy#1934

⭐Mild

Ranji Trophy Discussions Begin — Indian First-Class Structure, 1929

BCCI and Indian provincial cricket associations

1929-08-15

In the first year after its foundation the Board of Control for Cricket in India began discussions on a national first-class competition modelled on the County Championship and Sheffield Shield. The Ranji Trophy was eventually launched in 1934-35, but its founding deliberations began in mid-1929 with the BCCI's first executive meeting.

#ranji-trophy#india#bcci

⭐Mild

Bill Ponsford's 437 — A Second World Record, Melbourne 1927-28

Victoria v Queensland

1927-12-21

Five years after his 429 against Tasmania, Bill Ponsford broke his own world first-class record in December 1927 with 437 against Queensland at the MCG — the first batsman in cricket history to score two individual innings of 400 or more.

#bill-ponsford#victoria#queensland

⭐Mild

Wally Hammond's 1927 — 1,000 Runs by End of May

Gloucestershire and MCC

1927-05-31

By 31 May 1927 the 23-year-old Wally Hammond had scored 1,042 first-class runs for the season, the first batsman to make 1,000 by the end of May since W.G. Grace in 1895. The achievement announced the post-Hobbs generation and made Hammond a Test certainty for the rest of the decade.

#wally-hammond#gloucestershire#england

⭐Mild

Hobbs Passes Grace's 126 Centuries at Taunton — 17 August 1925

Surrey v Somerset

1925-08-17

On Monday 17 August 1925 at Taunton, the 42-year-old Jack Hobbs cut a Jim Bridges short ball for four to reach 101 — his 126th first-class century, equalling W.G. Grace's career record. The next morning he made another, 101 not out, and the 'Master' had passed the figure that had defined English batting since 1895.

#jack-hobbs#wg-grace#century-record

⭐Mild

Bill Ponsford's 429 — A New World First-Class Record, 1922-23

Victoria v Tasmania

1923-02-22

On 22 February 1923 the 22-year-old Bill Ponsford made 429 against Tasmania at the MCG, breaking Archie MacLaren's 28-year-old world first-class record of 424 and announcing the arrival of the most prolific run-machine Australian cricket had yet produced — a man who would go on to break his own record five years later with 437.

#bill-ponsford#victoria#tasmania

⭐Mild

WG Grace's Last First-Class Match — Gentlemen v Surrey, April 1908

Gentlemen of England, Surrey

1908-04-22

William Gilbert Grace played his last first-class match between 20 and 22 April 1908, opening the innings for the Gentlemen of England against Surrey at The Oval. Aged a few months short of 60, Grace made 15 in the first innings and 25 in the second. It was his 870th first-class appearance, ending a career that began in 1865.

#wg-grace#1908#the-oval

⭐Moderate

First First-Class Match in India — Parsis v Europeans at Bombay, 1892

Parsis v Europeans

1892-08-26

On 26 August 1892, the annual Parsis v Europeans fixture at Bombay Gymkhana was played as a two-innings match — the first first-class match on Indian soil. The match was drawn, but it formalised what would become the Bombay Tournament: the first organised cricket competition in India, founded with the encouragement of Bombay Governor Lord Harris and run continuously until 1946. Mehellasha Pavri, the Parsi fast bowler who had toured England in 1888, took several wickets.

#india#1892#bombay

⭐Mild

Old Trafford Becomes Lancashire's Home — First-Class Debut, 1865

Lancashire vs Middlesex

1865-07-20

Old Trafford had been laid out in 1857 as the home of Manchester Cricket Club. Lancashire CCC, formed in 1864, played its first first-class match at the ground in July 1865 against Middlesex and won by 62 runs. Old Trafford has been the home of Lancashire ever since — the second-oldest continuously used first-class venue after Lord's, host of more than 100 Test matches, and the indispensable counterweight to the southern grounds in English cricket geography.

#old-trafford#lancashire#1865