Alletson Ted Image 2 Nottinghamshire 1908

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Welbeck, Nottinghamshire born Ted Alletson was a right-handed batsman and a not too successful fast bowler and, with one exception, his career was unspectacular. Over the 179 innings of his career, he passed 50 runs only 14 times, and converted just one of those fifties to a century. Alletson secured his place in cricket history with one record-breaking innings played against Sussex in May 1911. The innings rescued the game for Nottinghamshire and became known as Alletson’s Innings.

On Saturday, 20th May 1911, Alletson’s Nottinghamshire were playing Sussex at Hove. Nottinghamshire were facing defeat when Alletson, a tailender, came out to bat at number nine in the order, with the score at 185 for seven. Having conceded a first innings deficit of 176, Nottinghamshire were only 9 runs ahead. The eighth wicket fell at 258 and the ninth soon followed, leaving Nottinghamshire 260 for nine.

The teams came in for the lunch interval, with Alletson 47 not out. He asked his captain for advice on how to play after the resumption. On being told “I don’t think it matters what you do”, Alletson replied, “Then I’m not half going to give Killick [a Sussex bowler] some stick.” Alletson was known for being a “blocker”, but after lunch he attacked the Sussex bowling, particularly E.H. Killick’s. In a spell of sustained hitting, Alletson broke the world record for runs scored off a single over by hitting Killick for 34, one of his shots smashing the pavilion clock and another “destroying” the pavilion bar. Team mates later revealed that as the innings developed Killick was frightened to bowl to Alletson in case he clouted the ball straight back at him. Alletson was eventually out having scored a career best 189.

His innings lasted just 90 minutes (his post lunch effort was 142 runs in just 40 minutes) and included eight sixes. Having spent an hour getting to 50, he doubled his score in 15 minutes and added another 89 in further quarter of an hour. He scored 142 out of 152 added for the tenth wicket. During one period of his innings he hit 115 off seven overs. Alletson’s 34 runs in a single over included two no-balls and read 4, 6, 6, 0, 4, 4, 4, 6. This new world record for first class cricket lasted for 57 years until Garry Sobers hit 36 off a Malcolm Nash over in 1968, and for years Ted Alletson was celebrated as the batsman who hit more runs in a single over than any other player in the history of the first class game.

There was speculation that the fielder was over the boundary rope when he took the catch to dismiss Alletson: if this was the case then according to the laws of cricket Alletson should have been credited with six more runs rather than being given out. Anyway, Alletson had done enough to save the match: it ended in a draw, with Sussex, who needed 237 to win, making 213 for eight. Alletson was rewarded for his achievement by the Duke of Portland, who awarded him a gold watch. It was later revealed that Alletson had batted with an injured wrist.

The media gave a lot of attention to the innings at the time. Some still regard it as the most explosive innings ever. Nottinghamshire’s George Gunn said Alletson had hit the ball harder than anyone he had seen. Years later he told John Arlott: “Ted sent his drives skimming; you could hear them hum; he drove several at the Relf brothers and the ball fizzed through them as if they were ghosts. I have never seen another innings like it.”

The famous innings marked Alletson’s transition from a blocker to a ‘biffer’. It earned him a trial for the England side a fortnight later, but he scored only 15 and 8. John Arlott even published a book about it in 1958! Five days after his Hove innings he made 60 in 30 minutes against Gloucestershire, and in 1913 he scored 69 in 47 minutes against Sussex, 88 in 60 minutes against Derbyshire and 55 in 25 minutes against Leicestershire. That summer at Dewsbury he also drove three consecutive balls from Wilfred Rhodes for sixes, but he never lived up to his fabled performance. His most successful season was 1913, when he scored 634 runs at a modest average of 21.13, as well as taking six wickets for 43 to help Nottinghamshire defeat the eventual champions Kent at Trent Bridge. Isolated successes like these were highlights of an otherwise uneventful career. He played his final season of County cricket in 1914, the last season before the First World War.

In 118 first class matches Alletson scored 3,217 runs at an average of 18.59 and took 33 wickets at a respectable 19.03 a piece, with a best of 6-74, the only time he took 5 wickets in an innings.