Today I pick an all time XI of players whose given names begin with the letter E. A couple of selections may well raise eyebrows but I reckon all are well justified. There will be an honourable mentions section.
THE XI IN BATTING ORDER
- Eric Rowan (South Africa, right handed opening batter). At a time when South Africa weren’t the strongest he managed to record a test average of 43.66. His highest score was 236, which at the time was the highest individual score for South Africa, beaten by Graeme Pollock in the last series of South Africa’s first incarnation as a test nation. There was a famous occasion when notified while a match was in progress that he had been dropped for the next one he proceeded to show the selectors what they were missing by scoring a match saving 156* in the final innings, batting right through the final day.
- EM Grace (England, right handed opening batter, lob bowler). He was the first member of his family to be an acknowledged cricket marvel (his eldest brother Henry first developed the family’s ruling passion, and his love for the game led to their father and an uncle, Alfred Pocock, coaching the whole family). His bowling achieved some great successes as well – on one occasion he accounted for the famously hard to shift Harry ‘Not at Dorking’ Jupp with a steepling lob that landed exactly on top of the stumps, dislodging a bail.
- Everton Weekes (West Indies, right handed batter). One of the greatest batters ever to play the game.
- Eddie Paynter (England, left handed batter). The highest career average of any left hander to have played 20 or more tests, 59.23. That included double centuries against both Australia and South Africa. His most famous innings was an 83 in stifling heat at Brisbane, when he was suffering severe tonsilitis and rose from his hospital bed in England’s hour of need, which helped England secure the victory that confirmed them as winners of the 1932-3 Ashes.
- Elias ‘Patsy’ Hendren (England, right handed batter). Only Hobbs scored more than his 170 first class hundreds, and only Hobbs and Woolley exceeded his 57,610 first class runs. One record which remains his is most FC centuries at a single ground, 74 of his having come at Lord’s.
- *Eddie Barlow (South Africa, right handed batter, right arm medium pace bowler, captain). He averaged 45 with the bat at test level, and while his bowling was not much used at that level his FC bowling figures stack up well. He was an inspiring captain, in the 1970s he invigorated a Derbyshire side who had grown used to propping up the championship table and led them to some very respectable finishes.
- +Eleanor Threlkeld (England, wicket keeper, right handed batter). One of the best contemporary wicket keepers, and a fine batter as well, as evidenced by the match winning hundred she scored for Thunder against Storm in the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy (50 overs per side, the longest non-test match format played by women) on September 16 this year.
- Ernie Robson (Somerset, right arm medium fast bowler, right handed batter). An excellent bowling all rounder. His outswing was rated by Jack Hobbs, aka The Master, as the most difficult bowling he ever faced.
- Ernest Jones (Australia, right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). One of the fastest bowlers of the 1890s, he once famously sent a ball through WG’s beard.
- Erapalli Prasanna (India, off spinner, right handed batter). One of four spinners to regularly play for India in the 1970s (he, Bedi and Chandrasekhar were indisputably world class practitioners, the fourth member of the quartet, Srinisvaraghavan Venkataraghavan was a cut below the rest).
- Eric Hollies (England, leg spinner, right handed batter). Possessor of the all time worst wrong way round disparity between runs scored and wickets taken in FC cricket (1,673 FC runs at 5.00, boosted by 282 not outs in 616 innings, and 2,323 Fc wickets taken at 20.94 each). Also the man who stopped Bradman from recording a final test average in three figures, bowling him for a duck in his last test innings, which turned 6,996 runs at 101.39 into 6,996 at 99.94.
This side has a powerful top five, a quality all rounder, a quality keeper who can bat, a fine bowling all rounder and three splendid and contrasting specialist bowlers. A bowling attack that has Jones, Robson and Barlow to bowl pace/ seam, Hollies and Prasanna to bowl spin, and EM Grace as a wildcard has both depth and variety.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
The opening batters had few challengers – Eve Jones’ left handedness bringing her into the picture, but not being sufficient to dislodge either of my choices. On a spinning pitch Eddie Barlow would give way to Enid Bakewell, an all rounder whose bowling stock in trade was left arm orthodox spin, with EM Grace taking the captaincy. Ernest Tyldesley was the best batter to miss out, a member of the 100 FC hundreds club and possessor of a very respectable test record. Two Eds, Joyce (Ireland/ England/ Ireland) and Smith (England) were respectable rather than outstanding. The main keeping rivals to Threlkeld were EFS Tylecote who as a schoolboy in 1868 took advantage of the batting friendly conditions of Clifton College to score the first recorded quadruple century in any form of cricket, 404* in a house match (31 years later another schoolboy, AEJ Collins, scored 628* in a house match at the same ground), and going on to keep wicket for England, Edward Pooley who should have been England’s first ever keeper but was cooling his heels in a New Zealand prison when the appointed time arrived and EJ ‘Tiger’ Smith of Warwickshire and England. Ernie McCormick was fast but erratic, and his 1938 tour of England was ruined by no-ball problems. Ernest Toshack had his moments as a left arm medium pacer, including taking 5-2 in an innings against England but did not have a weighty enough record to garner more than an honourable mention. Eiulf Peter ‘Buster’ Nupen, the only test cricketer to date to have been born in Norway, would be in the mix if the match was to be played on a matting wicket, but not otherwise. Edwin Tyler, a left arm orthodox spinner, once took an all-ten for Somerset, but falls short overall. Edward Wainwright of Yotrkshire and England had a good record as an off spinning all rounder in FC cricket, but failed to take a wicket in any of his five test appearances, finding the Australian pitches of 1897-8 unresponsive to his type of bowling, setting a trend that has continued to the present day when it comes to English off spinners in Australia. Ellyse Perry is a magnificent cricketer, but for this exercise she could only be picked if her batting was good enough on its own, and given the strength of the upper and middle order of this side I do not think it is. I end with a ‘what might have been’ – Edwin Boaler Alletson (Nottinghamshire). At Hove in 1911 he reached lunch on the final day on 47* from 50 minutes, which appeared to be merely delaying the inevitable. 40 minutes after the resumption he holed out in the deep – for 189! Those last 142 came out of a last wicket stand of 152 with Bill Riley, which left Sussex grateful to emerge with a draw after they lost a few early wickets in their second innings. This was Alletson’s maiden ton, and it ended up being a first and only for him. Had that innings given his career the boost it should he might well have had the slot I gave to Ernie Robson, but it proved a flash in the pan, and nor was his bowling that impressive overall.
PHOTOGRAPHS
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