@blockerdave can pick. It has been more than 24 hours I think.
Draft: Best to never play Test cricket | Draft Part 2 underway...
- Thread starter VC the slogger
- Start date
VC the slogger
PlanetCricket Forever
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2010
Sorry for being so late. I’ll go with Sam Trimble, write up later...
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
OK, I'll take my pick now then as @vc.
Jesus christ I was literally composing a Sam Trimble selection, saw the "new messages are posted", checked and saw this. FFS.
In that case I'll take John Langridge, an opener for Sussex between 1928 and 1955, when he scored over 34,000 FC runs including 76 hundreds, but never got a test cap.
He WAS selected for the 1939/40 tour of India, which was cancelled by the war.
@Asham
Jesus christ I was literally composing a Sam Trimble selection, saw the "new messages are posted", checked and saw this. FFS.
In that case I'll take John Langridge, an opener for Sussex between 1928 and 1955, when he scored over 34,000 FC runs including 76 hundreds, but never got a test cap.
He WAS selected for the 1939/40 tour of India, which was cancelled by the war.
@Asham
VC the slogger
PlanetCricket Forever
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2010
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
Sorry
My own fault, took too long!
VC the slogger
PlanetCricket Forever
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2010
Australian cricket has over the years produced some of the finest opening partnerships to ever grace Test cricket in Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer, Mark Taylor and Michael Slater, Bill Woodfull and Bill Ponsford, Sid Barnes and Arthur Morris, Chris Rogers and David Warner, and not to mention Bill Lawry and Bob Simpson. However, for every Hayden-Langer and Taylor-Slater, there’s a Michael Di Venuto, Jamie Cox or a Jimmy Maher waiting in the wings, hoping against hope for an opportunity that isn’t ever likely to come to matter how good they are, simply because there is someone better doing the same job they’re supposed to do. In the case of Lawry-Simpson, the unfortunate man having to spend his entire career waiting for the elusive baggy green without ever getting one was Sam Trimble.
Making his debut for Queensland at the relatively late age of 25 in the 1959/60 season, Trimble brought up three figures in his third first-class match scoring 101 against South Australia from No 3. His impressive technique against pace bowling saw him promoted to open the innings in the absence of any quality openers in Queensland’s lineup, and he rose up to the challenge with a resolute 93 in his first ever innings as opener. He aggregated an unspectacular 341 runs at 26.23 for his first season, but there would be no looking back for him from there. His talent with the bat was evident for all to see, with knocks of 60 against Frank Worrell’s famed West Indies lineup containing the likes of Garry Sobers, Lance Gibbs and Alf Valentine that toured Australia in 1960/61 to contest one of the greatest Test series of all time; and an impressive 100 against a New South Wales attack containing Australian skipper Richie Benaud and the wily Alan Davidson.
For the entirety of the 1960s starting from 1960/61 to 1969/70, he would go on to establish himself as one of the best opening batsmen in Australia while forging a very successful partnership with Desmond Bull at Queensland, and certainly the best not to be playing Test cricket at the time. He aggregated 6865 runs at an average of 47.34 with 19 centuries during this period, including a staggering 1006 runs at 83.83 with 5 centuries in 1963/64, followed by 924 runs at 61.60 with 3 centuries in 1964/65 - a performance which saw him top the run charts that season ahead of established Test regulars Bill Lawry (848 runs at 84.80), Peter Burge (825 at 58.92), Bob Cowper (748 at 68.00) and Bob Simpson (719 at 79.88). Unfortunately, these were the same men who would get in the way of his selection for Australia’s Test XI on their tour to the West Indies in 1964/65 where he toured for the one and only time with the Australian Test team, never getting any higher than 12th man.
Some of his most notable batting performances included a career best 252* against New South Wales in 1963/64, centuries in both innings of a match scoring 113 and 136* against Victoria in the same season, 220 against South Australia followed by 161 against Victoria in 1964/65, a masterful 177 against a touring West Indian bowling attack led by the fearsome Wes Hall in 1968/69, a brilliant 197 against Victoria in the 4th innings which helped Queensland chase down a target of 308 with just 1 wicket to spare, and another extremely memorable memorable knock of 177 aged 36 against a touring English bowling lineup containing the ferocious John Snow, Derek Underwood, Ray Illingworth among others in 1970/71 that would go on to win the Ashes that year. But perhaps his most notable innings was a knock of 213 for an Australian team (effectively an ‘A’ side) touring New Zealand for an unofficial ‘Test’ Tour in 1969/70 where Trimble was chosen as captain no less as the most experienced player in the team and for having previously led a struggling Queensland from 1967/68. This performance came in an innings where no other batsman could score more than 27 against a bowling attack containing New Zealand’s Test regulars Bruce Taylor, Hedley Howarth and Bevan Congdon, that subsequently saw him top the run charts aged 35 for Australia in the series with 555 runs at 55.50 ahead of future Test legend Greg Chappell (519 at 57.66).
By now though, he was considered too old for a Test call-up. Although, given Australia’s struggles at the top during the late 60s and early 70s following Bob Simpson’s initial retirement in 1968, they could have done much worse than pick Trimble. But instead they chose to promote the likes of Ian Redpath and Keith Stackpole to partner Bill Lawry at different times, which was rather curious as both these batsmen had begun their careers as middle-order batsmen only to be effectively converted into openers for the Test team. While Trimble would continue playing on till 1975/76 by which time he was aged 41, he was no longer the same prolific batsman of the 1960s during the last few seasons of his first-class career. Between 1971/72 and 1975/76, he managed a rather disappointing 1617 runs at an average of 27.88 with only 2 centuries from the last 33 matches of his career, something which would greatly affect his overall stats in the end.
Still, he finished with a more than respectable 10282 runs at an average of 41.79 with 26 centuries and 48 half-centuries from 144 matches between 1959/60 to 1975/76. His 8647 runs at an average of 39.84 was the most by any batsman exclusively from Queensland in the Sheffield Shield until it was eclipsed by Stuart Law (9034 at 43.85), Jimmy Maher (9086 at 39.33) and Martin Love (10132 at 45.23) in the 2000s. Though oddly for such a great player, Trimble never managed to win any silverware during his cricketing career with Queensland being an extremely mediocre outfit despite his brilliance and never once finishing better than second place in the Sheffield Shield (in those days there was no final, with the first placed team being declared winner) in 1961/62, 1973/74, 1974/75 and 1975/76. Even the one series he led a second string Australian side in New Zealand in 1969/70 petered out into a 0-0 draw with rain hampering most of the matches. Nevertheless, he did get to see his son Glenn go on to earn international honors in the form of 2 ODIs for Australia in 1986, something which he never could despite being twice the player.
VC’s XI
1)
Sam Trimble 2)
Lucius Gwynn 3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
Carst Posthuma 11)
Float Woods @Asham
ahmedleo414
The Butcher
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Vincent BarnesFirst class stats: 323 wicket @ 11.95 (24 5WI, best 9/46) in 68 matches
Assessing the records of non-white players in isolation-era South Africa is basically impossible. It's like looking at a Plate Division Ranji player and trying to work out how much of their insane statistical record is stat-padding and how much of it is actual ability (looking at you, Ashutosh Aman). But even with that in mind, Vincent Barnes' performances - sustained for a decade and a half of sporadic cricket - were exceptional. To take an average of five wickets in each game, and a wicket every six overs, is truly remarkable. By the time the two broken halves of a cricketing nation were forcibly welded together in the mid '90s, Barnes was in his mid thirties - no age to be a fast bowler. He never did get to represent South Africa as a player, but has progressed from role to role in the decades since his retirement, representing them in a coaching capacity.
@Aislabie 's Second XI so far:
1.
2.
John Barclay (Pick #20)3.
4.
5.
Norman Callaway (Pick #7)6.
7.
8.
9.
Vincent Barnes (Pick #25)10.
Duncan Spencer (Pick #17)11.
Albert Moss (Pick #6)@blockerdave
ahmedleo414
The Butcher
@blockerdave missed his 24 hour, @VC the slogger has the next pick
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
Sorry, really busy yesterday!
My choice is "JIM" ALLEN. I don't know how Charles Henry Allen became known by Jim, but he is considered the greatest Montserratian cricketer of all time, which makes him the best Montserratian sportsman of all time. After starring for Montserrat, he was selected for the Leeward Islands and starred in a side that also contained Viv Richards.
He was signed up to play World Series Cricket, and featured in 3 Super Tests without doing much. He was the only WSC West Indian who would never play Tests or ODIs for the official WI.
Hi overall FC record may not be super impressive - 3,067 runs at 34.07 but Jim Allen was an exciting, elegant batsman.
@VC the slogger
My choice is "JIM" ALLEN. I don't know how Charles Henry Allen became known by Jim, but he is considered the greatest Montserratian cricketer of all time, which makes him the best Montserratian sportsman of all time. After starring for Montserrat, he was selected for the Leeward Islands and starred in a side that also contained Viv Richards.
He was signed up to play World Series Cricket, and featured in 3 Super Tests without doing much. He was the only WSC West Indian who would never play Tests or ODIs for the official WI.
Hi overall FC record may not be super impressive - 3,067 runs at 34.07 but Jim Allen was an exciting, elegant batsman.
@VC the slogger
VC the slogger
PlanetCricket Forever
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2010
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
Superb pick. Someone I had never heard of before, which is kinda rare..
Actually, credit goes to @Mouseydread a while back I made a "Barbarians" squad in cricket 19, of some of the best players never to play test cricket, and I didn't originally include Jim Allen and Mousey suggested him.
Mouseydread
Associate Captain
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2017
Great stuff here, I just found this thread, Jim Allen was a top man, there are many others..............
Love the Sam Trimble info and the man called "Float" for the West Indies!
Love the Sam Trimble info and the man called "Float" for the West Indies!
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
Great stuff here, I just found this thread, Jim Allen was a top man, there are many others..............
you’d love these drafts Mousey with all the research you’ve done for your decade teams!!
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
I came across him when I was compiling some all-time Caribbean Island XIs, excellently obscure pick.
Similar threads
- Poll
