E. B. Alletson: Brief Glory

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30212, 17 August 1963, Page 11

E. B. Alletson: Brief Glory

rpHE recent death of a A 79-y ear-old Englishman named E. B. Alletson recalled that Alletson must be one of the few to have his name remembered because of his efforts in one innings. Indeed, he is almost certainly the only batsman to have a book written on a single innings John Arlott’s ‘‘Alletson's Innings.”

There was nothing distinctive about Alletson’s appearance, He did not have the girth of waist and bushy beard that distinguished Dr. W. G. Grace, nor the supposedly "spectrelike” look of F. R. Spofforth and S. F. Barnes. Alletson looked what he was: a simple Nottinghamshire countryman. Before the 1911 season Alletson had done very little of note. And when, in that season, he came in to bat against Sussex at that team’s home ground of Hove, he had still done little of note. By most standards above schoolboys’ grades. Nottinghamshire did not have many runs on the board when Alletson came in before lunch, batting at about number eight. He played the 50 minutes before the interval quietly enough—he made only 47 not out—but what a wonderful lunch he must have eaten. If one is to judge by the bare figures of 189 runs in an hour and a half, then Alletson's innings was not as fast, say. as several of Jessop’s or some of P. G. H. Fender’s. "Alletson after lunch,” to mis-quote an old cricketing verse, was all savage destruction as far as the Sussex bowlers were concerned. For the record, he hit eight sixes and 23 fours. Again to some people, that innings would have become tiresome. But they are the people who, once they see one beautiful firework go off. aren't interested in the rest Although it did not seem possible, Alletson did accelerate the pace of his innings. When he was joined by the last man Alletson was about 50. But in another incredible 40 minutes, Alletson not only passed 100, not only passed 150, but almost passed 200. And Alletson and his running partner put on 152 for the last wicket—Alletson 142 of them. His last 89 runs took a quarter of an hour. What runs Alletson did not make, came under the heading of extras. So

powerful was his straight driving, that the bowlers were hurling themselves to the ground as "soon as they had delivered the ball —and sometimes before —to avoid being killed by the red blur of destruction. And in their anxiety, they were overstepping the mark and bowling no-balls or trying to put their deliveries out of reach and bowling wides. There must have been something distinctive about this innings. It is not among the 50 or so fastest centurnes on record. The eight sixes—which, granted were more difficult in those days—are just half of J. RReid’s new record of 15, and one batsman has hit three times as many fours as Alletson’s 23. Alletson does hold one record, as a result of that innings and that is his total of 34 runs off one of E. H. Killick’s overs < which included two no-balls) and 55 off two. But what makes the innings linger in most memories is its splendid isolation. Apart from a brief spell of madness when he took three sixes off as many balls from the Yorkshire and England left-hander, Wilfred Rhodes, Alletson did not again figure in writings on batting greatness.