by Abhishek Mukherjee
Charlie Bray's Essex team had set Surrey 252 in their previous match at The Oval. They got a wicket at 20, but no more. Jack Hobbs and Robert Gregory saw Surrey to a win.
Less than 24 hours later, when he walked out to toss at Leyton, all Bray wanted was to win the toss and bat. The exact opposite happened. Brian Sellers opted to bat on a placid pitch.
Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe strode out. Yorkshire reached 113 at lunch, 237 at tea, and 423 at stumps – all without losing a wicket.
Essex thus conceded 655 runs without taking a wicket across two days in two cities in two matches.
Sutcliffe finished the day on 231 and Holmes on 150. Holmes had edged one off Arthur Daer, but Roy Sheffield grassed the chance. There had been no other chance.
You cannot blame Essex for being psychologically drained at this stage. To make things worse, a huge crowd showed up at Leyton next morning – this, despite being a home ground of Essex.
They wanted to witness history being made, for Sutcliffe and Holmes needed just 132 to go past the world record stand of 554 set by Jack Brown and John Tunnicliffe in 1898.
But there was a minor problem. Sellers was keen on winning the match and securing full points, and wanted to declare at 1 PM. Holmes agreed, but was overruled by Sutcliffe: "Percy, do you or do you not want to go for this record?"
When he reached 245, Sutcliffe reached a thousand runs for the season. At 256, he went past his previous First-Class best. Holmes, meanwhile, got to his double-hundred. Sutcliffe then got to his first triple.
Then leg-spinner Laurie Eastman bowled a long-hop, and Sutcliffe pulled him for four to bring up the magic figure of 555. Then, anticlimactically, he was bowled next ball, and Sellers declared.
The partnership had lasted 465 minutes. Sutcliffe scored 313 with 33 fours and a six, while Holmes remained unbeaten on 224 with 19 fours.
Almost on cue, stacks of State Express 555 cigarettes arrived in the Yorkshire dressing-room.
Poor Essex ended up conceding 787 runs between partnerships in approximately two days of playing time!
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Meanwhile, drama was being unfolded in the scorers' box, which led to a half-an-hour break between innings.
You see, the scorers sat directly below the Leyton scoreboard. This made it difficult for them to check, certainly not during such run-feasts.
Now the scorers – Billy Ringrose of Yorkshire and Charlie McGahey of Essex – had mutually agreed that the score was actually 554, though the scoreboard showed 555. McGahey had also appeared late on Day 1, which complicated matters even more.
While all this was happening, the media was left thoroughly confused. Had they actually fallen short of the world record?
Then umpire Tiger Smith came forward. He claimed to have missed a no-ball from Daer before McGahey had turned up on Day 1. Everyone probably realised what was going on. While Ringrose reluctantly agreed, McGahey rushed to the Essex dressing-room.
Now he cornered a completely exhausted Bray, who had no clue what was going on. You cannot blame him for not being willing to bargain over a solitary run.
"Find a run for them, Charles," he responded. "They've batted magnificently and more than deserve the record."
Essex, probably emotionally drained, were completely demolished by Hedley Verity (match figures of 10/53) and Bill Bowes (9/85). They scored 78 and 164. Sellers got his points alright.
It happened on 16 June 1932.
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Four things are worth mentioning here.
Percy Fender was obviously not going to let this pass. He raised allegations against Bray and both umpires for that one run.
Covering the match for the Evening Standard, a young EW Swanton could not send the report on time (the only mode of quick communication out of Leyton was one public telephone). They did not send him to Australia to cover the Bodyline series ("if you can't file on time from Leyton then I don't trust you to do so from Australia").
The record stood until 1976-77, when Waheed Mirza and Mansoor Akhtar added 561 Karachi Whites against Quetta.
And finally, there is a myth that the brand was named after the stand. In reality, State Express introduced nine brands, each with a different blend or mix of tobacco, and named them 111, 222, ... 999. That was in 1896.