An extract from Bedtime Tales for Cricket Tragics tells the tale of Andrew Stoddart, who captained England in three sports, and broke the world record for cricket's highest ever score after a night of partying.
Few have explored cricket's many tales in as much depth and breadth as the presenters of the The Final Word podcast, Geoff Lemon and Adam Collins. Over hundreds of episodes of Story Time, the history spin-off to the podcast, they have followed their listeners’ clues to track down the wildest characters, matches and situations the game has ever seen.
Bedtime Tales for Cricket Tragics brings together the stories they enjoyed telling most, such as the below extract, on Andrew Stoddart, who "pretty much had a three-day bender, and in the middle of it managed to make the highest score in the history of cricket."
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A cricketer who dabbled in Aussie rules, among other oval-ball adventures? Even in an age when it was common for talented amateur sportsmen to range across sports, the achievements of Andrew Ernest Stoddart make him a Final Word fave.
When Stoddy was 22 years old, playing at league level for Hampstead Cricket Club in 1886. It would be fair to say that he was not one for pristine pre-match preparation. A match against the Stoics Cricket Club the next day wasn’t going to stop him going out dancing with friends. When they got home around midnight, he decided that was a good time to play some poker.
Now, Stoddart turned out to be pretty handy with the cards that night, and kept the match going on until dawn. For anyone who is unexpectedly seeing the sun come up, there is a decision to be made: either you bail out right then and there, or you decide it’s all too late to worry about bed. So Stoddy and friends went off to the baths before a hearty breakfast.
That was refreshment enough, apparently, so he opened the batting for Hampstead at 11.30am and tucked into the bowling. They were 1 for 150 after an hour, and 3 for 370 by lunch. A couple of other guys passed 90 but Stoddy was doing the bulk of the scoring. Beyond Test and first-class stats, we have records including all organised cricket. Club cricket, school cricket – anything with 11 players a side in some formal structure on a reasonable ground. The world record individual score in all cricket was 419. Going at the absurd rate of 78 runs an hour, Stoddart blew past it and kept going. After six hungover hours and 10 hungover minutes, he was finally out for 485 with the score on 811.
In the days when hits over the fence were only worth five, he rattled off 78 singles, 36 twos, 20 threes, 63 fours, three fives, and an eight – which means we must be looking at an all-run four plus a boundary overthrow. Very Neighbours areas, for those who remember Dr Karl Kennedy pulling off the improbable, and we’re not talking about convincing Susan to take him back. The bowling must have been accurate, because there was only one wide in the innings. We’re not saying it was good, but at least they put it on the dancefloor for him.
Now, this is already a great yarn. All-nighter, stack of winnings, then a world record. But Stoddy wasn’t one to stop. When stumps were called, he went and did it all again. Needing to fill time before a date, he headed next door to the Cumberland Lawn Tennis Club and played five sets of tennis.
Then it was time for a private box at the theatre, and after that he was out on the lash again until 3am. AE Stoddart pretty much had a three-day bender, and in the middle of it managed to make the highest score in the history of cricket.
There’s a reason the writer Simon Wilde called him ‘The Inexhaustible Stoddart’. After those three days awake, he had three days to recover before making 209 in another Hampstead outing. Two days later, Middlesex came calling for a county match, where he would have been annoyed to fall for 98. He had to wait three whole days for his maiden first-class century, run out for 116. In nine days across all competitions, Stoddy had made 906 runs and partied his arse off.
Two years later came his England debut, on the first of four trips to Australia. He made a match-winning hundred at Adelaide in 1882 and a series-defining one in 1894. This was the very match when one Arthur Coningham took a wicket first ball, and England got done for 75 batting first. Later, when Coningham lost his rag and threw the ball, Stoddart was the target. Captaining the team, he was on his way to 173 and England to 475, almost as many as he had once made on his own. He turned the situation around and England went 2–0 up, eventually winning one of the greatest Ashes series 3-2.
That score would remain the highest by an England captain in Australia for 80 years, and Stoddy would become the first England captain to win the toss and bowl in a Test, and the first to declare a first innings closed. He was an ideas man. And he lived his values. One of the novelty first-class fixtures that went on for decades was between the Single and Married teams, and Stoddart played in the very last of these matches in 1892. Naturally, even that late in his career, he turned out for the singles, and naturally, he scored more than anybody.
Cricket aside, he was a proper footballer. Interleaved with his cricket career were 10 rugby internationals for England, four as captain. He was such an accurate kick that he literally won matches off his own boot, making officials change the value of goals versus tries. After his cricket tour finished in March 1888, he stayed in Australia to be joined by a rugby team on what would later be recognised as the first British Lions tour. He ended up as captain after the original skipper died, and in line with our clue, those Lions also played 19 matches of Australian rules football. Having never seen that code before, they still managed to win six. It truly seems that there was nothing you could put in front of Stoddy that he wasn’t willing to take on.
Bedtime Tales for Cricket Tragics is published in the UK on November 17 and worldwide on November 25. Click here to pre-order the book now.
