In adding a note about his slip fielding to my post marking the passing of Mike Hendrick, I exploded one of my favourite pieces of cricket trivia.
You see. in the summer of 1977 two English batsmen - Geoff Boycott and John Edrich - scored their 100th first-class centuries.
And I used to believe that the same batsmen was at the other end when they did so.
Certainly, Graham Roope was batting with Boycott when he reached 100 in the Ashes test at Headingley. You can see him in the clip above, jumping over the ball as Sir Geoffrey on drives Greg Chappell to the boundary.
At the time is was widely reported that Rooper had also been at the other end when Edrich reached his 100 for Surrey against Derbyshire at The Oval.
But in 2004, the late, great Bill Frindall wrote:
Thanks to Jerry Lodge, Surrey CCC's Librarian, I can confirm that Graham Roope was NOT the batting partner when John Edrich reached his 100th century (v Derbyshire in 1977) ... Jerry writes: To the eternal shame of the Oval authorities, all of Jack Hill's scorebooks have been destroyed.
I have spoken to David Baggett who holds all the Derbyshire scorebooks and he confirms that Geoff Howarth was batting when John Edrich completed his century.
This is also in line with the mounted scorecard that hangs in the corridor outside the Library at The Oval.
The scorecard for the Surrey v Derbyshire match clearly shows Roope to have been the 2nd wicket to fall at 88 when Edrich reached his 100 in Surrey's 2nd innings of 180-3 with almost the last ball of the match:
ReplyDeletehttp://static.espncricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1970S/1977/ENG_LOCAL/CC/SURREY_DERBY_CC_09-12JUL1977.html
There is still some argument as to whether Roope was sent back on the field as Howarth's runner in which case the record would be preserved. Only Geoff Howarth would be able to confirm or deny the answer to that question as, sadly, neither Roope nor Edrich are still with us.