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Last night on Fox, Andrew Voss came up with a little-known sporting achievement double set by Jack Scott.
Born in Petersham in 1888, Scott was a handy rugby league winger, and Sheffield Shield all-rounder for NSW.
Playing for Newtown, Scott scored the first try of the brand new 1908 NSW Rugby Football League premiership, and 19 years later he was the first bowler to dismiss Don Bradman, for 118, on his debut for NSW.
Scott had moved from Sydney to Adelaide in 1925, and little did he know at the time how historic that dismissal would turn out to be.
I’m grateful to Voss for the revelation and set out to find how The Don was dismissed. Nothing came to light, but a set of stats I’ve never seen before surfaced that demand an outing.
We all know The Don had a career average of 99.94, but I didn’t know in his 80 Test innings – with ten not outs – he had a career average at various stages of 100-plus 23 times.
The first was in his ninth Test and 15th dig, when he scored 232 off 417 deliveries against England at The Oval in August 1930.
His highest career average was 112.29, against South Africa in January 1932.
Australia’s Don Bradman (r) batting (Photo by S&G/PA Images via Getty Images)
When he went out to bat in his farewell Test, at The Oval in 1948, his career average was 101.39 for 6996 runs. As it was his 80th innings – with those ten not outs to his name – he needed four runs to end his career with a minimum 100 average.
With the most famous duck in Test cricket history, Bradman was bowled by leggie Eric Hollies for a 99.94 average.
Tal Duckmanton was a cricket tragic as boss of the ABC, and to commemorate The Don’s superb career, Duckmanton made 9994 the box office number for the broadcaster in every state. That’s still the case.
Two breakdowns from the Don’s career also make for interesting reading:
Ducks – seven
50s – 13
100s – 29
200s – 12
300s – two
Fours – 635
Sixes – five
His 70 dismissals
Caught by fieldsmen – 29, 41.4 per cent
Bowled – 23 – 32.9, per cent
Caught behind – 10, 14.3
LBW – six, 8.6.
Run out – once, 1.4
Hit wicket – once, 1.4
A total of 16 bowlers made up the 23 bowled with multiples to Englishmen Bill Bowes (four), Hedley Verity (three), and Harold Larwood (two), with Indian Vijay Hazare (two).
But it was Jack Scott who sent Don Bradman packing on his first-class debut.
Scott ended up umpiring ten Ashes Tests to enlarge on his unbreakable double record.