Fast Scorer
127 Stan McCabe (Australia) Most runs in a session (from 100 balls).
Fast Starter
287 In 1903, at Sydney, Reginald 'Tip' Foster (England) scored 287 in his first Test match. This remains the highest total on debut for all internationals.
Slow Starter
80 John Murray (England) once took 80 balls (faced) to get off the mark. Carl Rackemann (Australia) is the Aussie record holder at 76 balls faced.
Never Too Late
49 The age of debutant James Southerton (England) when he stepped onto the field in 1877.
Bamboozled - The full story
For many years Doug Walters held the unofficial record for beers consumed on the flight to England, having downed 44 cans, in 1977, to win the first-ever unofficial in-flight drinking competition for allcomers (anyone on the flight could enter, with players, management and journalists starting the competition).
During that flight Rod Marsh claims to have gone drink-for-drink with Walters, only to be denied an entry in the record books. To rectify matters Marsh made a second run on the flight to England, in 1983. With some help from his teammates Rodney downed 45 cans.
Although he will neither confirm nor deny it, David Boon is generally agreed to have made a successful assault on Marsh's record, on the flight to the 1989 Ashes series. Boon's staggering record of 52 cans apparently still stands as the allcomers best, despite many alleged attempts to better it ... rumour has it that even England's victorious 2003 Rugby World Cup giants couldn't out drink our Boonie.
Quack, Quack - More Batting Bunnies
Australia's Syd Gregory holds the record for most ducks in Ashes tests, with 11 from 92 innings between 1890 & 1912. Gregory sits one duck clear of a trio of modern legends; Glenn McGrath* (10 from 33 innings), Shane Warne (10 form 48) and Sir Ian Botham (10 from 59).
In Ashes Tests, two players have been dismissed for a 'Diamond Duck' (ie; without facing a ball). William Attewell, at the SCG in 1884-85, and Rodney Hogg, at Birmingham in 1981.
Although at least twelve batsmen have suffered a “king pair” in Test matches (out first ball in both innings), it has not yet happened in an Ashes Test.
* Odd Spot: A world-class batting bunny, McGrath was dismissed for a first-ball (golden) duck in his first Test & ODI innings
Doughtiest Dead-bat
The fewest runs in a complete session is eight, by Trevor “Barnacle” Bailey in the infamous Brisbane Test of 1958-59. In the session in question Bailey faced 87 balls. At the other end, Bailey’s partners added eleven runs in the same session.
Bailey made his way to 68 off 427 balls in a marathon 458-minute innings, that works out at just short of nine runs per hour over seven-and-a-half plus hours ... and we all thought Chris Tavare was a snail.
