27th June 1899 saw a world record which stood intact for more than 115 years. The venue was the Junior School Field at Clifton College, England. The main protagonist was 13 years old Arthur Collins. Arthur, who was born in India lost his parents early. He was the captain of the Clifton College Junior team and known for his adventurous batting. But in one inning Collins decided to bat long and it looked like the innings went for Eternity.
The ground was mainly used for the under 14 matches. The playing area was just 60 yards long. On one side the boundary was a wall 70 yards away. On the other side, the field sloped away towards a sanatorium which was quite far. All hits down the hill had to be run by batsmen. On the other hand, hits that reached the boundaries on the other three sides earned only two runs. The match was played in the regular school break time.
The match started on 22nd June, a Thursday. Collins won the toss and decided to bat. By the end of day’s play, he was unbeaten on 200. He carried on his innings for next day and by the end of play on Friday was unbeaten on 509, already breaking Andrew Stoddart’s world-record score of 485 for Hampstead versus The Stoics in 1886. After a weekend break, the teams came back on Monday and Collins carried on and reached to 598 as only an hour’s play possible on that day with his team’s total on 804/9.
On 27th June, Tuesday Collins ended with 628* before the last man was out. Overall he batted for 6 hours 45 minutes, hit a six, four fives, 31 fours, 33 threes, 146 twos and 87 singles. Collins carried on his good form with bowling too and picked up 33/7 and 30/4 and North Town followed on and lost the match by an innings and 688 runs.
This match gave Collins immediate fame, however, he was a shy boy and not always enjoyed the attention. He carried on playing the game but never reached the heights of test cricket. Unfortunately, he went to war in France as a Lieutenant during the First World War and was killed at the age of 29.
Collins was again back in news in 2016, when the teenager from Mumbai, Pranav Dhanawade broke his record.
