Chris Gayle who has played for 18 Twenty20 sides, became the first player to reach 10,000 Twenty20 runs on April 18, 2017. Here are some of his statistical highlights.

• Gayle made his debut on September 15, 2005 for the PCA Master’s XI against Chilaw Marians Cricket Club in Leicester, not batting and having 0-16 off his bowling in a washed out match.
• Played 292 matches, batting in 287 of them.
• Scored 10,089 runs at an average of 40.36 and a strike rate of 149.11
• Hit 743 sixes and 771 fours.
• Faced 6766 deliveries.
• Made 15 ducks.
• Remained not out in 37 of his innings.
• Passed 1000 runs in a calendar year on six occasions, from 2011 to 2016 inclusive.
• Made 18 centuries and 61 half centuries.
• Played in 98 Indian Premier League matches, scoring 3578 runs at 42.09 and a strike rate of 151.80.
• Highest score of 175 not out against Pune Warriors of just 66 deliveries at Bangalore in 2012/13.
• Passed 1000 career runs in the Indian Premier League, the Caribbean Premier League and T20 Internationals.
• Dismissed most by Dwayne Bravo (on seven occasions).
• Needs just 50 runs to reach 10,000 runs as an opener in Twenty20s.
• Has scored the most runs against Kings XI Punjab with 797 runs at 56.93 and a strike rate of 175.55.
• Has scored the most Twenty20 runs at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore with 1790 runs at 44.75 and a strike rate of 163.47.
• Has been dismissed Caught on 122 occasions, bowled 54 times, caught behind 31 times, leg before wicket 22 times, caught and bowled 9 times, run out 7 times, stumped 4 times, hit wicket once and retired hurt once.

Bill O’Reilly played first grade cricket in Sydney from 1926/27 until 1948/49. Below is a snapshot of his 1st Grade career in statistics:

• He played in every season from 1926/27 to 1948/49 except for 1928/29 and 1929/30 when he was teaching in country New South Wales.
• He played 165 matches. 39 matches for North Sydney between 1926/27 and 1933/34 and 126 matches for St George between 1934/35 and 1948/49.
• He made 1771 runs in 145 innings at an average of 13.73.
• He made a half century on three occasions.
• His highest score was 73 against Manly in 1931/32 at North Sydney No.1 Oval.
• His other half centuries were 62 against Gordon in 1936/37 at Chatswood Oval and 69 against Western Suburbs in 1947/48 at Hurstville Oval.
• He made 18 ducks.
• He batted at every batting position from opener to number 11. He batted the most at position 9 with 43 innings at that position.
• He took 963 first grade wickets at an average of 9.40
• He took 5 wickets in an innings on 104 occasions, the most against was Manly with 13 occasions, followed by Glebe with 12 and Marrickville with 9.
• He took 10 wickets in a match on 27 occasions, including 15 wickets in a match on one occasion and 14 wickets in a match on 14 occasions.
• His best bowling in an innings was 9-27 against Paddington in 1938/39 at Hurstville Oval. He also took 9-47 against Randwick in 1944/45 at Hurstville Oval.
• He also took 8 wickets in an innings on 13 occasions.
• His breakdown of wickets are 386 bowled, 362 caught or caught behind, 35 stumped, 132 leg before wicket and 39 caught and bowled.
• He took the most wickets against Manly with 112 wickets at 7.17. He took at least 50 wickets against every grade club he played against except for Gordon (42), North Sydney (21) and Sydney University (47).
• He took 338 wickets at Hurstville Oval at an average of 8.87. He also took 107 wickets at North Sydney No.1 Oval at 12.03.
• 39 of his 104 five wickets in an innings came at Hurstville Oval as well as 9 of his 10 wicket hauls.

The ACT side has had a large number of players who have served the country in the Military Forces. In fact there have been ACT senior representative players who have served the country in all conflicts from the Boer War to the Vietnam War. Having the Royal Military College located in the ACT and their participation in the ACT Grade Competition from it’s inception up until the late 1950s meant that a large number (over 70 at last count) had represented their country as well playing senior cricket for the ACT.

Three players who have represented the ACT have died while on active service.

William Worthy

William John Worthy made his ACT debut at the age of just 18 in 1934/35. Born in Yass in 1916, he played for Hall and Ainslie up until the suspension of the grade competition in 1939/40.

He was a bus driver in Canberra and enlisted in the Army in August 1940. He fought on the Kokoda Track with his battalion and rose to the rank of Corporal. Serving in the 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion in Papua New Guinea, he was killed on active service on 26 November 1942 when the Australian force attacked the Japanese stronghold of Gona in Papua.

He is buried in the Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery. His twin brother, Leslie Charles Worthy had also died on active service in Papua New Guinea in March of 1942.

Edward Jones

Flight Sargent Edward Lloyd Jones died while flying a RAAF Boomerang operating out of the Strathpine airfield in southern Queensland. He crashed into the sea east of Caloundra on 10 November 1943. He was buried at the Lutwyche Cemetery in Brisbane.

Born in 1917, he played for the ACT in 1940/41 in the final match before representative matches were suspended for the rest of the war. He played for the Ainslie club in the grade competition.

He was formerly a member of the Parliamentary Hansard Staff in the Federal Parliament before moving to Hobart and was formerly a journalist with the Canberra Times and Wagga Advertiser.

Robert Nimmo

Robert Harold Nimmo was a member of the first ACT (then Federal Territory) side that played Cooma on Australia Day in 1923. He played for Duntroon in the initial grade competition.

He entered the Royal Military College at Duntroon in 1912 in the second intake. He was awarded the sword of honour as the top student in his intake. He landed on Gallipoli as a troop commander in May 1915 and was evacuated due to illness in August. He served throughout the Palestine campaign in a variety of command appointments. He returned to Duntroon in 1920 was an instructor at the RMC. He also served in various command positions as a Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel and Brigadier in New Guinea. He was promoted to Major General after the War and appointed a CBE in 1950.

Nimmo died in his sleep of a heart attack in 1966 at Rawalpindi, Pakistan while he was acting as the Chief Military Observer to the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan. He had served in this role from 1950 until his death. He was buried in the ANZAC section of Mount Gravatt cemetery in Brisbane with full military and UN honours.

There have been 410 Test Matches played in Australia since 1876/77 until 2016/17. Of these matches there have only been 105 people who have fortunate enough to be an Australian Test Match Scorer.

The scorers in the first Test Match were H Kennon and William Plummer. Not much is known about H Kennon but William Plummer was a scorer for the South Melbourne club and was born in Sussex, England in 1837. These two gentlemen also scored the second Test Match.

The first scorers in a Test Match at the Sydney Cricket Ground were SW Daniels and EC Weller. Daniels went on to score another seven Tests while Weller scored another three.

The first Test Match at the Adelaide Oval was scored by George Gurr and Charles Hobbs. The match was Gurr’s only known Test Match while Hobbs scored one more Test.

Ninion Batchelor, a reporter for Associated Press, became the first Australian to score a Test Match in England when he scored the three Tests on the 1890 Tour.

Joe Taylor from Melbourne and Johann Jackschonn were scoring giants of the 1890s and 1900s. Joe Taylor scored all Test Matches at the MCG from 1884/85 to 1903/04, scoring a number of them on his own when the touring side did not have a scorer with the side.

Johann Jackschon is now known as the father of the linear sheet, having invented his method in the 1890s. Born in Prussia in 1846, Jackschon was a heavily respected scorer, often travelling from Grafton in northern New South Wales to score matches for New South Wales and Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Lord Sheffield, the manager of the 1891/92 English touring side, presented Jackschon with a gold medallion in appreciation of his scoring efforts.

Joe Taylor, who also scored for the Melbourne Cricket Club, scored 11 Test Matches in his scoring career while Jackschon, who scored for the Mosman club scored 13 Test Matches.

Bill Ferguson, known as “Fergie”, has scored the most Test Matches in Australia and overseas for Australian and other Test nations. He became the scorer and baggage master for the Australian Tour of England in 1905 after striking up a friendship with the Australian Test Captain, Monty Noble. He continued scoring for Australian and other touring sides of Australia and other countries just up until his death in 1957. He scored well over 200 Test Matches in his career.

Don Bradman played 1st Grade cricket for two clubs in the Sydney 1st Grade Competition. He played for St George from 1926/27 to 1932/33 and for North Sydney in 1933/34 after moving to that area after getting married. He originally trialled for Central Cumberland (now Parramatta) but they were unwilling to pay his train fare from Bowral for each match whereas St George was willing to.

He made his 1st Grade debut on November 27, 1926 against Petersham at Petersham making 110 before being run out. He also took 3 for 26.

Some statistical notes on his Sydney 1st Grade Career:

• Overall he made 3221 runs at an average of 89.47, well below his Test and First-Class averages.
• He was never dismissed for a duck in 1st Grade.
• He averaged over a hundred in a season in four successive seasons – 1929/30 (109.80), 1930/31 (215.00), 1931/32 (112.14) and 1932/33 (170.67).
• He made 14 centuries and 12 half centuries.
• Of his 14 centuries, 2 were double centuries.
• He also made a century on debut for North Sydney, scoring 127 against Western Suburbs at North Sydney Oval in 1933/34.
• His highest score was 246 against Randwick in 1931/32.
• He averaged under 50 against three clubs – North Sydney (28.25), Sydney University (39.67) and Waverley (37.00).
• His best season in terms of runs scored was in 1931/32 where he scored 785 runs in 8 innings, averaging 112.14, including 3 centuries and 2 half centuries.
• He batted at every position from opener to number 7, making a century at each batting position except as an opener.
• He scored over 1000 runs at Hurstville Oval, making 1074 runs at an average of 67.12. Nine of his twelve half centuries came at this ground.
• As a bowler, he took 23 wickets at an average of 33.96.
• His best bowling was 4 for 55 against Manly at Hurstville Oval.

In 1914/15, the first organised cricket competition was held in the ACT or as it was then the Federal Territory. This was just over a year after the Federal Territory was proclaimed.

There were seven clubs in the competition which started on 14 November, 1914. Matches were single innings one day matches for all of the rounds.

The clubs were:
Ainslie – the same club competed in the first FTCA Grade Compeition and continued until 1968/69.

Brickbats – Later became Westridge and formed in the now Yarralumla area. Based around the Brickworks and it’s employees.

Canberra – Same club as was in the FTCA competition. Home ground was based around what was to become the Acton Racecourse.

Duntroon – The same club continued in the FTCA competition and was based around the Royal Military College and included both cadets and staff.

Hall – Based on the village of Hall and played at the Hall Showground.

Power House – the former name of the original Eastlake club. The club was based around the Canberra Powerhouse and included employees of the powerhouse.

Queanbeyan – the forerunner of the current club which plays in the 1st Grade competition.

Do you use the Cricket Statistics Program CricketStatz? Are you looking for up to date and quality International, First-Class or List A databases. I have locked databases available for the below prices. All databases come with 12 months of free updates after which further updates can be purchased. These databases do not come with CricketStatz which needs to be purchased separately at http://www.cricketstatz.com. All databases are locked but all updates are provided for 12 months after purchase. Other databases can be provided on request. Contact me at adammorehouse@bigpond.com for details.

Prices for the databases are below:

Recently released the 2016/17 ACT Premier Grade Cricket Statistical Review. This covers all grades of ACT Premier Grade Cricket for the 2016/17 season.

ACT Grade Cricket Review 2016-17