Have you ever seen a stump knocked out in cricket? There are many pacers who bowl with a fiery pace, enough to dislodge the stumps. Many instances have taken place where the bowler has even broken the stumps. But, have you ever heard about a bail on the stumps travelling a long distance after being hit by the ball? This happened on June 29, 1911 when the bail travelled a whopping 67 yards!
During a County Championship match played between Lancashire and Worcestershire in 1911, Worcester pacer Robert Burrows knocked out the stumps of William Huddleston, who was batting on 55. To everyone’s surprise, when Huddleson was bowled, one of the bails took off and travelled a distance of 67 yards and 6 inches. The game was paused to measure the distance and it was recorded as the instance when the bail travelled the longest.
In the match played at Old Trafford, Manchester, Lancashire captain Albert Hornby won the toss and elected to bat first. After the fall of second wicket on the score of 107, Huddleston came in to bat. He scored 55 runs before falling to Burrows. Lancashire scored 287 runs in their first innings with Huddleston being the top scorer.
In reply to that, Worcestershire scored just 134. Huddleston bowled a brilliant spell to push Worcestershire on the back-foot. He took six wickets and broke the backbone of visitors.
Worcestershire came in to bat again and this time, they were bundled up for lesser total than the first innings. It was Harry Deans who bowled an excellent spell of 6/36 and won the game for his team by an innings and 66 runs.
The Nottinghamshire-born Burrows represented Worcestershire in 277 games. He took 894 wickets in his first-class career. His career took a pause between 1915 and 1918 due to World War I. He resumed in the 1919 season before saying goodbye to the game.
In 1923, Burrows was appointed as a First-Class umpire and he served for nine seasons. He also stood in one solitary Test match, alongside the legendary Frank Chester in the 1925 Ashes encounter in Nottingham.
