The longest innings in the history of men’s Test match was played by Pakistani opening batsman Hanif Mohammad – the original ‘Little Master’ – during the first Test of the Pakistan tour of West Indies at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados between January 17 and January 23, 1958. In the six-day match, West Indies won the toss and elected to bat, racking up 579 for 9 declared, with Everton Weekes top-scoring with 197. In reply, Pakistan managed just 106 all out, losing their last five wickets for 24 runs, and West Indies enforced the follow-on.
Having been clean bowled by Eric Atkinson – who was making his Test debut, alongside older brother Denis – for 17 in the first innings, Hanif Mohammad returned to the crease later on the third day and stayed there for much of the remainder of the match . He was 161 not out at close of play on the fourth day, 251 not out at close of play on the fifth and finally caught at the wicket off the bowling of Denis Atkinson on the sixth, having scored 337 runs.
All told, his innings last 970 minutes, or 16 hours and 10 minutes, and left his team on 626-6. Pakistan scored another 31 runs before declaring their second innings at 657 for 8, leaving West Indies with precious little time to score the 185 runs they needed for victory. Indeed, opening batsmen Conrad Hunte and Rohan Kanhai managed just 28 runs off the 11 overs they faced and, not altogether surprisingly, the match ended in a draw.
For all his time at the crease, Hanif Mohammad does not hold the record for the most runs in a Test match innings. At the time, that record was held by Sir Leonard Hutton, who scored 364 for England against Australia at the Oval in August, 1938; it is currently held by Brian Lara, who scored 400 not out for West Indies against England at Antigua Recreation Ground in April, 2004.
The 2011 Masters Tournament was staged, as it always is, at the Augusta National Golf Club between April 7 and April 10, 2011. In search of his first major championship, Rory McIlroy shot 65, 69 and 70 in his first three rounds for a 12-under-par total of 204 for 54 holes. He held a four-stroke advantage entering the final round but, having played the front nine in one over par, led by just a single stroke from Charl Schwartzel, Angel Cabrera and Tiger Woods at halfway.
The 21-year-old Ulsterman started to falter on the 495-yard, par-4 tenth hole, where he snap hooked his drive deep into the pines, barely 150 yards from the tee, and he could only pitch out sideways. His approach shot missed the green, again to the left, and finished at the foot of a steep bank, with trees between the ball and the pin. His fourth shot struck a branch and ricocheted short of the putting surface and he took three more to get down, walking off with a triple-bogey seven.
McIlroy went from first to tied seventh in one fell swoop, but worse was to follow as he headed into Amen Corner. He found the green at the initimidating 505-yard, par-4 eleventh hole in regulation, but three-putted from seven feet for a bogey. On the 155-yard, par-3 twelfth hole, he four-putted from 10 feet for a double-bogey, thereby dropping six shots in three holes and effectively ending his challenge for the Green Jacket.
On the relatively short, 510-yard, par-5 thirteenth, McIlroy again drove left, into Rae’s Creek, and buried his face in his arms, on the verge of tears. He escaped with a par, but dropped another shot at another ‘friendly’ scoring hole, the 530-yard, par-5 fifteenth, and eventually finished with an eight-over-par 80. His 72-hole total of 284 was only good enough for fifteenth place, 10 shots behind the eventual winner, Charl Schwartzel.
According to Guiness World Records, the highest score in a ‘full’ international rugby union match, as sanctioned by World Rugby, or the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB), as the governing body of rugby union was known at the time, is 164-13. On October 27, 1994, in a Pool 2 match during the Asia Rugby Championship, or the Asian Rugby Football Tournament, as it was known, at the Merdeka Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Hong Kong ran in 26 tries, 17 of which were converted, against Singapore, who scored a solitary converted try and two penalties.
In so doing, Hong Kong eclipsed the previous scoring records for any qualifying tournament for the Rugby World Cup and for the Asia Rugby Championship. The former was set by Italy during their 108-4 hammering of the Czech Republic in Viadana on May 18, 1994 and the latter by South Korea during their 135-3 shellacking of Malaysia in Seoul on September 23, 1992.
Hong Kong full-back Ashley Billington crossed the try line 10 times, for a total of 50 points, thereby setting two new international records, while fly-half Jamie, who kicked all 17 conversions, set another. Ironically, though, the latter record lasted only until the 1995 Rugby World Cup, for which Hong Kong were trying, unsuccessfully, to qualify. On June 4, 1995, in a Pool C match at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein, South Africa, New Zealand routed Japan 145-16, with fly-half Simon Culhane, who was making his debut for the All Blacks, successfully converting all bar one of the 21 tries his team scored, including one of his own.
The highest team score in the history of men’s Test cricket was 952 for 6 declared, scored by Sri Lanka in the one and only innings of the drawn first Test of the India tour of Sri Lanka at R. Premadasa Stadiu, Colombo between August 4 and August 6, 1997. India won the toss and elected to bat first, with captain Sachin Tendulkar contributing 143 to a first innings total of 537 for 8 declared.
However, Sri Lanka batted for the remaining three days plus to achieve their world record total. Opening batsman Marvan Attapatu was caught at the wicket off Nilesh Kulkarni – bowling his first ball in Test cricket – late on the second day but, thereafter, it was all one-way traffic. Sanath Jayasuriya (340) and Roshan Mahanama (225) put on 576 for the second wicket, while Aravinda de Silva (126) also reached three figures as India toiled through 271 overs, of which Kulkarni and fellow spinners Rajesh Chauhan and Anil Kumble bowled 230, for collective figures of 3 for 694.
By contrast, the lowest team score in the history of men’s Test cricket was just 26 all out, scored by the home side in the second innings of the second Test of the England tour of New Zealand at Eden Park, Auckland on March 28, 1955. New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first, scoring 200 all out in their first innings, albeit having been 154 for 4 at one stage. England scored 246 all out in reply, with a captain Leonard Hutton top-scoring on 53, but in the second innings New Zealand experienced the mother and father of all collapses. Only opening batsman Bert Sutcliffe (11) reached double-figures as England needed just 27 overs to win by an innings and 20 runs.
For the uninitiated, the Lincoln Handicap, which is open to horses aged four years and upwards, is run over a straight mile on Town Moor, Doncaster in late March or early April. The Lincoln is, in fact, the first so-called ‘Heritage’ handicap of the season, nowadays worth £150,000 in guaranteed prize money, and has been the curtain-raiser for the British Flat racing season for 170 years.
Not altogether surprisingly, the Lincoln Handicap is so-called because it was inaugurated, as the Lincoln Spring Handicap Stakes, at the now-defunct Lincoln Racecourse, at Carholme, Lincolnshire, in March, 1853. The race was originally open to horses aged three years and upwards and run over a mile and a half, but was shortened to its current distance in 1855.
The Lincoln Handicap was and, to a certain extent, still is, the first leg of the so-called ‘Spring Double’, with the second leg being the Grand National, typically run a week or two later. Between the two World Wars, when ante-post betting was in its prime, the Spring Double was hugely popular with the racing public and press, reflected by the sheer weight of editorial copy devoted to the issue of landing the potentially lucrative odds on offer. At that time, the Lincoln Handicap was one of the highlights of the Flat racing season.
For all the popularity of the Lincoln Handicap, in its heyday, the Horse Racing Levy Board withdrew its subsidy from Lincoln Racecourse in 1964, forcing its closure. The following year, the race was transferred to Doncaster Racecourse, where it has been run, with one of two exceptions, ever since.