AEJ Collins: The 13-year-old boy who made the highest ever score in cricket

AEJ Collins

Records in cricket, they say, are meant to be broken. But over the years, the game has changed so much that it’s impossible to replicate the feats of old, and like a fossilised mosquito, such records remain intact forever.

One such record is held by Arthur Edward Jeune Collins, more commonly known as A.E.J. Collins. Collins was an English cricketer who shot to fame as a 13-year-old schoolboy after recording the highest ever individual score of 628 not out in a cricket match way back in 1899.

115 years after that innings, it’s still the highest recorded score in any form of cricket.

Early years

Arthur was born in the city of Hazaribagh, India, to Mr. & Mrs. Collins on 18th August, 1885. His father was a judge in the Indian Civil Service. From the records available, it is believed that he became an orphan by the time that he received a scholarship to study at Clifton College in 1897.

Clifton College, located in Bristol, was established in the year 1862. The college became known for its cricket very quickly, as the great WG Grace, apart from sending his sons to study there, scored 13 of his first-class centuries for Gloucestershire in the County Championship at the college ground.

He was described by several British newspapers at the time as “a reserved boy, short and stockily built, fair-haired and pale.”

Record score by a batsman in an innings

Collins burst onto the limelight as a 13-year-old schoolboy when he scored 628* for Clarke’s House vs North Town in a junior house match at Clifton College. The timeless match started on June 22, 1899, with Collins, who was the captain of Clarke’s house, winning the toss and choosing to bat first.

The match started on Thursday, 22nd June, at 3.30 pm and by the time the first day’s play ended two and a half hours later at 6 pm, Collins was already on 200*, although there was an element of luck to his innings as he was dropped on 50, 100 and 140.

Collins resumed the following day and slowly started piling up the runs. As news of the 13-year-old’s score circulated through to the people in the college, the spectators who had been watching an Old Cliftonian match on College Close decided to leave and gathered in large numbers to watch Collins’s exploits.

Luck continued to be on his side, as he was once again dropped when he was on 400 by 11-year-old Victor Eberle at point, but Collins remarkably didn’t lose concentration even after scoring so many runs and went on and on. At the end of day 2, he was on 509*, having broken Andrew Stoddart’s then-world record score of 485. Collins made a staggering 309 runs on the 2nd day at over two runs per minute, with his team closing on 680/8.

For some unknown reason, there was no play on that weekend, with Collins resuming only on Monday, 26 June, at 12.30 pm. A large group of people had gathered only to see how many more runs Collins can score, and he certainly didn’t let them down. He added another 89 runs to his tally in just 55 minutes of play, taking his score up to 598*, having been dropped, for the 5th time in his innings, on 556.

While the 2nd highest contribution to the innings was only 42, several of Collins’s team-mates provided him support by not giving their wicket away. Collins would, in particular, be grateful to Tom Redfern, the No.11 batsman, for staying with him through to the end of day 3 at 804/9.

The 4th day’s play started once again at 12.30 pm, and the school authorities extended the playing hours in a bid to end the match as soon as possible. The huge media interest in the match is illustrated by the fact that a reputed newspaper such as The Times reported on the game. By this stage, the now-famous schoolboy cricketer was looking to hit out and add as many runs as possible, leading the correspondent covering the game to describe his approach as “downright reckless.”

He was dropped a further two times, on 605 and 619, making many wonder whether his innings will ever come to an end. But it soon did, due to no fault of his though, as his partner Redfern was dismissed for just 13, bringing an end to the last wicket partnership of 183, and leaving the opener stranded on a world record 628*. According to the report published in Blackburn Standard on 1st July 1899, Collins hit 1 six, 4 fives, 31 fours, 33 threes and 146 twos.

The plaque at Clifton College, put up in 1962

By now, pretty much everyone knew that Collins could bat, not least the opposition North Town. The opposition might have thought that their torment has come to an end, but they were wrong. Not content with his stupendous efforts with the bat, he then went on to have match figures of 11/63 with the ball. North Town were absolutely hopeless, being bowled out for 87 and 61 in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively, giving Clarke’s house a crushing victory by an innings and 688 runs.

Career in the Army and death in the First World War

Despite Collins’s apparent cricketing abilities, he didn’t play even a single game of first-class cricket. He, instead, chose to pursue a career in the Army and passed his entrance exams to the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich in September 1901. It was his foray into the Army which hindered his cricketing career from flourishing. Nevertheless, he did make 58 and 35 against the Royal Artillery at Lord’s in 1912 while serving as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers.

Collins married Ethel Slater in 1914 and was one of the first to be dispatched, hardly four months later, to France when World War I broke out. He tragically lost his life, at the age of just 29, when in action during the first battle of Ypres on November 11, 1914.

115 years later, Collins still remains at the top of the table. It’s quite impossible to imagine this barrier being broken in future, but crazier things have happened in cricket.

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