25 JUNE 1948, Page 16

TESTS OF 1902

Stn,—According to John Wisden's Cricketer's Almcrnack for 1903, page 283, G. L. Jessop " scored in just over an hour and a quarter 104 runs out of 139, his hits being a 5, seventeen 4's, two 3's, four 2's, and seventeen singles. All things considered a more astonishing display has never been

seen:" It would. seem, therefore, that Mr. Mallalieu is right in sticking to his figures. I had the good fortune to see that innings. England' were set 263 to win the match and, on a sticky wicket, lost MacLaren, Palairet, Tyldesley, Hayward and. Bratmd for 48 runs, and the match looked over, but F. S. Jackson, 49, and Jessop added 109 runs in sixty-five minutes. Fifteen were wanted to win when Rhodes, last man, came in, and he, 6, and Hirst, 58, knocked off the runs, England winning by one wicket.

Mr. Jessop, when on a visit to Philadelphia in 1897• with an English team, was described in these lines by the local bard.

At one end stocky Jessop frowned, The human catapault, Who wrecks the roofs of distant towns When set in his assault.

The only survivors today of the two elevens in that ever-famous match at the Oval are Jessop himself, Hirst, Rhodes and Braund.—Yours, &c.,