He bewitched Aussie legends Benaud and Miller ... but who is Scotland's greatest ever cricketer?

THE polymath that was Bob Crampsey once revealed how he had managed to sneak cricket into a Lanarkshire school.

‘I had to overcome an inbred disdain for the game among those boys,’ he said of his time as a teacher.

‘I did this by chalking a wicket on the wall and throwing them a ball. Once they realised what damage a rapidly moving cricket ball could inflict, then the battle was at least half-won.’

The peerless commentator, historian, broadcaster and Brain of Britain had thus successfully sown the seed of cricket on what would be considered unlikely ground.

My introduction to the game was not because of its propensity to instil fear but, rather, its wondrous ability to provide alcohol outwith normal licensing hours.

In the early 1970s, I would be dispatched by my editor at the local paper to go to the cricket ground on a Sunday and inspect the scorecards from the teams playing that weekend.

I then had to construct match reports with the added aid of chat in the clubroom.

This task was made all the more congenial by the consumption of several pints. I even managed to peer out at the match taking place outside. I was hooked. My relationship with alcohol ended in a tempestuous divorce a decade or more later. But my love for cricket has deepened from these days half a century ago.

The purpose of this preamble is to provide my credentials for nominating Scotland’s best ever male cricketer.

A cursory glance reveals they are threadbare. So I have enlisted some of the most knowledgeable sources on cricket, particularly the Caledonian variety.

They have all watched Scottish cricket for decades and some of them have immersed themselves in the history of the sport in this country.

Their chat ranged far and wide but there was a consistency in selection that narrowed the field down to four names.

The first task was to decide the parameters of this particular field. Douglas Jardine and Tony Greig were not considered because their connection to Scotland was through their parents.

‘They did not over-value their relationship with Scotland,’ said Colin Mair, chairman of West of Scotland Cricket Club, with a gentle dismissal.

Similarly, Rahul Dravid can be discounted, although he played for Scotland in 2003. His 164 Test matches for India are a more reliable guide to his provenance.

There are also those Scottish cricketers who were known for their involvement in football — Scot Symon, Andy Goram and Donald Ford — but their ample talents do not quite force them into the argument.

This still leaves the field extremely crowded. It can be split into two sides. There is the history section of the older era.

This contains James Aitchison, Jimmy Allan, Douglas Barr, Leslie Balfour-Melville, Jimmy Brown, John Kerr, Gregor McGregor, Ian Peebles and Robert Sievewright. All are in Cricket Scotland’s hall of fame.

The more modern era has its contenders in Iain Philip, George Salmond, Gavin Hamilton, Brian Hardie and Mike Denness.

These names dominated most of the discussion and the list was distilled to four. Neil Leitch, the cricket historian, was found on the high seas on a cruise so his response had to be brief.

‘My nomination for Scotland’s greatest ever cricketer — indeed, Scotland’s greatest ever sportsman — is Leslie Balfour-Melville. In saying so, I appreciate I am biased, in that he was primarily a Grange player.’

Leitch is a cricket and rugby administrator at the club.

Balfour-Melville was also nominated as greatest ever sportsman by Fraser Sim of the Cricket Society of Scotland.

However, Sim, author of the wonderful Saltire and the Flannels, would not yet be drawn on who was the nation’s greatest cricketer, reserving the right to reflect further.

Balfour-Melville (1854-1937) is an intriguing choice. Aside from his cricket exploits (he scored 46 centuries and played for the national side on 18 occasions), he won the British Amateur Championship as a golfer in 1895, played for Scotland at rugby and won the Scottish Lawn Tennis Championship in 1879. He was also an elite skater, billiards player and long-jumper.

Mair, who also has proficiency in another sport, being recently awarded a rugby cap as the SRU belatedly recognised a match against Japan in 1977, is not convinced by claims for Balfour-Melville.

‘To be so good at so many sports might suggest that cricket was only a part — however significant — of his sporting life,’ he said. He put forward three other names for the top slot: Denness, Kerr and the Reverend Aitchison.

‘I met John Kerr whenever I was playing rugby at Fort Matilda,’ he said of the Greenock stalwart. ‘He was a lovely old guy. His record, though, is remarkable.’

Kerr (1885-1972) represented Scotland for an astonishing spell of 26 years. His hall of fame citation notes his scores of 147, 15 and 60 not out against the all-conquering 1921 Australians, adding that ‘it has perhaps never been surpassed by a player representing Scotland in a competitive cricket match’.

In the innings of 147, he batted all day at Raeburn Place. In their previous match, the Aussies had just rolled over Lancashire in two days. In 1924, he also scored an unbeaten 80 against the South Africans.

Between 1901 and 1940, he made over 40,000 runs for Greenock and was renowned as a wily slow bowler and reliable slip fielder.

In second place comes Denness. The Scottish Cricket Past and Present spokesman rated the batsman highly, and Mair added: ‘He has to be up there. He had his ups and downs in his career but his achievements are substantial and he captained England. He also made his mark in county cricket with Kent and Essex.’

Denness (1940-2013) was born in Bellshill but was brought up in Ayr. Marvellously, he played in the same school rugby side as Ian Ure, the Dundee and Manchester United centre-half, and Ian McLauchlan, the Mighty Mouse who later led the Scottish rugby side.

He had four Test centuries in 28 matches, and 25,886 first-class runs in a first-class cricket career from 1959 to 1980. He had the misfortune to captain England against Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson in the 1974-75 Ashes series Down Under when the bowlers were at their aggressive best. Denness dropped himself for the fourth Test after a poor run of form.

‘He did redeem himself in the sixth Test in Melbourne when he scored 188,’ said Mair. Denness was also Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1975.

He also played alongside the man we nominate as Scotland’s best. Step to the crease, the Reverend James Aitchison. Aitchison (1920-1994) made seven centuries in his 69 capped internationals, and 30,318 runs in all matches.

He was very much a man of his times. Sim points out in Saltire and Flannels that Aitchison ‘inherited his love of cricket from his father, who was a regular Kilmarnock player until he lost an arm and a leg in the 1914-18 war: his mother bowled to him in a space behind their house’.

War had an impact on his career, delaying his appearances at the higher level of the game, before he debuted for Scotland in 1946.

In his highest international innings, 190 against Ireland in 1959, he added 144 with the schoolboy Denness.

In 1947, he made 106 in front of a crowd of 10,000 at Paisley. In 1956, he was up against an Australian attack of Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller, Alan Davidson and Richie Benaud, and made exactly 100 (with two sixes and nine fours) out of 196. Lindwall and Miller later counted this as the best innings they had encountered on the whole tour. In 1989, Miller sent a letter to Aitchison out of the blue. Miller wrote that he had been daydreaming about some of the great innings he had witnessed.

‘I’ve seen hundreds of fine innings but yours that day rates most highly.’ He added later in the missive which was addressed to the Rev J Aitchison, c/o Scottish Cricket: ‘That century was a truly great one.’

Benaud remembered it thus: ‘Our game against Scotland in Glasgow produced a lovely contest between Keith Miller and the Rev Jimmy Aitchison, who was the leading batsman in the Scottish team. Keith came on first change and, for fun, bowled a bumper to the Reverend, who ducked and then fell over. This produced hilarity around the packed ground, so Keith, again for fun, gave him another.

‘It whistled into the shrubbery at deep square-leg. This brought a roar from the crowd and shouts to give him another.

‘This one hit the seats at deep square-leg and bounced back on to the field.

‘Nugget had had enough of this little game, so he fired a few more in and the “Rev J” hooked them, either well or off the top edge as he raced to his century out of 196. It was a delightful innings which was tremendously appreciated by the crowd’.

This was all reported in Saltire and Flannels with the further observation that John Kerr, who had taken a century off the Australians in 1921, was present to see his record being equalled.

Aitchison was a minister at Repton, Derbyshire, St Stephen’s Comely Bank in Edinburgh, and Broomhill in Glasgow.

The Reverend was a renowned local hero in his time, even though his fame did not traverse the world because of Scotland’s lack of opportunities to play Test cricket and the insular nature of much of the media of the time. But he was capable of producing myth and legend. And not just at the crease.

There was a staple anecdote of his reluctance to perform weddings on a summer Saturday. It drew laughter in his time but there just might have been a grain of truth in it.

He was, after all, a man of God but a player of demonic commitment.

SCOTLAND'S GREATEST CRICKETERS: THE TOP 14

1. James Aitchison (1920-1994)

Aitchison earned 69 international caps for Scotland — with seven centuries and 3,699 runs. He made two centuries against the touring teams, with Richie Benaud and Keith Miller impressed by his century against Australia.

2. Mike Denness (1940-2013)

Four centuries in 28 Test matches, and 25,886 first-class runs in a career from 1959 to 1980. Also captained England, with a fine 188 in Melbourne as a highlight. Born in Bellshill, raised in Ayr, and a fine ambassador for the game in his travels across the world.

3. John Kerr (1885-1972) 

John Kerr’s achievement in scoring 147, 15 and 60 not out against the all-conquering 1921 Australians is his zenith. He was also a prodigious runmaker for Greenock. A sharp slip fielder and a decent slow bowler.

4. Leslie Balfour-Melville (1854-1937)

Balfour first took the field for Scotland in 1874, at the age of 20. But when only 17 and still at school, he top scored in a match between a Scotland XI and the All-England XI. At the age of 55, he top-scored with his international best of 91. He was part of the famous one-day victory over the 1882 Australians.

 AND THE BEST OF THE REST...

Gregor MacGregor (1869-1919)

Fame came to him before he was 20. He kept wicket for England against Australia at Lord’s and the Oval in 1890, and at Lord’s, the Oval, and Manchester in 1893.

Jimmy Allan (1932-2005)

An excellent slow bowler, Allan earned 60 caps between 1953 and 1972, achieving a creditable average of 22 with both bat and ball for Scotland and posting similar figures for Kent.

George Goddard (b.1938)

One of Scotland’s most influential players from the mid-1960s, Goddard made 78 appearances for Scotland until his retirement from international cricket in 1983. His most notable match was against MCC in 1973 when he took all the wickets to fall, finishing with 8/134.

Brian Hardie (b.1950)

Learned his cricket with Stenhousemuir and played 14 times for Scotland before going on to Essex and making the grade there. He can look back on an average of 54 for Scotland and on 18,103 first-class runs in his time with Essex at an average of 34.

Iain Philip (b.1958)

Brought up in Stenhousemuir, his family emigrated to Australia where his cricket education developed well, turning him into a fine back-foot batsmen.

Dougie Brown (b.1969)

An all-rounder who represented both England and Scotland at one-day international level. Brown played for Scotland in the 2005 ICC Trophy, taking 11 wickets in the tournament, and scoring 59 runs in the final, to help Scotland win the competition.

Gavin Hamilton (b.1974)

From a Linlithgow family, he was educated in Kent. He returned to win Scotland Under-16 and Under-19 caps as a batsman. In 2008, while playing against Ireland, Hamilton scored his maiden one-day international century. Hamilton was appointed captain of the Scottish One Day International team in April 2009.

Craig Wright (b.1974)

A big hitting right-handed middle order batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler who played 194 times for Scotland, including the 2007 Cricket World Cup and Twenty20 World Cup in 2007 & 2009.

Richie Berrington (b.1987)

A prodigious runmaker and current Scotland captain.

SafyaAn Sharif (b.1991)

The fast-medium bowler has taken a record-breaking 259 wickets.