To convert or not to convert
Substack informs me that this is the Notcher’s Natter’s 50th post. I never raised my bat for scoring a fifty in my brief and highly undistinguished cricket playing career. I did make 43 once, but that was an aberration as it was the only time I got past 16. I gave up playing for the Under-15B team and started scoring when I realised that I was significantly better at adding and subtracting than I was at batting and bowling. But now that I have reached the 50 mark in Substacks, I should probably raise my laptop, knuckle down, and aim to reach the century. It seems an appropriate time to have a look at conversion rates. My conversion rate from 17 to 43 may be 100%, but that is very random, and conversion rates in cricket generally mean converting a score of fifty into a century.
I find non-conversions more interesting than conversions. Perhaps this partly has to do with the reality that Bradman dominates the conversion stat, as he does with most other batting stats. 29 centuries and 13 fifties in Test cricket and 117 centuries and 69 fifties are off the charts compared to anyone else. But also the story of non-converters is a better story than that of successful converter. A player fails to convert a number of times gets a reputation which then leads to “is this the time, finally?” speculation every time they raise the bat for the fifty, and there is thus greatly added joy when they finally succeed in getting to three-figures. Those of you who have read “Bits on Bobby” will be aware of this.
The great non-converter in first-class cricket is Geoff Miller. The England and Derbyshire (mostly) all-rounder collected no fewer than 56 fifties in first-class cricket before finally breaching the century mark. There will have been great joy at Manchester on 4 May 1984 when Miller made 130 for Derbyshire against Lancashire. The 56 fifties he made before that included two Test scores of 98, one of which was not out when number 11, Bob Willis, got out after resisting for 96 minutes at Lahore in 1977. Like Bradman, Miller’s effort is off the charts. The next most fifties before a first conversion is 33 by Harold Gilligan, who finally broke his hundred duck with an innings of 143 for Sussex v Derbyshire at Hove in 1929. Miller made one other first-class century but also added another 16 fifties as well to finish with a mind-boggling 72 fifties to go with his 2 centuries.
Then, of course, there are those who never scored a century. Gordon Parsons is the world-record holder in this department with 29 fifties without a century. His best score was ‘only’ 76. Tony Lock, who scored the most first-class runs (10 342) without a century is joint second on the list with Sri Lankan, Daminda Ranaweera (HS 99 run out). They both had 27 fifties. In a rare example of statistical neatness, there are 20 players with no centuries but 20 or more fifties. Not surprisingly, most of the players on this list are bowlers with long careers and decent batting skills, e.g. Gordon Parsons. Some, like Ranaweera, were wicket-keepers. Only four could be classed as specialist batters. The Fab Four of Fifty Fruition Failures are Allan White (26 fifties, HS 95) mostly for Worcestershire, Russell Cobb, mostly of Leicestershire (23 fifties, HS 91), Kevin Verdoorn, mostly of Northern Transvaal (23 fifties, HS 97) and Mike Groves (20 fifties, HS 86), mostly for Oxford University (he was born in New Zealand, but apart from Oxford he also played first-class cricket for Somerset, Western Province, MCC and Free Foresters in the 1960s). Three of these (perhaps not so merry) men at least scored centuries in limited overs matches (I hesitate to use “had the consolation”). They are Sri Lankan international, Seekkuge Prasanna, Zimbabwe’s Duncan Fletcher (more famous as a coach, especially for England) and Kevin Verdoorn, who managed to reach the magical mark twice in the limited overs game.
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