Andrew Sandham (6 July 1890 – 20 April 1982) was an English
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...
er, a right-handed
batsman who played 14
Test matches between 1921 and 1930. Sandham made the first
triple century in
Test cricket, 325 against the West Indies in 1930, and scored over 40,000
first-class runs.
Biography
Born in
Streatham, London, Sandham made his
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...
debut in 1911, and was
capped in 1913. In his 26 years at the county Sandham formed a formidable opening partnership with
Jack Hobbs, and the two put on a hundred for the first wicket on 66 occasions, the highest of these the 428 they accumulated against
Oxford University in 1926. He passed 2,000 runs in eight seasons, and during the middle part of his career between 1924 and 1931
averaged
In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean ( ) or arithmetic average, or just the ''mean'' or the ''average'' (when the context is clear), is the sum of a collection of numbers divided by the count of numbers in the collection. The coll ...
above 50 in all but two years. He scored an unbeaten 292 against Northants, being denied his triple century only by Percy Fender's declaration, and still holds three record Surrey partnerships, including the 173 he put on with
Andy Ducat for the 10th wicket at Leyton after suffering a bout of food poisoning.
Sandham made his
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
debut
in 1921 against
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
, inching his way to 21 in 81 minutes before being bowled by a 'snorter' from
Ted McDonald
Edgar Arthur "Ted" McDonald (6 January 1891 – 22 July 1937) was a cricketer who played for Tasmania, Victoria, Lancashire and Australia, as well as being an Australian rules footballer who played with Launceston Football Club, Essendon Foo ...
. He went to South Africa in 1922–23 but made only one half-century in his nine innings, and though he was named as a
Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1923, he again failed to make much of an impression either against
the South Africans in 1924 or in Australia the following winter. In 1924
Herbert Sutcliffe
Herbert Sutcliffe (24 November 1894 – 22 January 1978) was an English professional cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England as an opening batsman. Apart from one match in 1945, his first-class career spanned the period between the t ...
made his Test debut, and his success as Hobbs' opening partner restricted Sandham's opportunities subsequently. He played only five innings against Australia during his career and thought that the greatest regret of his career.
Sandham went to South Africa in 1926–27 and scored heavily in the matches against domestic opposition, averaging above 60, but was not picked for any of the Tests.
However, he did play in the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...
series
in 1929–30, and it was here that he achieved his greatest fame. In the first Test at
Bridgetown
Bridgetown ( UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael. Bridgetown is sometimes locally referred to as "The ...
he made 152 and 51. In the next two games he failed completely, making 0 and 5 at
Port of Spain and then 9 and 0 at
Georgetown. In the fourth and final Test at
Kingston, however, he became the first
Test triple-centurion when he compiled a mammoth 325 out of England's equally imposing total of 849, beating
R. E. Foster
Reginald Erskine Foster (16 April 1878 – 13 May 1914), nicknamed Tip Foster, commonly designated R. E. Foster in sporting literature, was an English first-class cricketer and footballer. He is the only man to have captained England at both ...
's individual Test score record of 287, which had stood for twenty-seven years. The theoretically timeless match was in fact abandoned as a draw after nine days, but Sandham had still had time to make 50 in the second innings; he had scored 592 runs in the series. His aggregate of 375 in the match stood as the Test record until
Greg Chappell eclipsed it. He made the runs with a long-handled bat borrowed from his captain
Freddie Calthorpe and a pair of ill-fitting boots borrowed from
Patsy Hendren.
At 39 years and 272 days, he is, by almost five years, the oldest player to break the individual scoring record in Tests.
Sandham went to South Africa with MCC in 1930/31. He broke a bone in his ankle in a motor accident in
Durban
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
in December. It required a small operation and ended his tour after two first-class matches. The Kingston Test was therefore to be Sandham's final match at Test level, and his 325 is by some distance the highest score in a final Test match.
He continued to appear regularly for Surrey for a number of years, scoring 219 against the touring Australians in 1934, a record for a county player against that opposition. He recorded his hundredth first-class hundred in 1935 on a damp pitch at Basingstoke, reaching the milestone with 'a flick behind square'. He made 239 against
Glamorgan as late as June 1937, only a month short of his 47th birthday. He scored 102 in his final match in England, against
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...
at
Hove
Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th ...
, but had an unusual end to his career, playing three games at
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
for Sir TEW Brinkman's XI against
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...
in 1937–38. These matches were designated as first-class, and so he ended with a whimper, not reaching 30 in any of his six innings in South America.
After
the war, Sandham returned to Surrey as coach and delighted in the county's seven successive
County Championship
The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It b ...
titles in the 1950s, later becoming the club's scorer. He died in 1982 in
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
, London. He was a Catholic.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandham, Andy
1890 births
1982 deaths
English cricket coaches
Cricket scorers
England Test cricketers
English cricketers
London Counties cricketers
Surrey cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers
North v South cricketers
Players cricketers
English cricketers of 1919 to 1945
H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers
Players of the South cricketers
Lord Hawke's XI cricketers
C. I. Thornton's XI cricketers
L. H. Tennyson's XI cricket team
A. E. R. Gilligan's XI cricketers
Sir T. E. W. Brinckman's XI cricketers
Marylebone Cricket Club Australian Touring Team cricketers
Marylebone Cricket Club South African Touring Team cricketers