On May 6, 1922 Jennings Tune took 10 wickets without conceding a run. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at arguably the greatest bowling feat in the any recorded cricket match.

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When you come across the name Jennings Tune, the first impression that possibly comes across your mind is that of Orpheus, enchanting the nature and souls all over with the melancholy enchantment of his lyre.

Even if he was a mortal, he would probably have been a painter sitting idly on the bank of the Seine, looking dreamily for a subject. And if he had to be a cricketer, he should have been a wristy, elegant batsman. The image of a destructive bowler seldom crosses one’s mind.

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Tune would go on to change all such notion in a Howden and District match in Yorkshire. The Eastrington team did not possibly expect for anything so dramatic to happen when Cliffe began their bowling. In a span of 5 overs Tune picked up all 10 wickets — without conceding a single run.

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Though it was rare, Tune certainly was not the first one to achieve this. A Dartnell had taken 10 for nought playing for Broad Green against Thornton Heath in as early as 1867, and since then eight others have managed to do the same before Tune.

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In fact, Tune was not the only one to do it that season. EA Barker replicated the feat in the same season, playing for Watford against Stonford. In all 24 cricketers have taken 10 for 0 in all cricket. The last one, as the article is being written, was David Morton, for Bayside Muddies against Ranatungas (interesting name, is it not?) at Brisbane in 1998-99; the one before him was the Australian schoolgirl Emma Liddell, for Metropolitan East against Metropolitan West at Penrith in 1995-96: Liddell later played 3 Tests and 33 ODIs for Australia Women.

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What made Tune’s feat so special, then?

 

According to the Bill Frindall, “I know of one instance in minor cricket of a bowler taking all 10 wickets, all bowled, for no runs. This astonishing feat was achieved in just five overs by Jennings Tune on 6 May 1922 in a home Howden and District League match for Cliffe (in Yorkshire) against Eastrington.”

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It was the ultimate dream for a bowler. Ten wickets, all bowled and not a single run conceded — that too in five overs! Almost all of us have grown up nourishing such dreams in our childhood. Tune had managed to achieve something that has been every schoolboy’s ultimate dream, and has etched his name permanently in the annals of the sport forever.

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Some Sandy fine-Tuning

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‘Sandy’ Jacques was a former Yorkshire cricketer, who had famously never been on the losing side in his 30-match First-Class career. He passed away in 1995, and is generally forgotten. However, before his death, he had managed to do something special for Tune: he made sure Tune’s name made it to The Guinness Book of World Records.

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