A. E. J. Collins
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Arthur Edward Jeune (James) Collins ( 18 August 1885– 11 November 1914), typically known by his initials AEJ Collins, was an English cricketer and soldier. He is most famous for achieving the highest-ever recorded score in cricket: as a 13-year-old schoolboy, he scored 628 not out over four afternoons in June 1899. Collins' record-making innings drew a large crowd and increasing media interest; spectators at the Old Cliftonian match being played nearby were drawn away to watch a junior school house cricket match.
Collins joined the British Army in 1902. He studied at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, before becoming an officer in the Royal Engineers. He served in France during World War I, where he was killed in action in 1914.
Early life and education
Collins was born in Hazaribagh, India, to Arthur Herbert Collins, a judge in the Indian Civil Service, and Mrs Esther Ida Collins. Both of his parents had died by the time he began his education at Clifton College, Bristol, where he held a scholarship.
He joined Clifton College in September 1897, becoming a member of Clark's House, although he later moved to North Town house. He was an excellent sportsman, being in the football XI (eleven being the number of players in the team), the rugby XV, and the cricket XI, and he represented the school in the racquets pair in 1902 with R. P. Keigwin. He won a bronze medal for boxing at Aldershot in 1901, along with E. A. Hughes and H. P. Hewett.
Tim Rice, in an article for the Electronic Telegraph on 9 June 1999 to celebrate the centenary of the score, entitled "On the seventh day AEJ Collins rested", described him thus:
| He was an orphan whose guardians lived in Tavistock, Devon. He was a reserved boy, short and stockily built, fair-haired and pale. He was remembered by contemporaries as one who led by example, rather than by inspiration, although paradoxically he was regarded as likely to fall short of the highest standards as a cricketer because of his recklessness at the crease. |
The famous match
In 1899, whilst a 13-year-old schoolboy, Collins scored the highest ever recorded cricket score of 628 not out. This feat took place during a junior school house cricket match between Clarke's House and North Town house. The match was played on an outfield off Guthrie Road, Bristol, now named Collins' Piece. The ground had both a poor surface and a very unusual shape: it was very short (only 60 yards long), with a wall only 70 yards away forming the boundary on one side, while the other side was a gentle slope falling away towards the school sanatorium in the distance. All hits to the long boundary, down the slope, had to be all-run, but the three short boundaries only counted for two runs.
On Thursday, 22 June, Collins, a right-handed batsman, won the toss for Clarke's House and chose to bat first. Collins hit his first stroke at 3.30 p.m. By the close of play at 6 p.m., he had scored 200 runs.
School lessons allowed another two-and-a-half hours' play on Friday, 23 June, and by then news of an exceptional innings had gone round the school. So brilliant was his play that even an Old Cliftonian match being played nearby lost its interest and a large crowd watched Collins' phenomenal performance. Collins' innings almost ended at 400 when an easy catch was dropped, but at around 5.30 p.m. – only some five hours after he started – he overtook Andrew Stoddart's then world-record score of 485 to rapturous applause. At the end of the second day, he remained unbeaten on 509.
The match resumed on Monday, 26 June, at 12.30 p.m., but the school authorities extended the hours available for play in a bid to speed the end of the match. As the crowds continued to grow and media interest escalated, the disruption to school life was considerable. Collins played his part: his approach was described as "downright reckless" as he hit out, and he was dropped twice more when on 605 and 619. By the end of the day, Collins had reached 598 but he was rapidly running out of partners. On Tuesday, 27 June, after just 25 minutes' play, Collins lost his final partner, Thomas Redfern, caught by Victor Fuller-Eberle at point for 13, with Collins' score on 628. Collins had played less than seven hours' cricket, carrying his bat through his side's innings.
North Town house, demoralised, were bowled out for 87 in 90 minutes on Tuesday. The match resumed on Wednesday 28 June, when North Town's second innings went even worse, making 61 in just over an hour, so Clarke House won by an innings and 688 runs. Collins showed some ability as an all-rounder, with his right-arm medium pace bowling taking 11 wickets for 63 runs.
The scorebook hangs in the pavilion at Clifton to this day. The scorers faced a difficult task in accurately recording the innings. One of them, Edward Peglar, is said to have remarked that Collins's score was "628, plus or minus twenty shall we say". The other scorer for the match was JW Hall, whose father in 1868 had batted with Edward Tylecote, who later played Test cricket for England and whose name is on a poem kept with the Ashes urn, when Tylecote had set an early world-record score of 404 not out, also at Clifton.
Collins became public property for a long while after the match, forever associated with his great score. "Today all men speak of him," wrote one newspaper, "... he has a reputation as great as the most advertised soap: he will be immortalised." After leaving school, he never wanted to be reminded of his famous innings; nevertheless, he has been remembered well beyond his own lifetime.
The full scorecard is available here.
Military career
Collins chose to follow an army career, passing his entrance exams to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in September 1901 and representing the Royal Military Academy at both football and rugby. He joined the British Army the following year, being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. Despite the limitations on his sport that the military service caused, he played at Lord's, scoring 58 and 36 runs in the two innings. He also joined Clifton Rugby Football Club in February 1905, but never rose above the 2nd XV. He served with the 2nd Sappers and Miners in India, and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1907.
He married Ethel Slater in the spring of 1914, and was sent to France when World War I broke out later that year. He was killed in action, as a Captain, on 11 November 1914 at the First Battle of Ypres, while serving with the 5th Field Company, Royal Engineers, at the age of 29. His body was never found, but his name is recorded at the Menin Gate Memorial in Belgium. Before his death, he had been Mentioned in Dispatches. His younger brother Herbert (also an old Cliftonian) was killed in action on 11 February 1917.