Extraordinary happenings in Yorkshire's division as Kimber makes history
TO a man, woman and child they stood and applauded him back to the pavilion in the sunshine at Hove.
They had just witnessed one of the most remarkable innings that the game had ever seen, one that so nearly took Leicestershire to one of its most extraordinary wins.
Louis Kimber looked downcast and dejected as he made his way off to a guard of honour from the backroom staff of both teams, the Sussex fielders respectfully hanging back to allow him his moment of bittersweet acclaim.
Moments earlier, it was noticeable how they had all rushed not to celebrate victory among themselves, in the way that sides do, especially after close games, but to console Kimber after he was last out dragging on a ball that did not get up.
He had scored, quite astonishingly, 243 runs from 127 deliveries with - mark this figure - 21 sixes (a new English record) to go with 20 fours.
Batting at No 8, the 27-year-old right-hander, who comes from Scunthorpe, had lifted Leicestershire from 144-6 when he arrived at the crease in the third over of day four to a final total of 445 all out in pursuit of 464 for victory.
The performance had irresistible echoes of a similarly incredible happening at Hove in 1911, when Nottinghamshire’s Ted Alletson hit 189 in 90 minutes from the No 9 position, the only century of his first-class career.
So famous was that performance, light years ahead of its time, that John Arlott wrote a celebrated monograph about it entitled, simply, Alletson’s Innings.
Kimber’s innings – unlikely to be so immortalised, perhaps – smashed more records than a vandalised music collection.
Not only was his the fastest Championship double hundred in terms of balls faced, reached from just 100 deliveries, but his 21 sixes eclipsed Ben Stokes’s English record of 17, for Durham against Worcestershire at New Road two summers ago.
Two of Kimber’s sixes came during a remarkable over in which he struck Ollie Robinson, the England pace bowler, for 37 runs which, allied to three no balls, meant that 43 came off the over in total, a world record in circumstances not contrived.
As with Alletson, Kimber’s first-class record was otherwise unremarkable; prior to the game, he had managed only one first-class hundred (also at Hove) and averaged below 25.
Thanks to the wonder of live streams, the digital equivalent of sliced bread, cricket enthusiasts were able to follow Kimber’s heroics from the comfort of their devices.
At one stage, the Sussex live stream sneaked into five figures - not bad for a competition derided for its stereotypical audience of one man and his dog.
They could have done with a few dogs, in fact, at the 1st Central County Ground to retrieve all the balls that Kimber lost - primarily during a morning session in which he plundered 191 from 92 deliveries, another English record.
Ultimately, Leicestershire’s 18-run defeat left them fourth in the table, 36 points behind leaders Sussex, with Yorkshire 33 adrift in third after their three-day triumph over Gloucestershire at Scarborough.