Alec Bannerman

Alick Bannerman

Bannerman, circa 1880
Personal information
Full name	Alexander Chalmers Bannerman
Born	(1854-03-21)21 March 1854 Paddington, New South Wales
Died	19 September 1924(1924-09-19) (aged 70) Paddington, New South Wales
Nickname	Little Alec
Batting style	Right hand bat
Bowling style	Round arm right arm medium
Role	Batsman
Relations	Charles Bannerman (brother)
International information
National side	Australia
Test debut (cap 16)	2 January 1879 v England
Last Test	24 August 1893 v England
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1876–1894	New South Wales
Career statistics
Competition Tests First-class Matches 28 219 Runs scored 1,108 7,816 Batting average 23.08 22.14 100s/50s 0/8 5/30 Top score 94 134 Balls bowled 292 1,295 Wickets 4 22 Bowling average 40.75 29.81 5 wickets in innings 0 0 10 wickets in match 0 0 Best bowling 3/111 3/12 Catches/stumpings 21/– 154/–
Source: ESPN Cricinfo, 20 November 2016

Alexander (usually "Alick"; also "Alec") Chalmers Bannerman (21 March 1854 in Sydney, New South Wales - 19 September 1924 in Sydney) was an Australian cricketer who played in 28 Tests between 1879 and 1893.

Bannerman made his Test debut at Melbourne in 1879, joining brother Charles, his senior by eight years, in the Australian team. "Little Alick" was a small man, his lack of size matched only by his frequent lack of run-scoring. Whereas Charles was an attacking stroke-maker, Alick was ultra-defensive, almost strokeless at times. His nickname, in contrast to that of his brother (the "Pocket Hurcules"), was "Barn Door".

A.G. Moyes provides this piece of Bannerman imagery in Australian Batsmen: "At times the crowd found him as wearisome to the flesh as fleas in a warm bed." Wisden Cricketers' Almanack dubbed him "the most famous of all stone-walling batsmen; his patience was inexhaustible."

In his first Test, Alick top-scored (as Charles had memorably done on his debut in 1876/77, hitting 165) with 73.

Alick went to England in 1878 and 1880 as much for his ability in the field as for his batting. He excelled at mid-off, "fast, sure, and untiring, and a wonderfully safe catch," according to Sydney Pardon. In the one hastily arranged Test Match played at the Oval that year (the first ever on British soil), he took Charles's place as Australian opener and scored the first Test run in England, just as the older Bannerman brother had taken the first (off Alfred Shaw) in Australia almost four years before.

In the 28 Tests that Bannerman played from then until 1893, he scored 1,108 runs at an average of 23.03, without ever scoring a hundred. He often found his steady defence coupled at the top of the order with the almost all-out aggression of such partners as Hugh Massie, George Bonnor, Percy McDonnell and J.J. Lyons. With the last-mentioned at Sydney in the 1891/92 Ashes series, Bannerman played a crucial role in securing the Test (and thus the series) for Australia, which had trailed on the first innings by 163 runs. In the home team's second innings, Lyons and Bannerman put on 174 for the first wicket in 7½ hours, scoring 134 and 91 respectively. Bannerman's knock spanned three days, scoring at a rate of twelve runs an hour. As the bowlers of his time bowled almost twice the number of overs in an hour that they do now, his cumbersome scoring is astonishing. The admittedly accurate William Attewell bowled 204 balls to him during this innings, only five of which brought runs. The frustrated crowd was moved to barracking (the polite sort: they always referred to him as "Good old Alick") and one poet to verse: