who scored most centuries in first class cricket
Jack Hobbs
title: Century (cricket) text: partnership when they made 128 for the first wicket against Surrey at Broadhalfpenny Down in September 1769. W. G. Grace was the first batsman to score 100 career centuries in first-class cricket, reaching the milestone in 1895. His career total of 124 centuries was subsequently passed by Jack Hobbs, whose total of 199 first-class centuries is the current record. The first century in Test cricket was scored by Charles Bannerman who scored 165 (before retiring hurt) in the first ever Test between Australia and England (played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from 15–19 March 1877). The first century partnership in title: W. G. Grace text: Grace's obituary in the 1916 edition of "Wisden Cricketers' Almanack". These figures came to be known as Grace's "traditional" career record and granted him 126 first-class centuries, a total beaten by Jack Hobbs in 1925; it was not until Roy Webber's researches in the 1950s that Ashley-Cooper's list was challenged. Following further research by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) in the 1970s and 1980s, an "amended" career record was published which reduced Grace's total of centuries to 124. This was challenged, for historical reasons, by "Wisden" in 1983 and the current situation re this controversy is that title: Graeme Hick text: three players to have passed 20,000 runs in List A cricket (Graham Gooch and Sachin Tendulkar are the others) and is one of only twenty-five players to have scored 100 centuries in first-class cricket. He is the only cricketer who scored first-class triple hundreds in three different decades (1988, 1997 and 2002). He is the second highest run scorer of all time after Graham Gooch. Despite these achievements, he is commonly held to have underachieved in international cricket, a view based on comparison of Hick's overall first-class batting average of 52.23 "vis-à-vis" his Test average of 31.32. At one time title: Glenn Turner text: Dame Sukhi Turner, whom he met while touring India in 1969, is a former mayor of Dunedin. Turner made his mark on the first-class cricket scene, particularly with Worcestershire in the English county championship. In all, he played 455 first-class matches, amassing 34,346 runs at 49.70, including 103 centuries—making him one of a select few to score a "century of centuries", one of only four non-English cricketers to do so (the others being Donald Bradman, Zaheer Abbas and Viv Richards). Turner also coached the New Zealand side twice—once in the mid-1980s, when he presided over the team's first and (to title: Century (cricket) text: India in 2013. Centuries were uncommon until the late 19th century because of the difficulties in batting on pitches that had only rudimentary preparation and were fully exposed to the elements. There is doubt about the earliest known century, but the most definite claim belongs to John Minshull who scored 107 for the Duke of Dorset's XI v Wrotham at Sevenoaks Vine on 31 August 1769. This was a minor match. The first definite century in a top-class match was scored by John Small when he made 136 for Hampshire v Surrey at Broadhalfpenny Down in July 1775. The earliest