TIME	PLAYER	SCORE	MATCH	PLACE	SEASON
58	JH Sinclair	(104)	SA v Aus	Cape Town	1902-03
70	JM Gregory	(121)	Aus v SA	Johannesburg	1921-22
75	GL Jessop	(104)	Eng v Aus	The Oval	1902

On 10th November 1902 Jimmy Sinclair scored 104 runs for South Africa against Australia. He reached his hundred in 58/ c 60 minutes and is therefore, in my opinion, the present World Record holder.

Almost all record books published since the early 1950s claim Sinclair's time for reaching his century was 80 minutes, a time which I think should be ignored. Cricinfo website and the Wisden company were told of the facts below in 1999 but, as far as I am aware, continue to support the apparently baseless "80 minutes" claim.

The evidence for it appears to be notes written in about 1951, or almost 50 years after the event.

No source of evidence for such a claim is given in those notes. Despite numerous requests by me to those who support 80 minutes, none of them have ever been able to offer a single document or report to back the claim.

By the way, it should also be noted that the 1951 notes do not actually give a precise time - the direct quote from them is approximately 80 minutes.

Sometimes I am told by such people that the writer of the notes, Mr Curnow, used contemporary newspapers published in Cape Town for his information. I don't see how that can be true. The only two English-language daily papers published in Cape Town at the time are quoted below and as you can see they support my claim for Sinclair to be recognised as the record holder. Curnow's notes also claim Sinclair had scored 44 runs after 52 minutes at the crease.

How come the 80 minutes supporters never seem to have challenged the listing of Sinclair's 50 in 35 minutes in those same reference works?

If you have or know of any evidence, and I mean evidence - not unsourced speculation - then I'd be very interested to hear about it. In the meantime...

My belief that 58 minutes is correct is based on reports in at least three South African newspapers, all published within hours of the innings being played. The Cape Argus printed a special evening stumps edition, and the morning editions of The Cape Times and the Rand Daily Mail carried reviews of the previous day's play. All of them state Sinclair had reached his century in "58 minutes" or "about an hour."

The evidence is as follows:

from Cape Argus (evening newspaper, Cape Town) 10th November 1902 in a special stumps edition:
�The trees were now casting lengthy shadows over the pitch, the bowling crossing two distinct shadows, but waiting his time, Sinclair drove the third ball hard to long on and two were run. The whole crowd rose as one man, and cheered the grand feat again and again, this being the third century he had made against the Australians during the present tour.
�Hathorn got a neat single, and Sinclair late cut Saunders for 2, but two balls later his grand innings was prematurely closed, as in attempting to drive Saunders he was grandly stumped by Kelly for 104. To say it was good cricket would be superfluous; it was magnificent, and such hitting in such an important match has never been equalled at Newlands. In his innings there were six 6s and eight 4s, and his runs were made in 58 minutes, which shows he was no laggard with the bat.�

from Cape Times (morning newspaper, Cape Town) 11th November 1902:
�Then Sinclair drove Howell wide of mid-on for 2, reaching the coveted century. As soon as the public became aware the great hitter had effected this, and scored his third century against the Australians, they cheered him again and again. A single to Hathorn was followed by Sinclair cutting the bowler for a couple, but he failed in his attempt to jump out and drive him three balls later, and was stumped by Kelly. 216-6-104. Sinclair played grand, superb cricket, giving an exhibition of hard, clean hitting, such as has never been seen at Newlands before, certainly not in a fixture such as the one under notice. He was only batting just over an hour. He made all the bowling look simple, and his figures included six 6s and eight 4s.�

from Rand Daily Mail (morning newspaper, Johannesburg) 11th November 1902:
�Saunders now took the ball from Hopkins, and Sinclair got his first ball to leg for 3. Hathorn followed it up by getting the same bowler to the ropes. Fast scoring continued until the last ball sent down in the afternoon, when Sinclair was stumped for 104, the total standing at 216 for six wickets. Hathorn not out 15. In Sinclair�s innings there were six 6s and eight 4s, and all the runs were made in 58 minutes.�

Staff at the Internet site CRICINFO used the book as an initial source to add all known hits for six to the Test scorecards loaded on their database, and to create career tallies for leading hitters on their statistics pages. The continual work of statisticians and researchers around the world to update the 6-hitters list is much appreciated.