Frank Henderson and Arthur Allsopp racked up some huge scores during the age of Bradman

On New Year’s Day in 1930, a young man from a region with a reputation for sporting greatness recorded what is still the highest individual innings in Australian country cricket.

Frank Henderson hit an unbeaten 416 for Leeton at Narandera and held the record for the most runs by a player in NSW in any form of cricket … for less than a week. Just five days later, his feat was eclipsed by the incomparable Donald Bradman who blasted a then-world record for first-class matches of 452 not out for NSW against Queensland at the SCG.

Bradman, of course, hailed from Cootamundra in the Riverina – an area that has produced, among others, Richie Benaud, Geoffrey Lawson and Michael Slater (Wagga Wagga), Yenda twins Alex and Kate Blackwell as well as former Australia captain Mark Taylor.

Taylor was born in 1964 at Leeton, where just over three decades earlier Henderson and Arthur Allsopp grabbed the headlines.

Bradman, Allsopp and Henderson all saw their first light of day in 1908. They were drawn together by their skill with bat in hand despite their vastly different circumstances. This was a golden age for cricket in this small irrigation community. They were eye-watering efforts that, 90 years on, have stood the test of time.

In the weeks preceding Henderson’s feat, Allsopp cracked 155 not out for NSW Colts against Queensland. Playing for Yanco’s Riverina Welfare Farm (where he worked as a junior instructor with wayward boys), he had knocks of 111, then a town competition record 269 not out, followed by 237.

In the middle of that, he carved out a fine 117 in his first-class debut for NSW against the touring MCC at the SCG. He also registered 90 as Leeton beat Wagga Wagga to claim the prestigious O’Farrell Cup in front of 2000 spectators at the Wagga Wagga Cricket Ground, where Bradman would compile 130 retired in 1931 for Alan Kippax’s Touring Team.

When Allsopp was run out, Leeton were 7-126 and no other batsman had made double figures, prompting the Wagga Wagga newspaper The Daily Advertiser to comment: “He is a very clever wielder of the willow, and but for him the Leeton team would have made a very poor showing.”

The next day, in Leeton’s The Murrumbidgee Irrigator, a poem entitled The Leeton Batting Star, chronicled Allsopp thus:

“With eye as clear as an eagle’s and with arms that were strong to drive,
He knocked up his scores to the crowd’s applause and kept the game alive;
Piling run on run in his easy way, his colleagues thrilled with joy,
And someone was telling the world by air of the fame of a Leeton boy.”

So impressed were townsfolk with Allsopp’s rising fame, they were raising enough threepences and sixpences to complement expected gate takings in order to fly him back in a Gypsy Moth from a trial in Sydney for him to play in a representative challenge match at Leeton. Indeed, Allsopp was the talk of the town and beyond … but Henderson would soon grab the glory – at least for a short while.

Henderson was no stranger to large scores, having whacked 384 in a practice match just before his quadruple century. He also had an unbeaten 305 at Gosford to his name. When 1930 kicked off, he didn’t hold back. His team had been set 154 for victory, Henderson having taken 2-18 as an opening bowler and holding a catch in Narandera’s innings.

Coming in at first drop, Henderson batted for two-and-a-half hours for his 416 not out, which included 11 sixes and 53 fours. At one stage he whacked 86 in a three-over frenzy. Leeton finished with 9-548. Remarkably, the next highest scorer made just 33.

At the time, Henderson’s tally was the 14th highest score in the world, the eighth best in Australia and passed the previous bush mark of 408 set by Tom Patton who, batting with Norman Rippon, put on 641 for the third wicket for Buffalo River in north-east Victoria in 1913-14.

Henderson was at it again a week later, making 52 and 80 (retired hurt) in club cricket; a sprained ankle ending his innings and the chance to play the return O’Farrell Cup match against Wagga Wagga.

Meanwhile, Allsopp was making the most of his chances for NSW in the Sheffield Shield, racking up 66 and sharing a 180-run sixth-wicket stand with Bradman when The Don blazed his unconquered 452. Allsopp, also a talented wicketkeeper, then scored 136 against South Australia at the SCG and 65 in a rain-shortened draw with Victoria at the same venue.

It wasn’t enough, however, to earn him a spot in the 15-strong Ashes squad for the famous 1930 tour of England. This led the Irrigator, under the heading “Allsopp out – selectors’ blunder – Leeton sadly disappointed”, to lament: “You could have heard a pin drop in Leeton yesterday afternoon when the selected Test team was announced over the wireless. The selectors … had made a bad blunder in including (Charlie) Walker ahead of Allsopp, was the general consensus of opinion.”

He went on to play a total of 21 first-class matches, striking five hundreds in 34 innings for an average of 45.9. He also played for Victoria and, against Tasmania, became the first man to make a hundred on debut for two states.

Henderson had already played first-class cricket by the time he arrived at Leeton, scoring 40 against Tasmania in Hobart in February 1929. The month after his mammoth knock, he teamed up with Allsopp against Tasmania at the SCG.

Allsopp was out early but, as The Sydney Morning Herald reported: “Henderson began to drive and pull immediately [after] he entered. He was only 37 minutes reaching 50. He is an accomplished batsman, a stylist with sound defence. Some of his forcing shots when playing back were effected with exceptional strength. His footwork is excellent. Henderson reached 100 in 131 minutes (12 fours) before being bowled. His innings warrants the belief that he will make his mark in Shield games.”

NSW amassed 477 and dismissed Tasmania for 119 and 96 to win by an innings and 262 runs. Aged just 21, it proved to be Henderson’s final first-class appearance. With so many greats of the game in full flight – NSW alone boasted Bradman, Archie Jackson, Kippax and Stan McCabe – it was hard to get a look in.

Allsopp and Henderson both served their country in World War II. Sadly, Henderson passed away after a long illness aged just 46, in Melbourne’s Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital on December 6, 1954. Allsopp died on February 6, 1993, aged 84, with Wisden describing how this likeable man, despite “a deprived childhood”, had made good; his cricketing days ended only by a bout of enteric (typhoid) fever on Frank Tarrant’s tour of India in 1935-36.

Leeton cricket flourished despite the Great Depression with competitions on a Wednesday and Saturday – a far cry from today, with the town struggling to find enough players to fill four senior teams.

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“Oddly enough, COVID-19 has helped in one way because it meant we gained an extra club – Leeton Soldiers Club Colts – made up of the young ones who would in normal times be away at university,” Leeton Cricket Association chairman Matt Curry said. “They were home, wanted to play so got together to form a team.”

As the competition heads into 2021, Colts are top of the ladder. To keep interest alive, the format is now all one-day fixtures, either 35 overs each or Twenty 20, ensuring Allsopp’s competition record of 269 not out is not likely to fall any time soon. As for Henderson’s 416 not out … good luck to any bush Bradman trying to overhaul that one.

Michael McCormack is Deputy Prime Minister, Leader of The Nationals, Member for Riverina and still plays the occasional 4th grade game in Wagga Wagga.