William Harold Ponsford MBE (19 October 1900 – 6 April 1991) was an Australian cricketer. Usually playing as an opening batsman, he formed a successful and long-lived partnership opening the batting for Victoria and Australia with Bill Woodfull, his friend and state and national captain. Ponsford is the only player to twice break the world record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket; Ponsford and Brian Lara are the only cricketers to twice score 400 runs in an innings. Ponsford holds the Australian record for a partnership in Test cricket, set in 1934 in combination with Don Bradman (451 for 2nd wicket)—the man who broke many of Ponsford's other individual records. In fact, he along with Bradman set the record for the highest partnership ever for any wicket in Test cricket history when playing on away soil (451 runs for the second wicket)
Despite being heavily built, Ponsford was quick on his feet and renowned as one of the finest ever players of spin bowling. His bat, much heavier than the norm and nicknamed "Big Bertha", allowed him to drive powerfully and he possessed a strong cut shot. However, critics questioned his ability against fast bowling, and the hostile short-pitched English bowling in the Bodyline series of 1932–33 was a contributing factor in his early retirement from cricket a year and a half later. Ponsford also represented his state and country in baseball, and credited the sport with improving his cricketing skills.
Ponsford was a shy and taciturn man. After retiring from cricket, he went to some lengths to avoid interaction with the public. He spent over three decades working for the Melbourne Cricket Club, where he had some responsibility for the operations of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), the scene of many of his great performances with the bat. In 1981 the Western Stand at the MCG was renamed the W.H. Ponsford Stand in his honour. This stand was demolished in 2003 as part of the redevelopment of the ground for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, but its replacement was also named the W.H. Ponsford Stand. At the completion of the stadium redevelopment in 2005, a statue of Ponsford was installed outside the pavilion gates. In recognition of his contributions as a player, Ponsford was one of the ten initial inductees into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.
The son of William and Elizabeth (née Best) Ponsford, Bill Ponsford was born in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy North on 19 October 1900. His father was a postman whose family had emigrated from Devon, England, to Bendigo, Victoria, to work in the mines during the 1850s gold rush. His mother was also born in the goldfields, at Guildford, before moving to Melbourne with her father, a Crown Lands bailiff. Ponsford grew up on Newry St in Fitzroy North, and attended the nearby Alfred Crescent School, which stood beside the Edinburgh Gardens.
Ponsford learnt the rudiments of cricket from his uncle Cuthbert Best—a former club player for Fitzroy. He had the best batting and bowling averages for his school team in 1913, 1914 and 1915 and eventually rose to the captaincy. His local grade club, Fitzroy, awarded Ponsford a medallion—presented by the local mayor—as the most outstanding cricketer for his school during the 1913–14 and 1914–15 seasons. The medallion was awarded along with an honorary membership of the club, and Ponsford trained enthusiastically, running from school to the nearby Brunswick Street Oval in the Edinburgh Gardens to practise in the nets. Les Cody, the general secretary of Fitzroy Cricket Club and a first-class cricketer with New South Wales and Victoria, was Ponsford's first cricketing role model.
In December 1914, Ponsford completed his schooling and earned a qualifying certificate, which allowed him to continue his education at a high school should he wish. He instead chose to attend a private training college, Hassett's, to study for the Bank Clerk's exam. Ponsford passed the exam and commenced employment with the State Savings Bank at the Elizabeth Street head office in early 1916. In May 1916, the Ponsford family moved to Orrong Road in Elsternwick, a wealthier part of Melbourne. Ponsford played with Fitzroy in a minor league for the remainder of the 1915–16 season, but under the geographical "zoning" rules in place for club cricket, he was required to transfer to St Kilda Cricket Club in the following season.
The First World War and the creation of the First Australian Imperial Force led to a significant shortage of players available for cricket. As a result, Ponsford was called up to make his first-grade debut for St Kilda during the 1916–17 season, just one week before his sixteenth birthday. This match was against his old club Fitzroy, and was played at the familiar Brunswick Street Oval. The young Ponsford's shot-making lacked power, and after making twelve singles, he was bowled. He played ten matches in his first season with the St Kilda First XI and averaged 9.30 runs per innings. By the 1918–19 season, Ponsford topped the club batting averages with an average of 33. He also topped the bowling averages, taking 10 wickets at an average of 16.50 runs per wicket with his leg spin.
Despite failing to score a century for his club side (something he did not rectify until the 1923–24 season), Ponsford was called up to represent Victoria against the visiting England team in February 1921—his first-class cricket debut. His selection was controversial; the leading personality in Victorian cricket and national captain, "The Big Ship" Warwick Armstrong, had been dropped. Armstrong's omission sparked a series of angry public meetings protesting against the perceived persecution of Armstrong by administrators. While making his way to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for the match, Ponsford had to walk through demonstrators carrying placards that denounced his selection at the expense of Armstrong. Without Armstrong, the Victorians were comfortably beaten by Johnny Douglas's English team by seven wickets. Batting down the order, Ponsford made six in the first innings and 19 in the second innings. Later that month, Ponsford made his maiden first-class century, scoring 162 against Tasmania at the NTCA Ground in Launceston, despite batting low in the order, at number eight.
Ponsford was named captain of a Victorian side made of up of promising youngsters, to play against Tasmania at the MCG on 2–5 February 1923. In this, only his third first-class match, Ponsford broke the world record for the highest individual innings score at that level on the final day of the match, scoring 429 runs and batting for nearly eight hours. Along the way, he broke Armstrong's record for the highest score for Victoria (250), before surpassing former England captain Archie MacLaren's world record individual score of 424. The team score of 1,059 was also a new record for a first-class innings—an impromptu paint job was needed to show the score on a board that was not designed to display a four-figure total.
The Governor General of Australia, Lord Forster, visited the dressing rooms after the day's play to congratulate Ponsford personally. Cables from around the world applauded the new record-holder, including one from Frank Woolley, whose 305* was the previous highest score against Tasmania. The former world record holder MacLaren was not so forthcoming. MacLaren thought that the two teams were both short of first-class standard and therefore the record should not be recognised. However, an agreement made in 1908 confirmed that matches against Tasmania should be categorised as first-class matches. An exchange of letters between MacLaren and the Victorian Cricket Association, and speculation over possible political motives followed in the popular press, but the famous Wisden Cricketers' Almanack recognised and published Ponsford's score as the record.
Selected for his first Sheffield Shield match, against South Australia three weeks after his record-breaking innings, Ponsford—still batting down the order, at number five—made 108. The South Australian (and former Australian) captain Clem Hill watched Ponsford bat and commented, "[Ponsford] is young and full of promise; in fact, since Jim Mackay, the brilliant New South Welshman, I think he is the best." In 1923–24 Ponsford continued to score at a heavy rate. Against Queensland in December, he made 248 and shared in a partnership of 456 runs with Edgar Mayne—the highest first wicket partnership by an Australian pair to this day. Later that season, he scored a pair of centuries against arch-rivals New South Wales, accumulating 110 in each innings.