At 11.35am on August 13, 1902, the third and last day of the Oval Test, Australia set England 263 to win on a pitch made awkward by overnight rain and a heavy dew. When Gilbert Jessop came in England were 48 for 5. He took a single off his first ball and scored off the next four; 15 runs came off the next two overs, though Jessop was proud of his caution since he tamed his habit of smashing Hugh Trumble across the line to midwicket. At 22 he survived a good stumping chance and was 29 at lunch. England were 87 for 5 – 176 to win.

The wicket was easier after the interval. He and FS Jackson ran a five to the Vauxhall End (sixes were hits out of the ground; our contemporary six was just another four). Jessop reached his 50 out of 70 in 43 minutes, at which point in the innings he went on to a serious offensive, taking 17 off an over from Jack Saunders. Now Jessop was "going like a steam engine". Saunders came off and Trumble was treated with no less disrespect.

Jackson was then out having put on 109 for the sixth wicket in 67 minutes. A four into the awning of the pavilion took Jessop to 96 and his hundred came up with a cut to the boundary off Warwick Armstrong. It had taken 75 minutes precisely, the fastest hundred in Ashes history, which it still is. One more boundary and he top-edged a sweep and was caught by Monty Noble off Armstrong for 104 out of 139 in 77 minutes.

He hit one five, 17 fours, 2 threes, 4 twos and 17 singles, scoring off 41 of the 80 balls he received. England still needed 76 to win and got them after much angst with only one wicket to spare. (George Hirst and Wildred Rhodes putting on 15 for the last wicket, not all of them in singles.) Without Jessop's hundred, they would not have had a chance. The 1903 Wisden said: "All things considered a more astonishing display has never been seen."

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