Celebrating the Centurions

Dunedin-born Glenn Turner, one of ten living batsmen to have achieved 100 first-class centuries, was honoured at London’s Hilton Hotel, where Turner’s bat, amongst other memorabilia, was auctioned for charity with a bid of NZ$13,937. The bat helped him to 311 against Warwickshire and membership of the exclusive club of legendary cricketers. “Initially, Turner was as single-minded a run collector as Geoff Boycott,” writes Bill Frindall of the English cricket charity Lord’s Taverners, “but thanks to skills honed in limited-overs cricket, he blossomed into a fast-scoring strokemaker who scored 1,018 runs before June in 1973.” The Lord’s Taverners are calling them ‘The Centurions – the world’s greatest run-makers’. Turner represented New Zealand in 41 Tests.