Just as the all-time English XI could not take the field without WG Grace - who only scored two test centuries - Leslie Balfour-Melville, with a top score for Scotland of 91, would have to be in any all-time Scottish eleven. Here we are back at the dawn of Scottish representative cricket. 1865 saw the first "international" match (against Surrey). This title may be a little tenuous, but in fact the very first "Test Match" between England & Australia in 1876/77 was not really recognised as having such a distinction until many years later.

Leslie Balfour first took the field for Scotland in 1874, at the age of 20; but even before that, when only 17 and still at school, he top scored in a match between a Scotland XXII and the All-England XI - his score being 14! He batted for an hour against such bowlers as Shaw and Tom Emmett, and so impressed George Parr, the manager of the All-England XI, that he was invited to play for his team, in their next match at Perth. As he was still as school he was compelled to decline this invitation!

Balfour (as he then was) actually first made his mark in the previous decade. In the mid-sixties, a little boy in a kilt was called up to fill a vacant place in the Free Foresters XI, who were playing against the Grange. Batting last, he carried his bat, and was promoted in his side's second innings. His performance so impressed the visitors that he was invited to play for the Foresters in later years. We really are in the mists of cricket history here and the years of Balfour's career saw Scottish cricket change from being a game with thin roots mainly in Edinburgh and Glasgow to spread wider and deeper, reaching somewhere into the national psyche. Coming from the main base of cricket, the Grange Club, it would probably be fair to see Balfour as very much an "establishment" man.

To round off a career in which he was seen as the batsman of his time in Scotland, he became the first President of the reformed SCU in 1909, and returned, after a 16-year gap, to captain his country against Ireland that year and again in 1910. At the age of 55, he top-scored with his international best of 91. Recent Presidents might like to consider how they might like to return to the field of play and make a similar impact!

Balfour's cricket achievements are lengthy, especially when considering the evolutionary state of the game which existed during most of his career. He still managed no less than 46 centuries for Grange, MCC, Free Foresters and several other sides. Amongst many exceptional scores were an innings of 150 for Edinburgh against Glasgow in the first match ever played at Grange's new ground in Raeburn Place in 1872 , 73 in a one-day victory over the 1882 Australians, 207 versus Drumpellier in 1893, and fifteen years later another 200, this time for the exotically-named Glamis Castle against Arbroath United.

As the years rolled by, Balfour's achievements kept coming. Wisden, in 1888, says that "the most successful batsman in Scotland is undoubtedly Mr L.M. Balfour of the Grange; Mr Balfour has a dashing style and hits with vigour all round, besides being an excellent manager of a team and a good wicketkeeper. He scored 470 runs in 9 innings at an average of 58.6" In 1903 he top scored in six consecutive innings - 145*, 108, 103,100, 76 and 35-can there be any doubt he was a very special batsman?

In 1893, Leslie Melville Balfour had changed his name to Balfour-Melville - after his father inherited the estate of Mount Melville near St Andrews. Balfour was also closely related to Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson - of literary fame - RLS's grandfather being the Rev Louis Balfour of Colinton, brother of James Balfour of Pilrig, who was Leslie Balfour's own grandfather. It is not easy to compare performances from long ago, especially when the structure of the game and levels of opposition were less formal than they are now.

Balfour-Melville's play was said to be adventurous against the Australians of 1882, and he once smote the first ball he received from F R Spofforth (the demon) straight back into the pavilion at Scarborough. He was always a fast scorer; of medium height, strongly built with an exceptionally powerful forearm and wrist, and marvellous eye. His particular favourite shots were the cut and the pull. In his younger days, he would hit the ball just short of a length on the off over third man's head, almost out of the ground, making an upward stroke with a vertical bat - but he gave this up in later years as too dangerous. It will be no surprise to hear that the attendance of spectators often depended on whether he had been announced to play.

For twenty years, he was said to be a wicketkeeper with few rivals in Scotland and these skills were still in evidence in his 70th year, when two stumpings and a catch demonstrated his talents to a new generation of Edinburgh Academy schoolboys. Leslie Balfour-Melville was a remarkable cricketer and perhaps the reference to W G Grace is not too far-fetched. Even this, however is overshadowed by his prowess at so many other sports.

Imagine a Stephen Hendry, who could run like Andy Irvine, hit a tennis ball like Tim Henman, and play a round of golf as Henry Cotton. These are the kind of abilities which Leslie Balfour-Melville had. His 36-year cricket career has been described above, but he would have turned out in the very first rugby international in 1871, had he not had the unusual experience of being bitten by a dog! He did play in the following year - appropriately at the Oval when still only 18, and later became President of the SRU. In tennis, billiards and the long jump, he was Scottish champion, and in golf he won the amateur championship in 1895. He also played in the first golf international (Scotland v England, of course) in 1902. Moreover, he gained 31 medals at the Royal & Ancient Golf Club and once he broke the hole in one barrier at the age of 70, he actually repeated the feat 4 more times. This was no ordinary sportsman!

It is with something akin to spellbound admiration that I list the achievements of the supreme all-rounder of Scottish sport. The very name Balfour recalls the hero of Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped. His claim is not based on the record book alone, but also on a special aura and unique legacy. Even in death his memorial can be found in a memorable place, as he is buried in Greyfriars' Churchyard, made famous by the story of Greyfriars bobby.

This article first appeared in the book Saltire & Flannels by Fraser Simm. This title, and Echoes of a Summer Game, also by Fraser Simm, are available for online purchase in the Cricket Scotland Shop.