a quarter to four
* * * * * Three hundred is a score that takes some making on any ground , but on a fine day it was not an unusual total for the Wrykyn eleven . Some years before , against Ripton , they had run up four hundred and sixteen ; and only last season had massacred a very weak team of Old Wrykynians with a score that only just missed the fourth hundred . Unfortunately , on the present occasion , there was scarcely time , unless the bowling happened to get completely collared , to make the runs . It was a quarter to four when the innings began , and stumps were to be drawn at a quarter to seven . A hundred an hour is quick work . Burgess , however , was optimistic , as usual . `` Better have a go for them , '' he said to Berridge and Marsh , the school first pair .