This year marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most extraordinary feats in Cup Match history.

In 1974, St George’s pair Rupert Scotland and Lee Raynor produced an unbroken 229-run sixth-wicket partnership at Somerset Cricket Club — the highest partnership for any wicket. It is a record that has yet to be surpassed.

The late Scotland led the way with an unbeaten 120, with Raynor holding his end of the bargain with an even 100 that was achieved moments before St George’s declared their first innings at 360 for five — their highest total at the time — after being inserted by Joe Bailey, the Somerset captain.

Scotland’s century included 13 fours and arrived in 199 minutes, while Raynor’s came in 234 minutes and included 68 singles. It was the first time in Cup Match that two batsmen had scored hundreds together at the crease.

But it almost never happened, as Scotland was dropped at mid-off on 69 by Wendell Simmons, who was a colt in the match, off the bowling of Bergon Spencer.

Recalling the marathon stand, Raynor said: “It was fun batting with Rupert and there was no pressure on us. The runs were flowing and we had good chemistry reading one another.

“The ball was coming on to the bat nicely and, after a while, everything was easy and we were locked in. Scotland was in full cry, which made batting really easy for me. I was grafting and he was in full flow.

“I did not even realise how big the partnership was because we were in another world and were having fun. We never thought of the partnership.

“It was just a joy the score we put up and it did not even come to my mind about the record until I learnt later on it was the biggest partnership in Cup Match. I knew we had a nice partnership together, but did not think it was that big and I only learnt about the record from the paper.”

Scotland, who passed away two years ago at age 75, bowed out of Cup Match in 1978 with 736 runs, which included two centuries, and an average of 30.67. He is the only Cup Match batsman to score a century on concrete and turf batting tracks and the first non-Bermudian to make a hundred in the classic.

Raynor, who had the distinction of opening the batting and bowling for St George’s, retired from Cup Match a year earlier with 515 runs and 35 wickets under his belt.

His century in the drawn 1974 Cup Match proved to be his best innings in the classic.

“It was like a dream, really,” said Raynor, whose late elder brother Sheridan captained Somerset in Cup Match. “I was in a zone and can only remember about three shots that I made in that hundred. It was as if I was almost hypnotised.

“I was there batting with Rupert and having fun and, all of a sudden, I made this cover drive and the ball went over to the scoreboard and the crowd roared. I looked up at the scoreboard and I was on 96. I was in like a different zone the whole time and those last four runs I needed to make a century seemed like 40.

“I was on 98 and Winston “Coe” Trott was bowling and I drove him into the covers and Joe Bailey fielded the ball and I thought I was only going to get a single. But when Scotland ran past me real quick, I felt he wanted the two and so we hustled through for another run and I reached my century.”

Raynor’s hundred arrived three years after Sheridan scored 109, the first Cup Match century on turf, also at Somerset Cricket Club.

Raynor has a lot of respect and admiration for Scotland, who moved to Bermuda from Antigua in 1959 and was offered trials with Warwickshire, the English county side, after impressing on tour with Bermuda a year later.

“Rupert was a treat to watch and to play with,” he said. “Rupert was a brutal batsman. He would sweep and cut, while I like to think of myself as more scientific.

“He was powerful, very colourful and he was no slugger. Rupert was a hard hitter of the ball, but he kept it on the ground.

“If he had to hit the ball out of the ground, it would be professional the way he would do it.”

In reply to St George’s first-innings total, Somerset piled up 529, which remains the highest total achieved in Cup Match.