By the time the match was over, he had achieved what was then a unique place in sporting history, with a performance which proved to be the high point of a brief career which came and went like a comet.

In fact, 1972 was a year of some remarkable first performances in international sport.

Many others also launched themselves with a flash, and then departed with equal rapidity.

The year began with a remarkable batting performance at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica. 

Jamaican Lawrence Rowe struck a double century for the West Indies against New Zealand in the first innings, and an unbeaten 100 in the second of an incredible Test debut in front of his home crowd that promised a long and possibly legendary career.

West Indies team manager Berkeley Gaskin had been in no doubt when interviewed before the match.

"Lawrence Rowe will become one of the great batsmen in West Indies cricket, I have followed the game and studied it for many years, I am convinced Rowe will make good in this match," he insisted.

Shortly before Rowe walked out to the wicket on the first day, he had assured his watching father "I'm not going to get out".

Cricket was not yet a full time occupation for most players in the Caribbean, so Rowe worked as a clerk for an air conditioning firm.

"The lad brought some air conditioning cool along because he got off the mark with the kind of stroke one associates with batsmen who have been out in the middle for some time," West Indian writer Brunell Jones wrote in his entertaining account of the match.

Rowe was eventually dismissed, but only on the following day after spending 427 minutes at the crease.

He departed after hitting spin bowler Hedley Howarth for "a six so high it looked as though it would land on one of the porches of one of the residences in the blue mountains", as Jones recorded.

Rowe walked in with 214 to his name.

In the second innings, he struck another unbeaten hundred to become the first to score a century in both innings of his debut Test match.

Despite his mammoth efforts, the match ended as a draw.

"The word great is reserved only for the great players," distinguished former West Indies captain Jeffrey Stollmeyer said solemnly.

"The next player I would like to see in this category is Lawrence Rowe."

It was not to be for Rowe, despite a career best 302 against England in 1974. There were other brief flickers of the comet, but sadly much of his later career was troubled by problems with vision.

Before he played his last Test for the West Indies, his status in the Caribbean had been marred by his decision to join a rebel tour of South Africa in the 1980s. This was when a sporting boycott was still in force because of the South African Government's apartheid policy.

A few months after Rowe's extraordinary baptism in international sport, Massie enjoyed his at Lord's.

Rain had hampered Australia's preparation for the first of a series of five Test matches against England.

Massie was from Western Australia where rain is not ordinarily a problem, but he had experienced the vagaries of a Scottish summer while playing club cricket in Kilmarnock.

He had missed the first Test through injury when Australia lost, but he was chosen for the second at Lord's, a prestigious venue which has particular resonance for Australians.

"I had heard of Massie vaguely when I happened to see him bowl in Australia and I mentioned to Don Bradman the next time I saw him that I had been impressed," wrote Richie Benaud, a highly respected Australian captain who had become an equally revered television commentator.

"You are in good company then," Bradman replied. 

Sir Donald Bradman was considered the greatest of all Australian batsman and so his opinion was to be respected.

It was England's star with the bat, opener Geoffrey Boycott, who provided the first Test match victim for Massie.

Seven more victims followed as England were all out for 272.

In a series where runs were hard to come by, Australia totalled 308 to give them a slender first innings lead. Then, on the Saturday afternoon, Massie went to work again in front of a crowd of 31,000.

His figures of 16-137 are not only still the best ever at Lord’s, but also the best by an Australian anywhere ?

? #OnThisDay in 1972, Bob Massie made history at the Home of Cricket.#LoveLords

— Lord's Cricket Ground (@HomeOfCricket) June 26, 2020

Such had been the interest that the gates at Lord's were locked.

When the day was over, England tottered at 86-9 in their second innings.

"Massie overnight became the sensation of the cricket world," Benaud wrote.

"Any batsman from any era on that Saturday at Lord's would have had the same problems with Massie, the swing is so late."

In those days, Sunday was a rest day, so Massie was obliged to wait until Monday morning to complete the job by dismissing England's last man John Price.

The newspaper headlines described it as a "Massiecre".

Australia's victory by eight wickets was completed so swiftly that the traditional visit to Lord's by The Queen was cancelled. 

Instead, the Australians were invited to meet her at Buckingham Palace.

Massie never reached the same heights again and only seven months later, after five more Test matches, his international career was over.

Meanwhile, another revered Australian made her splash a few months later at the Olympic pool in Munich.

Schoolgirl Shane Gould had already broken every freestyle swimming record in the book, which meant she was instantly installed as a favourite for the 1972 Olympics.

She was "a girl in a million", her coach Forbes Carlile declared.

"It may be rash to say it but I cannot see an American girl beating Shane," he boasted.

In fact, she was beaten in both the 100 metres freestyle and 800m, but claimed gold in the 200m and 400m free and the 200m individual medley, each time setting a world record.

Yet, the following year, she retired from the sport aged just 16 years and 11 months.

It was perhaps appropriate that she should have an asteroid named in her honour, for "25058 Shanegould" embodied her brief but brilliant career.

In that first week of the Olympics, most of the world made the acquaintance of another teenager in the gymnastics hall.

Her name was Olga Korbut and she had come to Munich only as a reserve for the all-powerful Soviet team.

Her chance came when another gymnast was injured.

A brilliant performer, she also made the occasional mistake.

But this endeared her to a crowd which roared its appreciation every time she appeared.

The Soviets inevitably won the team event and Korbut herself took individual gold on the beam and floor.

More importantly, perhaps, was that her exploits were beamed across the world in crystal clear colour television pictures which inspired countless millions to gymnastics.

In the years which followed, everyone wanted to see Korbut and she was feted by the American President Richard Nixon and just about everyone else.

Korbut's Olympic career was not as brief as some. She returned for Montreal in 1976, and again won team gold but never again dazzled to quite the same extent.

A few days later at Munich's Olympic Stadium, another schoolgirl announced herself on the world stage.

Sixteen-year-old West German high jumper Ulrike Meyfarth had finished down the field in the previous year's European Championships and had apparently been included in the home team just to gain experience.

"She did not need experience because throughout the long afternoon and evening, she appeared quite unaffected by all the pressures," wrote Olympic gold medallist Chris Brasher in his book on the Games.

Meyfarth's winning height of 1.92m equalled the world record.

She seemed set for a long career at the top, but her second coming took another decade to arrive.

Incredibly, she won a second Olympic gold in 1984, a dozen years after her first.

Munich also featured another comet. 

As the marathon reached its closing stages, most expected to see American Frank Shorter enter the stadium at the head of the field.

Instead, the first man to appear was a young runner wearing number 72, who was not listed on the race start list.

"That’s not Frank, that is an imposter, get him off the track!" cried Erich Segal, commentating on the race for American television.

It later turned out that it was a 22-year-old student named Norbert Sudhaus who looked surprisingly fresh.

This should have come as no surprise because it soon became clear that he had only joined the race 400m before the runners entered the stadium.

Here was one athlete who really was famous for only 15 minutes.

The following year, a Czech astronomer called Luboš Kohoutek discovered what was expected to be the "Comet of the Century" .

It was predicted that "Comet Kohoutek" would be the brightest of all the shooting stars, but when it finally appeared, only astronauts on the new Skylab station high above the earth enjoyed a proper view and even for them it proved to be something of a let down.

At a later Olympics, an adaptation of a verse by the ancient poet Pindar perfectly expressed short-lived sporting moments of glory.

"Creatures of a day, man is merely a shadow, but when god given glory comes up him in victory, a bright light shines upon us.

"The loss of flame brings darkness but his gold is bright for ever, so bright so brief, the Games are over now the memories begin."