MIDDLESEX TILL WE DIE

WINTER QUIZ WITH PRIZE(S) – ANSWERS – NOW UPDATED WITH CORRECTIONS, COMMENTS AND PATTER

 

Submissions have come in from all over the world in numbers running well into double figures.  We’ve had entries from at least as far away as San Fransisco (we suspect that we had an entry from Australia, judging by the e-mail address) and we’ve even had a bunn-e-mail submission from Hippity, who is trying to win Barmy Kev’s offer of a pint. 

 

Well done to everyone who has submitted an entry and well done to you even if you just had a little private go at home and got some of the questions right. 

 

The competition winners and the best of the funnies are contained in a separate article.

 

This article contains the answers, including Barmy Kev’s howlers and other nuggets of information submitted by the very strong pack of contestants.

 

SECTION A – A FEW FOR STARTERS

 

A1/ Which two countries played the first ever international cricket match?  

 

USA v Canada (in 1844)

 

A2/ Who was the first player to score 20 ODI centuries?

 

Sachin Tendulkar

 

A3/ Which champion fast-bowler has the dubious honour of having scored more "ducks" than any other player in the history of test cricket?

 

Courtney Walsh

 

A4/ Who was the first batsmen to score 30 Test match centuries?

 

Sunil Gavaskar

 

A5/ Who was the first player to score a 100 and take 5 wickets in an innings in an ODI.?

 

Viv Richards

 

A6/  Who was the first test player to score 150 in both innings in 1979?

 

Alan Border

 

 

SECTION B – ENGLAND’S GREEN AND PLEASANT QUESTIONS

 

B1/ Name the only cricketer whose surname was the same as the county he played for. [2 POINTS]

 

Oswald Lancashire

 

B2/ In 1939 England played a timeless test against South Africa in Durban. Why was it abandoned as a draw after 10 days? 

 

The England Squad’s ship was leaving for home (no-one had expected the timeless test to be THAT timeless!)

 

B3/ Name the player who took the catch that secured the Ashes for England in 1987? [2 points]

 

Gladstone Small

 

Jeff Coleman points out that Gladstone Small took that catch on 28 December 1986 (therefore the Ashes were secured in 1986, not 1987).  We decided that the fielding position for this could only be “point”.

 

B4/ Who was the first English bowler to take a hat-trick in an ODI?

 

James Anderson

 

B5/  Who on his test debut for England score a pair but ended up with 8900 runs?

 

Graham Gooch

 

B6/ Who played 2 tests for England in 1993 and two more ten years later?

 

Martin Bicknell

 

 

SECTION C – MEATY, BEATY, BIG AND BOUNCY QUESTIONS

 

C1/ Name the captain, batsman and bowler involved in bowling an underarm ball when New Zealand needed a six off the final ball of an Australia v New Zealand ODI. [3 points]

 

Greg Chappell, Brian McKechnie and Trevor Chappell

 

C2/ What was so extraordinary about the century made innings played by Rick McCosker for Australia against England in the centenary test?  And what was extraordinary about the result of centenary test?  [2 points]

 

McCosker batted with a broken jaw.  The result and margin of victory, Australia won by 45 runs, was identical to that of the original test, which the centenary was celebrating. Many of you pointed out Barmy Kev’s “silly point” – of course McCosker’s innings, although probably match-winning, was not a century.  He scored 25 and held up an end for ages.

 

C3/ Australian T J Matthews has a unique record in test cricket. What is it?  Where did it occur?  Who were the opponents?  Name the player who will have had the most nightmares about it. [4 points]

 

Matthews took two hat-tricks in the match (indeed on the same day).  Old Trafford.  Australia v South Africa (part of a triangular test series in 1912). T A Ward was the hat-trick victim in both innings, bagging a king pair into the bargain.

 

C4/ Which English first-class county had a player in the England Test team least recently? Name the player. [2 points]

 

Northamptonshire.  Allan Lamb    

Paul Taylor (although one contestant insists that the answer is Charlie McGahey who played for London County and England in 1902.  Perhaps the question should say “existing English first-class county”)  This question was Barny Kev’s “first slip”.

 

C5/ Name the only four cricketers to have have scored 1000 runs, taken 100 wickets and held 100 catches in Tests? [4 points] 

 

Shane Warne, Ian Botham, Garfield Sobers, Carl Hooper.  One contestant points out that Kallis is getting mighty close, with 90+ catches.  Indeed , while the contest was running it was just possible that Kallis might have joined the list, and had he held his catches he’d be that much closer to the target.  Kallis will probably be the first Middlesex player to achieve this feat.

 

C6/ Name the only test cricketer who has never batted, never bowled and never taken a catch in a test match.  Which county did he play for?  Believe it or not, this player achieved another significant test record before he died – what was that record? [3 points]

 

Jack MacBryan.  Somerset.  When he dies in 1983, aged nearly 91, he was the oldest surviving England test cricketer.

 

 

SECTION D – MISCELLANY

 

D1/ Apart from Australia, name the other country Mark and Steve Waugh have represented. [2 points]

 

Ireland

 

D2/ Which country won the 2002 Cricket World Cup for the blind? [2 points]

 

Pakistan

 

D3/ If every batsman in an innings got out first ball, what would be the number of the batsman shown not out?

 

8  Oh boy, did people have fun with this question.  Of course, the question should include the phrase “and the batsmen do not cross in any of the dismissals”, otherwise potentially the answer could be “any of them”.  This was Barmy Kev’s “short backward point”.

 

I was tempted to deduct a point from the winning Sreeram who said “It could be anyone except the No 1 batsman……the expected answer is number 8”.  In fact, if the No 2 batsman is run out off the first ball, the batsmen have crossed and the 6^th ball dismissal also results in the batsmen crossing and the No 1 surviving, the No 1 batsman could survive the whole innings!  This is the only slight fault I could find with Sreeram’s entire submission.  Sreeram should get out more.  And so should I.

 

D4/ Who are the defending champions of cricket for the Commonwealth games? [2 points]

 

South Africa

 

D5/ Which ex international cricketer has the middle name Dylan, acquired as a tribute to his favourite singer?

 

Bob Willis

 

D6/ What was unusual about Denis Lillie’s bat used briefly in Perth in 1979/80?

 

It was made of Aluminum

 

 

SECTION E – AND FINALLY……

 

E1/ He is the only wicket keeper to have kept wickets in a five-match Test series without conceding a single bye. Name him. [2 points]

 

Mark Boucher

 

E2/ Who was the only home grown player to play in the Melbourne Australia v England Boxing day test 2002? 

 

Craig White (playing for England, as it happens)

 

E3/ Who in a test series 1998/99 lasted a record 101 minutes without scoring a run? And who eventually dismissed him? [2 points]

 

Geoff Allott.  Jacques Kallis.

 

E4/ Which Northamptonshire cricketer in 1990 batted for 12 successive innings without scoring a run?

 

Jim Griffiths    

Mark Robinson.  This was Kev’s “second slip”.

 

E5/  Who was the first cricketer who started a test match as wicket keeper and ended up taking a wicket as a bowler in the match?

 

Tatenda Taibu      

Alfred Lyttelton.  This was Kev’s “third slip”.  There was actually a good deal of debate on this.  Pistol Pete thought it was Arthur “Dick” Lilley (only a few years later but yes he was a wicket-taking bowling test keeper) and a couple of our visitors from India suggested S Kirmani, who also achieved the feat, but much later than Lyttelton.  Barny Kev’s authoritative sources let him down on this one.

 

E6/ And there had to be one Middlesex-oriented question: How many test innings did it take before Mike Gatting scored his first test century? [2 points]

 

54

 

MAXIMUM SCORE: 50 POINTS.

 

TIE BREAKER QUESTION: Who, at the end of the 2005 season, described the County Championship as a “cesspit of mediocrity”?  Also, state in no more than 50 words why he might have said that.

 

Steve Rixon.  Possibly he said it because Surrey, the team he had coached (but would coach no more), were relegated to Division 2 of the County Championship.