Here’s the latest edition of our (vaguely) monthly cricket quiz. Enter your answers below, or to avoid seeing spoilers, e-mail them to maxie@thefulltoss.com . Good luck!
1. Which is the only one of these players never to have captained England in a test match? Allan Lamb, John Emburey, Marcus Trescothick, and Graham Thorpe.
2. Which former international cricketer released, in 2010, his debut album – Songs From The Sun House?
3. Which Australian state last year won only their second ever Sheffield Shield title?
4. When one-day county cricket began in England in 1963, with the Gillette Cup, each innings comprised a maximum of how many overs?
5. Jack Hobbs still holds the record – with 197 – for the most centuries scored by an individual in first-class cricket. Of the remaining nine of the top ten century-makers, can you name four of them?
6. Who made his only county championship appearance in 1962, for Essex against Lancashire, scoring three fewer than he did in his best known sporting performance, four years later?
7. In terms of rank and geography, what is the specific connection between Nasser Hussain, Douglas Jardine, and Colin Cowdrey?
8. What do these two sets of bowlers have in common? Angus Fraser, Andy Caddick, Phil Tufnell, and Chris Lewis; Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff, Simon Jones, and Gareth Batty.
9. Bob Willis famously took 8-43 to clinch victory in the 1981 Headingley test. Ian Botham, and which other bowler also took a wicket in the Australian second innings?
10. The memoirs of which former Yorkshire pro, who never played for England, became the best selling sports biography in UK publishing history?
No. 6 is a (variation of) my favourite sporting trivia question.
i) Graham Thorpe
ii) Mark Butcher
iii) Tasmania
iv) 60 overs
v)Ramprakash and Hick both have more than a hundred, but I doubt they’re top ten. As you don’t specify ‘English’, I’ll try Wally Hammond, Herbert Sutcliffe, Don Bradman, Sunil Gavaskar, and maybe Boycs is in there too.
vi) I know Geoff Hurst played for Essex U15s (with Bobby Moore, I think) so I’ll assume it’s him.
vii) I’m not sure what you mean by ‘rank’, so I’ll say they’re all Indian-born captains of England.
viii) Do you mean what do the bowlers have in common with the other bowlers in their group, or what do the two sets of bowlers have in common? This is ambiguous. Is it one or two answers?
ix) Is it Chris Old? (I assume the other two were Dilley and Willey)
x) Did Brian Clough play cricket? I’ll guess at him. I’m probably missing someone more obvious.
I’d be surprised if even half of these are right, so copying would be a mistake….;)
Thanks. To clarify question 8 – what does one set of bowlers have in common with the other?
Ah, ok, well the only moment of note I remember from Batty’s career a certain overseas Test where he got flayed by a cocky midget. I seem to remember Chris Lewis got similar treatment some years earlier. Am I on the right lines?