Hugh Larkin - 101 Quirky Cricket Facts

Title Page

101 QUIRKY CRICKET FACTS

Compiled by Hugh Larkin

Publisher Information

First published as an eBook in 2014 by

Apex Publishing Ltd

12A St. Johns Road, Clacton on Sea,

Essex, CO15 4BP, United Kingdom

www.apexpublishing.co.uk

Please email any queries to Chris Cowlin:

mail@apexpublishing.co.uk

Digital Edition converted and published by

Andrews UK Limited 2014

www.andrewsuk.com

Copyright 2014 Hugh Larkin

The author has asserted his moral rights

Cover designed by Chris Cowlin

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition, that no part of this book is to be reproduced, in any shape or form. Or by way of trade, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, without prior permission of the copyright holder.

About the Author

Hugh Larkin grew up in the Black Country and was keen on sport from an early age, absorbing facts and information as well as taking part in a range of sports. He has always been a big fan of speedway.

Hugh has an MA in South-East Asian Studies from Hull University, where he chose to study because of the citys rugby league and speedway connections. In 1990, Hugh appeared on ITVs Sportmasters quiz programme, hosted by Dickie Davies, and went on to reach the quarter-finals.

In 1992, Hugh co-authored the Cricket Quiz Book and also contributed to a Square Football Book about the Premier League. Between 2000 and 2003 Hugh contributed match reports on non-league games to the Pyramid Football website. He also wrote a regular column for Partybets.com.

In recent years, Hugh has written for the football website Square Football which led to appearances on Inside Soccer, a US radio programme, where he acted as an occasional Premier League pundit.

Hugh currently works as a careers advisor and lives in Burnley with his wife Jan.

The Facts

1. The wickets in the game of cricket are called stumps because the first games were played by shepherds in front of tree stumps.
2. Novelist Samuel Beckett is the only Nobel Prize winner to play first class cricket. He played two matches for Dublin University in the 1920s.
3. In the 2003 World Cup Namibia were bowled out in just 14 overs in 75 minutes against Australia. They scored just 45.
4. England captains Ted Dexter and Freddie Brown were born in Milan, Italy and Lima, Peru respectively.
5. On 15 th September 1975 Chris Balderstone played first class cricket and League football on the same day. He batted for Derbyshire at Chesterfield in the day and then turned out for Doncaster Rovers in an evening game with Brentford.
6. In 1999 New Zealands Geoff Allott batted 101 minutes against South Africa without scoring a run.
7. In 1975 Englands Graham Gooch scored a pair in his first Test Match; in 1990 he scored the most runs in a single Test- 333 and 125 against India at Lords.
8. At Adelaide in 2006 England lost a Test against Australia despite scoring 551 in their first innings.
9. In 1922 Jennings Tune of Cliffe bowled all ten Eastrington batsmen in a match in the Howden and District League to finish with figures of 10-0.
10. When England beat Australia after following on at Headingley in 1981, Peter Willey was part of the England side. In 2001 when India did the same to the Aussies at Kolkata, Willey was standing as umpire.
11. In a 1959 match with Natal, the Border side were bowled out for 16 and 18, the lowest aggregate in a first class match. No Border batsman scored double figures in the game.
12. Englands RE Tip Foster scored 287 on his Test debut against Australia at Sydney in 1903 but that was his only test hundred. He is the only man to captain England at cricket and football.
13. Englands Michael Vaughan enjoyed a testing debut. Against South Africa in 1999 he came to wicket with England 2 for 2, which quickly became 2 for 4. The future England skipper scored 33.
14. Against the touring Indians in 1996 Hampshires Kevan James took four wickets in four balls and scored a century- the first and only instance in first-class cricket.
15. During the 1921 Ashes series England used a record 30 players in the five Tests.
16. Indias Bhagwant Chandrasekher ended his Test career with more wickets than runs- he scored 177 runs and bagged 242 wickets.
17. In the 1959 Quaid-I-Azam Final Abdul Aziz was hit over the heart and died on the way to hospital. In the scorebook he is down as retired hurt in the first innings and absent, dead in the second.
18. The first One day international was staged in 1971. It was organised because the first four days of a Test match in Melbourne had been washed out.
19. At Durban in 1939 South Africa and England played a Test match that lasted nine days, now called The Timeless Test. Even then the match was drawn because England had to leave to catch their boat home.
20. In 1979 Aussie Dennis Lillee came out to bat against England with an aluminium bat. The opposition protested that the metal bat dented the ball and Lillee had to change it. The authorities then banned metal bats for good.
21. The first ever international cricket match took place way back in 1844- between USA and Canada.
22. Bob Crisp is the only cricketer to take four wickets in four balls twice in first-class matches. He won 9 Test caps for South Africa, the DSO for gallantry in WW2 as a tank commander and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro twice- in successive days.
23. In 1963 medium pacer Joginder Rao took a hat-trick in his debut first- class game for Indian Services- and in his second match against Northern Punjab he managed two more hat-tricks in the same innings, a feat no one has matched. After playing just 5 matches at this level he went on to become a Major-General.
24. In a 1990 Shell Trophy game against Canterbury Wellingtons Bert Vance conceded 77 runs. He bowled full toss no balls in an attempt to encourage Canterbury, with 8 wickets down, to chase a target in a game Wellington had to win. All in all he bowled 22 balls in the over and nearly took it too far as Canterbury finished one away from victory.
25. Victorian batsman Roy Park played a single Ashes Test in 1920/21. His wife dropped her knitting when he faced his first ball and didnt see him bowled while picking it up. She thus missed his whole Test batting career as the Aussies won by an innings and was never picked again.
26. WW2 flying ace Douglas Bader played one first-class match for the RAF in 1931.
27. Montague Druitt, who played several times for MCC in the 1870s, was a major suspect in the hunt for Jack the Ripper.
28. World Cup Golden Boot winner Gary Lineker played for MCC against Germany after his football career ended. Lineker was an excellent schoolboy prospect before opting for soccer.
29. In his first Test for Bangladesh against West Indies in November 2012, Abul Hasen smashed 113 batting at Number 10. He then bowled less successfully taking 0-113.
30. In the 2002 Ashes Test at Adelaide, Englands Craig White dismissed his brother-in-law Darren Lehmann playing for the Aussies.
31. At Lords in 1990 Kapil Dev, batting with last man Narendra Hirwani, required 24 runs to avoid a follow on for India. He preceded to smash spinner Eddie Hemmings for 4 successive sixes. Hirwani was out of the first ball of the next over.
32. The great SF Barnes refused to go on the 1920-21 Ashes tour because MCC wouldnt pay for the passage of his wife and child.
33. In 1975 the Ashes Test at Headingley was abandoned after campaigners for the release of George Davis dug up the wicket overnight.