Stump The Bearded Wonder No 11

Bill Frindall, aka The Bearded Wonder, returns for another round of cricket queries and teasers.

Test Match Special's resident cricket guru will be on call throughout the winter, so keep those e-mails rolling in.

Try to stump The Bearded Wonder.

---

Here's a selection of the latest answers

---

Richard Webber, England

Many years ago I was told that Sir Don Bradman once scored an incredible 100 off one over with many no-balls in a club/school/non-first-class game. Can this possibly be true?

There were no no-balls involved. The Don scored 100 runs off 22 balls in three eight-ball overs during his innings at Blackheath, NSW, a Blue Mountains town some 60 miles west of Sydney, on 3 November 1931.

Playing for Blackheath against Lithgow in a match to celebrate the opening of an experimental malthoid pitch, Bradman, having scored 38 off the first over he received, later in his innings produced the following record-breaking sequence: 66424461/64466464/*661*446. (* denote singles scored by his partner, Wendell Bill) .

---

Matt Blakeley, New Zealand

Andy Flower scored 341 runs in the first Test v South Africa - and still lost. Is this the highest number of runs made in a losing side, and if so, who held the previous record?

Excellent question, Matt. Yes, Flower's 341 is the highest Test match aggregate by a batsman on the losing side. It beat a 'record' that had stood for more than 76 years when, at Melbourne in January 1925, Yorkshire's Herbert Sutcliffe scored 176 and 127 (303) but was unable to prevent Australia from winning by 81 runs. A timeless Test, it lasted seven days. Sutcliffe was the first to score hundreds in both innings against Australia.

---

Luke Bishop, England

  Bowler / Batsman

A Coningham AC MacLaren Aus v Eng Melbourne 1894-95

WM Bradley F Laver Eng v Aus Manchester 1899

EG Arnold VT Trumper Eng v Aus Sydney 1903-04

GG Macauley GAL Hearne Eng v SA Cape Town 1922-23

MW Tate MJ Susskind Eng v SA Birmingham 1924

M Henderson EW Dawson NZ v Eng Christchurch 1929-30

HD Smith E Paynter NZ v Eng Christchurch 1932-33

TF Johnson WW Keeton WI v Eng The Oval 1939

R Howorth DV Dyer Eng v SA The Oval 1947

Intikhab Alam CC McDonald Pak v Aus Karachi 1959-60

RK Illingworth PV Simmons Eng v WI Nottingham 1991

NM Kulkarni MS Atapattu Ind v SL Colombo 1997-98

Has anyone taken a wicket off their first ball in Test cricket?

Twelve bowlers have taken a wicket with their first ball in Test matches.

The first was Arthur Coningham (Australia) who dismissed Archie MacLaren (England) at Melbourne in 1894-95. The most recent was Nilesh Kulkarni (India) who dismissed Marvan Atapattu (Sri Lanka) at Colombo in 1997-98. The next wicket fell 1,103 balls later as Sanath Jayasuriya (340) and Roshan Mahanama (225) shared Test cricket's highest (576) and longest (753 minutes) partnership.

---

Tim Hardman, UK

We heard throughout the Ashes series how many times Mike Atherton has been dismissed by Glenn McGrath. But in all of their meetings, how many runs has Atherton scored off McGrath? Surely, the contest can't have been so one sided as the 19 dismissals might suggest?

McGrath dismissed Atherton in 19 of the 34 innings in which he bowled against him between 1994-95 and last season. As I scored all the 17 Test matches in question, I am probably in a unique position to supply the answer but sadly not in time to meet my deadline for this batch of questions. However, I will have the aggregate for you in the next batch so your question will gain a second billing!

---

Tim, England

Why is a pile of sawdust kept on the playing field?

To spread over bowlers' damp footholds and to dry the ball in. Two piles are placed on the outfield, usually about 30 yards behind each set of stumps, when the ground is wet.

---

Robert Lawrie, UK

If you were to compile a list of players gaining just one cap for England who would be in the team?

No fewer than 86 players have made a solitary Test match appearance for England.

From that massive list my opening batsmen would be Dennis Brookes (Northamptonshire) and George Emmett (Gloucestershire).

The wicket-keeper would be 'Hopper' Levett of Kent and the opening bowlers two men of genuine pace in 'Hopper' Read (Essex) and Jack Martin (Kent). Jim Parks senior would be the allrounder.

Spin would be in the capable hands of Walter Mead (Essex - off-breaks) and Charlie Parker (Gloucestershire - orthodox left-arm). Sir Aubrey 'Round-the-Corner' Smith (Sussex), the Hollywood actor who uniquely led England in his only Test, would be my captain.

The side would be completed by two Australian Test cricketers who appeared once for England - the left-handed John 'J.J.' Ferris and the legendary Billy Murdoch. The latter, the outstanding Aussie batsman of his era, was the first to score 200 in a Test, the first captain to score a Test hundred and the first substitute to hold a catch - a feat he achieved for the opposition!

---

Simon Newing, UK

Why don't they play floodlit one-day internationals in the West Indies or Zimbabwe?

I suspect that it is because, like England, as yet they have no Test grounds with permanent lighting.

---

Ben Dowell, UK

Is it true that David Gower holds the record for the most consecutive number of test innings without a duck?

Yes - 119 between 1982 and 1990-91. The next highest is 96 duckless innings by Richie Richardson for West Indies.

---

Gordon Anderson, Scotland

In a recent game, incidentally on the Balmoral estate, I bowled a delivery, which pitched on a normal length but then proceeded to roll along the ground without bouncing.

Of course, under modern rules this has to be taken as a no ball, even though it bounced only a couple of feet in front of the batsman. To add to my woe, the ball beat the keeper and landed in a spare helmet lying behind him. Given that I bowled a no ball, do the five penalty runs go against the bowlers' analysis or not?

The five penalty runs are not debited against the bowler's analysis. Under the 2000 Code of Laws such penalties are recorded as a fifth category of extras or sundries, joining byes, leg-byes, wides and no-balls. There have already been numerous instances of five penalty runs appearing in the breakdown of extras at all levels of the game.

---

Chris Wheatley, New Zealand

Can both batsmen be run out off the same ball? If so, has it ever happened in a Test match?

No. The ball becomes dead as soon as the first one is run out.

In a limited-overs international between England and West Indies on 26 August 1976 at Scarborough, Michael Holding's return from long-leg deflected off the nearer wicket and scuttled along the pitch to break the far one with Graham Barlow and Alan Knott (on his only appearance as England's captain) by then in mid-pitch. The dumbfounded umpires (WE Alley and AE Fagg) rejected the run out appeal!

---

Richard Powell, England

Has a team ever lost all wickets in both innings of a Test by the same method (e.g. all bowled or all lbw)?

No. The closest instance occurred at The Gabba, Brisbane, in 1982-83 when Australia caught all ten England wickets in the first innings and nine in the second.

---

John Baldwin, England

Can you tell me why 111 is referred to as Nelson?

Yes. The polite answer is that it refers to his three major sea victories: Aboukir Bay, Copenhagen and Trafalgar. The more common reference involves one eye, one arm and one etcetera!

---

Fill in the page below to stump the Bearded Wonder.