Stump The Bearded Wonder No 12

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

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

Try to stump The Bearded Wonder.

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Here's a selection of the latest answers

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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?

Tim, as promised I have now researched a full answer to your very interesting question.

McGrath dismissed Atherton in 19 of the 34 innings in which he bowled against him between 1994-95 and last season. Combing my score sheets of all the 17 Test matches in question, I can reveal that Atherton scored a total of 677 runs in those 34 innings, 248 of them (including 40 fours and a five) off 628 balls from McGrath (39.49 runs/100 balls). The most he scored in any innings off McGrath was 24 (out of 57 not out) off 15 balls at Edgbaston when England won in 1997.

Divided by those 19 dismissals gives him an average of 13.05 runs/wicket against his chief adversary. His overall Test average was 37.70. For his 66 innings in 33 Tests against Australia it dropped to 29.69.

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Andrew Bain, UK

How many bowlers have bowled six byes? I believe there was an Essex bowler early in the 20th century called Charles Kortwright who did this, are there more?

Good trick question, Andrew! The answer is none, unless they involved overthrows. Many considered Kortright (no W) the fastest bowler ever to appear in county cricket (1894-1907) and he may well have bowled a bouncer that cleared the rope. However, a ball which pitches and carries the boundary without bouncing or being intercepted by the batsman scores FOUR byes - or, more appropriately as it probably passed the batsman well clear of his reach, four WIDES.

Only HITS that clear the boundary can score six.

In 1967 I set a question for the BBC Radio quiz show, Sporting Chance which caused a certain amount of havoc because it had to be taken out of the recording and an alternative substituted: How does an umpire signal six byes? My answer was with three arms. Don Mosey was very upset with me!

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Paul Gibbons, England

When I was at school I had the indignity of being bowled on my very first delivery, and it was said to be a "Golden Duck". I have never heard this phrase since, is it a real term or just one that was used to torment me?

A 'Golden Duck' is an accepted term for a first ball dismissal.

It is also known as a 'Primary'. In 1955 several young members of Beckenham Cricket Club in Kent who had been dismissed first ball with some regularity that season, formed a club dedicated to supporting a charity to help blind cricketers. The Primary Club has grown into an international charity making annual donations in excess of £100,000 to a variety of schools and clubs for the blind and partially sighted. Derek Underwood MBE is their Patron. It costs £15 to join and that includes a Primary Club tie.

If you have been out first ball in any game of cricket write to The Primary Club, PO Box 12121, London NW1 9WS or log on to their website: www.primaryclub.org

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Dan Hudson, England

How many balls did Ian Harvey's fifty come off in the Gloucestershire v Northamptonshire Norwich Union League match at Cheltenham in July of this year, and how does this compare to the Sunday League record?

The CricInfo report of Harvey's innings reveals that he scored his 67 off 34 balls in 29 minutes with 3 sixes and 8 fours but doesn't give a breakdown for his fifty. The fastest SL hundred is 44 balls by Mark Ealham for Kent v Derbyshire at Maidstone in 1995 but I have not seen a table of fast fifties. Alistair Brown completed his 50 off 23 balls before amassing the SL record score of 203 for Surrey v Hampshire at Guildford in 1997 (100 off 56, 150 off 84 and 200 off 118 balls). Both fifties would have been quicker than Harvey's.

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Nari Rampersad, Canada

Growing up in the West Indies, I sometimes heard the term 'square maiden' as applied to a bowler's performance. I never understood what the term meant and it seems to have disappeared from the lexicon of modern cricket. Any illumination as to what it meant?

Nari, I have never heard the term 'square maiden' and it does not rate a mention in Michael Rundell's exhaustive and comprehensive Dictionary of Cricket. It might have derived from the days of four-ball overs which would have been recorded within squares in the scorebook. A maiden could have been emphasised by joining the dots into a square, similar to the dots of six-ball maidens being joined as an M (or W for a wicket-maiden). On the other hand, it could have referred to the shape of the bowler!

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Gideon Reed, Great Britain

I have heard of a cricket match where the batting team was bowled out for nothing. When they came out to field the first ball was a no ball so the game was over. Do you know if this is true and when and where it occurred?

Yes, I remember reading about it many years ago but I don't have the details. Up to 1897, when A.L.Ford's Curiosities of Cricket was published (as a limited edition of 25 copies), there had been 18 instances of sides being dismissed for 0. I haven't seen an updated list - a project for the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians perhaps?

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David Radcliffe, Lancashire England

Could you remind me how Walter Keeton of Nottinghamshire came to score over 300 runs against Middlesex at the Oval in 1939?

A splendid oddity this. Middlesex had to 'borrow' Surrey's ground because Eton were playing Harrow at Lord's! Keeton scored 312 not out. A prolific opener who made 54 first-class hundreds (including that treble and six doubles), he was unlucky to appear only twice for England.

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Toby Kendall, England

What calculation do they use to find out how many runs are needed to avoid the follow-on?

It varies according to the length of the match. The minimum required leads for the follow on to be enforced are: 1 day match: 75 runs. 2 days: 100 runs. 3 or 4 days: 150 runs. 5 or more days: 200 runs.

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William Boyle, England, Norfolk

How many Test wickets did 'Beefy' get in his Test career?

I assume you are referring to Ian Botham. He took 383 wickets in 102 Tests, 58 more than any other England bowler, including five in an innings 27 times and ten in a match four times. His breakdown of wickets against each country was: 148 v Australia; 64 v New Zealand; 61 v West Indies; 59 v India; 40 v Pakistan and 11 v Sri Lanka.

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Peter, England

Has any side ever scored more than 1000 runs in a single innings?

Yes, it has happened twice in first-class cricket, both instances occurring in Australia during timeless matches and being amassed by Victoria on their home ground in Melbourne: 1,107 v New South Wales in 633 minutes on 24 and 27 December 1927, and 1,059 v Tasmania in 641 minutes on 2, 3, 5 February 1923. Melbourne, but not the MCG, was also the scene of a total of 1,094 by Melbourne University v Essendon in 1897-98.

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Baz Druker, England

Who is the only England Test cricketer ever to have stood as a Parliamentary candidate?

Another trick question? There have been at least two.

F.S.Jackson (later the Rt Hon Sir Francis Stanley Jackson, GCSI, GCIE), was MP for the Howdenshire division of Yorkshire 1915-26. He also served as financial secretary to the Ear Office, chairman of the Unionist Party and Governor of Bengal.

E.R.(Ted) Dexter, current President of MCC, stood unsuccessfully as Conservative candidate for Cardiff SE in opposition to James Callaghan in 1964.

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