Ask The Spider #67

Michael Atherton had numerous opening partners in Tests; how many did another long-serving opener, Geoff Boycott, walk out with?

There were plenty for Boycott too: 16. Like Atherton, many of them were short-lived, none more so than the first name, Middlesex all-rounder Fred Titmus, who was pressed into service for that role at very short notice, when the man most famous for opening with Boycott, John Edrich, pulled-out injured. In chronological order, the other 15 were: Edrich, Bob Barber, Ken Barrington, John Murray, Eric Russell, Colin Milburn, Colin Cowdrey, Brian Luckhurst, Dennis Amiss, Mike Brearley, Brian Rose, Derek Randall, Alan Butcher and Wayne Larkins. Only Edrich, Luckhurst, Amiss and Brearley were extended partnerships.

Henry Morley of Walkerston has the runs scored of an eight-ball over record. Can you tell what was the amount and how it was accumulated? IE wides; no-balls etc.

Sadly not – there is no record anywhere of a Queenslander called Henry Morley playing First-Class cricket (there are two 19th-century Englishmen, of Nottinghamshire and Sussex, who had brief careers – they would most likely have played four-ball-overs), and any records created outside the First-Class game have no official status and are only rarely recorded for wide posterity. As far as I am aware, the record for most runs off an eight-ball over in First-Class cricket is held by Ross Edwards.

Has a player ever batted and bowled in both innings’ of a Test on the same day?

Perhaps rather remarkably, yes – Courtney Walsh did on the second day of the sensational England vs. West Indies Second Test in 2000. He was lbw to the day’s opening delivery from Andy Caddick to see West Indies all out for 267, then took 4-43 to help rout England for 134, then made 3* (all in one scoring stroke as he lofted Dominic Cork over mid-on) in a last-wicket stand of 13 which took West Indies to 54. He then sent down a single delivery in England’s second-innings before bad light took the players from the field.

Who has taken the most Test wickets without a ten-for?

Bob Willis took 325 for England between 1970/71 and 1984, but never once managed a ten-for. He came close (managing nine) on four occasions, but never quite managed to get a tenth.

Who has made the most 150+ scores in ODI history?

Sri Lanka’s legendary biffer and longevity-man Sanath Jayasuriya has (to date) registered four – though one was against Holland. Three West Indians, Chris Gayle, Brian Lara and Vivian Richards, have made three, and Richards also registered a 149.

Has a Test wicket ever fallen to relatives – that is, has a bowler ever got a brother or cousin out (I suppose it’d be unlikely that any other combination would play either with or against)?

There is one certain instance of this – in a rain-ruined Test at Basin Reserve in 1985/86, Australia’s left-arm seamer Bruce Reid dismissed New Zealand’s John F Reid. Though they were playing for opposing sides, the two Reids are cousins.

Who was the first Test cricketer to die?

James Southerton, the long-serving round-arm bowler who played in what are now recognised as the first two Tests in Australia in 1876/77, was 49 years old by that time, and he lived just over three further years, dying in June 1880.