Oddities, trivia and suchlike........

Originally posted by W.G. What was remarkable about the first Australian team to tour England?

Were they a team of aborigines?

Originally posted by W.G. What was remarkable about the first Australian team to tour England?

Originally posted by W.G. Some sports take the Ronseal (does what is says on the tin) approach with their names.  Football = obvious.  Others have some deep sense of tradition defining the name of the sport.  Rugby = school where game first played.  For some the origin of the name of the sport is more obscure.  Go on then, why is cricket called cricket?

After England developed the game it was addapted by the French who called it Criquet. (Criquet is played with a stool which is my reason for the stump question).

Originally posted by W.G. Go on then, why is cricket called cricket?

Personally I prefer the explanation that the game began among shepherds hitting a stone or a ball of wool with their crooks (from the Anglo Saxon 'cricce', a crooked staff) and, at the same time, defending the wicket (gate) into the sheep-fold.  This ties together nicely what we know about the original shape of the bat and the notion of the wicket (or gate).

Originally posted by W.G. Why is the Nursery End at Lord's so called?

In 1887 the MCC purchased three and a half acres of Henderson's Nursery to further develop Thomas Lord's ground.  Despite popular opinion this is the reason for the name of that end of the ground, not the smaller practice/youth playing area behind it.

Originally posted by W.G. Does anyone know which two teams competed in the first ever international cricket match?

Spot on JP !

JP's on form, I wonder if he knows what was unusual about the circumstances that launched one day international cricket?

How unlucky can you be..............

Anyone know who was the first test batsman to be dismissed on debut for 99?

How did it come to pass that Ramiz Raja was run out whilst sitting in the pavilion when Pakistan played England in a ODI in Perth January 1987?

Prabir Sen of India stands alone as the only 'keeper of his generation to achieve the 'unachievable' .......... what did he do?


Edited by W.G. - 18 July 2007 at 9:16am

Originally posted by W.G. Not a question, but a fantastic piece of trivia .............  In a women's league match in Denmark the new batswoman was several months pregnant. She tired while batting and asked permission for a runner - the umpire declined on the grounds that the incapacity had not occurred during the course of the match!

Originally posted by W.G. Prabir Sen of India stands alone as the only 'keeper of his generation to achieve the 'unachievable' .......... what did he do?

I was thinking 10 or even 20 dismissals in a match but after curiousity got the better of me I see it was something else entirely - not so much quantity as quality!

Originally posted by W.G. Wilfred Rhodes is the only Englishman to have achieved this feat in international cricket, the only other test player in the world to have done it is Vinoo Mankad of India - what feat?

 Bat in every position?

Originally posted by Sledger Originally posted by W.G. Wilfred Rhodes is the only Englishman to have achieved this feat in international cricket, the only other test player in the world to have done it is Vinoo Mankad of India - what feat?  Bat in every position?

Good call Sledge!