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Quack, quack
Wisden CricInfo staff - February 8, 2002

Sunday, February 17, 2002 The column in which our database director answers your queries, large or small, about the history of the game

  • Test cricket's longest duck
  • Have two nightwatchmen ever opened?
  • The Test cricketer whose nephew won Wimbledon
  • Double-century stands - times two
  • A royal hat-trick
  • Who was "Mossy"?

    Who has made the longest duck in Test cricket? asks Martin Ward

    This esoteric record is held by Geoff Allott, the New Zealand tailender. He survived for 101 minutes - 77 balls - against South Africa at Auckland in 1998-99. Allott helped Chris Harris (68 not out) put on 32, in a vain attempt to avert the follow-on, before he was dismissed by Shaun Pollock for 0. Allott called it "the best duck I'll ever make". The previous record was held by England's Godfrey Evans, who was stuck on 0 for 97 minutes before scoring his first run against Australia at Adelaide in 1946-47. In his day job Allott was a hard-working left-arm seamer, who found conditions - and the seaming white ball - much to his liking in the 1999 World Cup in England, when he was the competition's joint-leading wicket-taker (alongside Shane Warne) with 20. Sadly Allott suffered increasingly from back trouble after that, and was recently forced to retire.

    Has a Test innings ever been opened by two nightwatchmen? asks Chris Wallace

    In the early days of Test cricket captains seemed much more inclined to make wholesale changes to their batting order, so it's sometimes hard to work out whether people batting out of their normal position were being used as nightwatchmen or not in the 19th century. But this most certainly happened in the third Test of the 1936-37 Ashes series, at Melbourne. The uncovered pitch was treacherous after a downpour, and England had just been shot out for 76. With just a few overs remaining on the second evening Don Bradman, Australia's captain, told Bill O'Reilly and Chuck Fleetwood-Smith - two bowlers who'd batted at 9 and 11 in the first innings - to pad up. When O'Reilly asked why, Bradman told him that the ball was going to move about all over the place, and they were such bad batsmen that they probably wouldn't be able to touch it, so might survive. Possibly affronted by this O'Reilly did manage to get out, but Fleetwood-Smith and a third nightwatchman, Frank Ward, hung on. Next morning Australia slumped to 97 for 5 as the pitch dried out - then Bradman came in at No. 7, cracked 270 (the top innings in the Wisden 100), and Australia won the match by 365 runs.

    Which Wimbledon champion had an uncle who was a Test cricketer? asks Greg Bond

    The tennis champion was John Newcombe, who won the men's singles at Wimbledon in 1967, 1970 and 1971, to go with numerous doubles titles. And the uncle was Warren Bardsley, a chunky left-hander who played 41 Tests in the early part of the 20th century, scoring 2469 runs at 40.47. Bardsley was the first man to score two separate hundreds in a Test - at The Oval in 1909 - and his highest score came when he carried his bat for 193 against England at Lord's in 1926. He was 43 at the time.

    Which opening pair once shared double-century stands on successive days in different competitions? asks Peter Wright

    This was the Essex openers Graham Gooch and Brian Hardie. On September 7, 1985 they put on 202 - Gooch 91, Hardie 110 - against Nottinghamshire in the NatWest Trophy final at Lord's, which Essex eventually won by just one run. Despite Hardie's nickname of "Lager" they obviously didn't celebrate their victory too enthusiastically, as next day they piled on 239. Poor old Nottinghamshire were on the receiving end again, this time in the Sunday League at Trent Bridge. Gooch hammered 171 and Hardie made 60. A more comfortable 44-run victory put Essex top of the 40-over league, and they clinched the title in the last match of the season the following week.

    Which future king once took a royal hat-trick at Windsor? asks Shelley Newman

    This was the future King George VI, who died 50 years ago this month. As Prince Albert, he was playing on the private ground below Windsor Castle, and with successive balls dismissed the then king, Edward VII; the next monarch, his father George V; and his brother, the future King Edward VIII (later the Duke of Windsor). The Wisden Almanack remarked that George VI had thus proved himself "the best Royal cricketer since Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1751". The ball with which he achieved the feat is on display in the mess-room of the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth.

    I can't answer this question from a recent quiz: Which Test cricketer was nicknamed "Mossy"? asks Geoff Hopton

    I was stumped by this in a quiz a few years ago too, which is why I happen to know the answer now. I remember wondering if it was the Yorkshire spinner Edmund Peate, and also asked one of fast bowler Alan Moss's Middlesex team-mates what they called him, only to be told gently, "Well, actually I always called him Alan." Actually the answer is Percy Fender, the former Surrey allrounder and captain who played 13 times for England in the 1920s. Richard Streeton's excellent biography of Fender, published in 1981, reveals the nickname - but doesn't shed any light on the reasons for it, although he does say that Fender (who was usually known as George, or Bill) didn't like the name much and was thankful it didn't catch on.

  • If you have a question, e-mail it to steven.lynch@wisden.com. We can't normally enter into individual correspondence, but a selection of questions and answers will be published here each week.

    More Ask Steven columns
    February 2, 2002
    January 2002
    November 2001
    October 2001

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