Ashes Tests 1882-2023 Trivia Quiz

When the Australians arrived in London in 1989, the English press had labelled the squad as the worst team to have ever departed Australia's shores. In the midst of their merriment, however, they came to overlook a number of very important details. These Australians had shown significant improvement during their series against the near indomitable West Indies side. This stood out in the last two Tests of that summer, when they defeated the Windies in Sydney and then had the better of a drawn fifth Test in Adelaide. The steely resolve of their skipper, Alan Border, now seemed to have filtered down through his team.

By the time that the fifth Test of the series against England (1989) had arrived the Australians had already secured the Ashes by claiming three victories. This was the first time that an Australian side had "regained" the Ashes, in England, since Bill Woodful's team in 1934. Steve Waugh had finally begun to realize his potential as a batsman and, at one stage, had scored 393 runs before the opposition were able to dismiss him. With the ball, Terry Alderman had the English batsmen in thrall as he weaved his way to 41 wickets in the series. So mesmerizing was Alderman that, when a graffiti artist had celebrated Margaret Thatcher's election defeat by publicly painting "Thatcher Out" on a wall, some anonymous wag scrawled "LBW Alderman" underneath it.

As if to bury England deeper into their grave, Australia won the toss in the fifth Test, elected to bat and then Taylor and Marsh proceeded to bat all day for 309 runs without being dismissed. The next day they extended that to 329 when Marsh departed for 138. Taylor carried on to an immaculate 219 as part of Australia's eventual total of 602 and victory by an innings and 180 runs.

In 1932 Australia had been comprehensively beaten by England in Australia. The subtitle to that tour was the word "Bodyline", an acrimonious tactic that managed to create a massive rift between the two nations. It was under this heavy weather that Australia ventured to England in 1934, under strict instructions that they should never mentioned that "B" word.

Australia began proceedings by winning the first Test but were undone by Hedley Verity on a "sticky" wicket in the second. After the next two Tests had been drawn, England arrived The Oval needing only to draw the Test to retain the Ashes. However, after the Australians had lost an early wicket, Ponsford and Bradman proceeded to put the contest beyond doubt by posting, what was then, a world record partnership for "any" wicket, of 451. Whilst this has since been relegated from that lofty perch, it still remains a record for any wicket in an Ashes series.

Bradman was his indomitable self, powering his way to 244 with 32 boundaries and one of his rare Test match sixes. The redoubtable Bill Ponsford, playing in his final Test match, would see out his career in style, plundering the English attach to the tune of 266 runs. England, then, collapsed under the wiles of Clarrie Grimmett, losing the Test (and the Ashes) by 562 runs.

1946 heralded England's first Ashes tour after World War II and there was a stark contrast between their line-up and that of their opponents. Many of the Englishmen were well past their prime and they were about to confront a fit, athletic and disciplined young Australian squad. The only issue that the Australians had was whether or not a 38 year old Donald Bradman, who was looking decidedly pale, could survive the rigors of a five day Test match.

Australia was one down for nine runs when Bradman strode to the crease during the first Test of that summer... and he looked out of sorts. Uncharacteristically he was playing and missing and nicking balls through the slips. The Englishmen were up and about, as it appeared only a matter of time before Bradman was back in the pavilion. Sid Barnes stepped in and sheltered Bradman from the strike until he departed with the score at 46. Not long after Lindsay Hassett joined the Don, the latter hit a half volley which was taken cleanly by Jack Ikon in the gully. The English thought it was a straightforward dismissal and were not about to appeal. When both Bradman and the umpire were unmoved, they belatedly appealed, and it was turned down, the umpire believing it was a bump ball.

In the press box the journalists were either cheering or howling, depending on which side of the fence you were sitting. Certainly, the Englishmen were having indigestion over it, during the lunch break. After lunch Bradman rubbed salt into the wound by returning to his assured best and belting the opposition to all parts. His 187 runs joined with Hassett's 128, and the pair set a new record for the third wicket in Ashes Tests, while the Englishmen folded in the face of it.

If (and this is a big if) Sir Donald Bradman had never been born then, today, it is highly likely that we'd be holding Bill Ponsford up as the finest batsman Australia has ever produced. Consider this; he is one of two batsmen to have exceed 400 runs in an innings on two occasions. The other is the great Brian Lara. Add to that he also scored four triple centuries, a feat only matched by England's Walter Hammond and bettered by Bradman. He scored 13,819 first class runs at an average of 65.18 which, for those who have scored more than 10,000 runs, has only been bettered by the Indian master, Vijay Merchant (13,470 @ 71.64) and, once again, Bradman.

In the tedious fourth Test at Leeds in July of 1934, England clung on desperately for a draw, labouring for three days over 429 runs. For Australia, however, the match was set alight by a blistering partnership between Bradman and the aforementioned Ponsford. Bradman strode majestically to a score of 304, his second triple hundred in Test matches, and only thirty runs shy of his own world record (at the time) of 334.

At the other end, Australia's battleship, WH Ponsford, blasted his way to 188. The partnership, which was merely a forewarning of what was to come in the next Test (see second wicket above), amounted to 388 runs in what was to be "Ponny's" penultimate Test.

England had suffered a massive defeat at the hands of Australia in the first Test of the 1946-47 summer. Their performance in the second Test was not much better, as they went down by an innings and 33 runs.

Batting first in the third Test, England were undone by the slow left arm spin of Ian Johnson and were dismissed for an under par 255. Australia struggled, initially and found themselves four down for 159, when Bradman joined the eccentric Sid Barnes at the crease. The pair took the English bowling to task to set a new world record for the fifth wicket of 405, before Bradman was dismissed for 234. Four balls later, Barnes would also be dismissed for the same score. In his autobiography, "It Isn't Cricket" (1953), Barnes would record that he'd deliberately lost his wicket that day for that score... stating that "it wouldn't be right for someone to make more runs than Sir Donald Bradman".

There is an dictum that states "fortune favours the brave", but there are those that would also indicate that "fortune favours the strong". In the 1936-37 Ashes contest the latter was well and truly prevalent.

By the time that the third Test in Melbourne of that series had arrived, the Australian team was in a world of hurt. They had lost the first two Tests after being caught on two "sticky" wickets. Rumours had started to circulate that the player's hearts were not in the game, that their performances were affected by late night partying and a developing fondness for the bottle and that their skipper, Donald Bradman, had lost the respect of the players. The knives were out for Bradman. Aside from the player respect issue, he was also offside with the public over his omission of Clarrie Grimmett from the side, at the time the leading wicket taker in Test cricket, and his modes of dismissal in the first two games were not at all pretty, with one being described as "the worst stroke in the history of cricket".

The calls for Bradman's resignation were loud and vociferous, however, Bradman stood strong. Despite the fact that he'd recently lost his three day old son and that he was not in the best of health he remained resilient stating that "it would be sheer cowardice to abandon what appears to be a sinking ship".

The Australian captain won the toss and elected to bat in this, the third Test. Australia soon found itself in a precarious position and were six down for 182 at stumps. Overnight the rains came down and the pitch deteriorated significantly. Australia soon slumped to nine for 200. It had become a pitch that the "Daily Express" had described as "you didn't want cricketers on that pitch". Bradman seemed to be of the same opinion and declared the innings closed. England did not fare any better and declared their innings closed at nine down for 76. Their hope was to catch the Australians on that pitch and cause as much damage to their batting line-up as possible, while the pitch steadily improved.

Bradman, however, reversed the batting order, sending in his bowlers ahead of the batsmen with the view that "they can't hit them when the pitch is good, what chance have they got to edge it when it is poor". Australia were one down for 5 overnight. On the third day, Bradman strode to crease when the score stood at five down for 97 and the demons that had resided in the pitch had, for the most part, been pacified. Despite still suffering from chills, he and Jack Fingleton put on 346 for the sixth wicket, taking the game away from England. Fingleton departed after making 136, but Bradman strode imperiously on to 270. At seven hours and 38 minutes, this was his longest Test match innings but one that many pundits agree was his finest. Fortune had favoured the strong. Australia won the Test and maintained that momentum to win the series. The first time a team had recovered from two-nil down to win a five Test series.

The English side that arrived in Australia for the summer of 1897-98 came ashore with their "Prince" of batsmen, KS Ranjitsinhji, and high hopes. However, it was Australia's Clem Hill that shone in that series. He would break the wills of the Englishmen and then he broke their hearts.

Hill started the season with a dazzling double hundred against the tourists, playing for South Australia, in a warm up game. When the fourth Test began at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on January 29, England found themselves in a "must win" situation, trailing 2-1 in the series. With the Ashes at stake, they started brilliantly and soon had the Australians in trouble at six down for only 58 runs. Enter Clem Hill. He would put on 165 runs with the lanky off-spinner Hugh Trumble, to drive a nail into England's coffin, so deep that they couldn't get out. To put the Englishmen to rest he then added another 60 runs with wicketkeeper Jack Kelly for the eighth wicket.

In a match where only two other batsmen would scrape through to fifty runs, Hill's tally of 188 stood out like the iconic Cape Byron Lighthouse. His score became the highest by an Australian batsman under the age of 21 and stood as the premier mark. Only Matthew Renshaw, whose 184 against Pakistan in 2017, has come anywhere near to threatening that mark.

England's batting line-up for their Australian tour of 1907-08 was not strong. They enjoyed themselves in warm-up matches against the State sides, winning against the likes of Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, but their brittle techniques were brutally exposed during the Test matches and they succumbed to the Australians, four Tests to one.

Roger Hartigan was selected to make his debut for Australia during the third Test, which was played in Adelaide in oppressive heat. An auctioneer by trade and based in Queensland, he was granted four days leave by his employer to participate in the Test. When he joined Clem Hill at the crease, in the second innings, on that fourth day, Australia was in a delicate position, teetering at seven wickets down for 180 runs and holding a slender 102 run lead. By stumps that night, he and Hill had put on 217 runs. Hartigan quickly telegraphed his employer seeking an extension of leave. The reply came back "stay, as long as you are making runs". He would bat on and personally score 116 runs, a century, on his debut.

When Andrew Stoddart led his Englishmen to Australia in 1894 the British Empire was, essentially, at the peak of its powers, while her subjects in Australia were still reeling from the throes of a major banking crisis. Despite this, the cricket played was of such a high order that noted cricket writer David Frith, in his book "Stoddy's Mission" (1994), would label this series "the first Great Test Series". England would win the first two Tests, Australia would turn the tables in the next two and England would recover to win the deciding fifth Test. There was so much drama, so many twists, so many turns, that Queen Victoria demanded to be kept informed of the scores at all times.

The first Test, in Sydney, would produce a welter of new records. At six days in duration, this became the longest game of first class cricket to that point, and the aggregate of 1,514 runs set a new benchmark. Australia were in early trouble in this Test, losing their first three wickets with only 21 runs on the board. They would recover to create a new Test record score of 586. The catalyst for this great recovery was Syd Gregory, who compiled a score of 201, the first double hundred to be scored in Test match. As the English attack tired, wicketkeeper Jack Blackham joined Gregory to hammer a new record partnership for the ninth wicket of 154 runs. Remarkably, in Ashes Tests, this mark still stood 129 years later.

England were forced to follow on after being dismissed the first time, 261 runs behind. Despite their second innings showing greater resilience, the target for Australia to win was a mere 177 runs. At stumps on that fifth evening the Aussies were in high spirits... their mission had been reduced to 64 runs and they still had eight wickets in hand. That's when the cricket gods turned against Australia. The heavens opened up overnight and turned the uncovered pitch into a nightmare. Australia would lose the Test by ten runs and, in the process, created the first instance that a team (England) would recover to win a Test after being asked to follow on. It would be another 87 years before the feat would be repeated, when Sir Ian Botham created that "Miracle at Headingley" in 1981.

In 2009, despite falling two runs short of a century on debut, you could not wipe the smile of young Ashton Agar's face. The teenager had belted 98 runs off 101 balls around Trent Bridge to, forever, etch his name in Ashes folklore. Such was the demeanor of the young man that, on his way back to the pavilion, he detoured toward where his mother sat by the fence, leaned across and whispered to her "sorry about that".

Agar combined with Phillip Hughes, who'd made a gritty, undefeated, 81, to lift Australia from a precarious nine for 117 to an improbable lead. Their 163 run partnership would set a new world record for the last wicket and Agar's score became the highest score by a number eleven batsman. Their world record would only last for twelve months, when Englishmen Joe Root and Jimmy Anderson would combine to post 198 against India ... remarkably, on the same ground.

Hughes was a precocious talent who'd made centuries in both innings of his second Test but many have hailed this knock as, perhaps, his finest. Sadly, Hughes would perish 16 months later after being struck on the back of the head by a cricket ball. As a tribute that was befitting this partnership, on the anniversary of Hughes' passing, Ashton Agar allowed himself to be dismissed on 98 during a grade game in Perth.