List of answers & extras to: "Series C" - a Big Quiz.

Check that thread (title: "Series C" - a Big Quiz) for the images/questions: I don't want to start posting all that material up again here.


Seeking a "clean finish", for the most part, I'll use this thread to post a full, in-sequence list of answers and any further material (esp. any more images) that may be of interest.

Obviously, if there's a point raised by (mainly) Skully's answers - msot obviously, if a flaw in the original question (Q17) - I'll include that too.

But the main aim here is to compile a quick-checkable list of answers - & avoid getting bogged down in: who got exactly which part of what question right or wrong, where & how. That way madness lies.

(Ideally, I suppose it would be best if a longish quiz like this could be "laminated", sealed complete, before answers came in, but there you go. ~ Plainer solution - only very short quizzes.


SO ALL OF THAT MEANS:

You can still try the questions of the quiz, if you haven't had a go yet. Then cross-refer to answers here. Best if you can open two windows, I suppose.

But if new to the quiz, or wanting another shot at any particular troublesome question - exit this thread now, before you see the answers here!

Right, let's get on with it ...

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PS:

I don't want to go into all that SPOILERING again - so, "final call": please board the flight for the QUESTIONS thread before reading on here, down this thread/list of answers & addenda!
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1a)
Photo A (= on top - but only on the page:)
The full England touring squad (formally in those days known as "the MCC") of 16 players for the Ashes series of 1920-21 in Australia. Captained by JWHT Douglas. Photographed before the 1st Test.

Photo B:
Warwick Armstrong's team plus its 12th man for the opening of the same series.

A touring squad in those days - generally or 15 or 16 members - would be collected as one unit at the start of a series. Whereas the home team would be picked on a match-by-match basis. Hence a clue in the numbers in the photo, and the wording of the question, that the squad above are the "tourists", and the team below are the home team. This was a series played in Australia.

Thus the MCC squad is still en bloc: all 16 (plus tour manager) together for the photoshoot. The Australian XII also for that opening Test.

btw: The date (year) of that series explains the very first cryptic remark I made in the question thread ("a bit early to post the quiz" = a few months too early in 2020)... and also the possibly mysterious quiz title: "Series C".

1b)
Immediately before the First Test of that series, played at Sydney 17th-22nd December 1920. (Note: unlike the custom in England of maximum 3-day Tests, these were "Timeless Tests", all starting on a Thursday, always a rest day on the Sunday. So you can see this Test lasted 5 days . The potentially unlimited length of the Tests became important, in a baking Australian summer of 1920-21, when England started to lose tosses (the first three), and toiled in the field, also spilling catches to hit morale further.)

This was the first Ashes test match to be played after World War One. The MCC had politely declined an invitation from the ACB to tour the previous (Australian) summer, on grounds that England cricket was too weak, depleted in numbers, and had had only had one First-Class season back after the War.


Extras:

The crowd scene at the start of the quiz is from Melbourne, 2nd Test. They look a rum old lot! (Maybe that was the Pom section ... although, cheering another wicket or spilled dolly, maybe not ...)


MCC Squad, identification of individuals:

(back row:) Dolphin (wk), Hitch, Parkin, Sir Frederick Toone [tour manager], Woolley, Russell, Waddington

(middle row:) Strudwick (wk), Rhodes, Wilson (VC), Douglas (Capt), Fender, Hobbs

(front:) Howell, Hendren, Hearne, Makepeace


Australia XII, lineup:

(back row) Oldfield (wk), Mayne (12th man), Kelleway, Gregory, Ryder, Mailey, Taylor
(front) Collins, Bardsley, Armstrong (Capt), McCartney, Pellew

2a)

Lieutenant-Colonel (of the Liverpool Regiment) Douglas - A middle4

Sometimes it seems "Colonel" was used ironically of/against Johnny. Perhaps given his impulsive, bustling ways ... or other reasons. Being in charge of a debacle (in terms of Test results) may not have helped.

Captains Kelleway (B back3) & Pellew (B front5).

Background info: The "Australian Imperial Force" - a volunteer military force active in the course of WW1, see also Gunner Taylor, Lance Corporal Collins, Corporal Oldfield and Lieutenant Gregory - assembled a powerful squad of cricketers from different states for a successful tour of England in 1919. This formed the well-bonded core of the Australian Test team after the War. So, out of a cataclysm, at least something came of good for Australian and world cricket!


b) MCC's 1920-21 Tour Manager (Sir) Fred(erick) Toone. He served on two further tours Down Under.

c) Australian Tour Manager to England in 1921 (back to back with the tour of this quiz), Sydney Smith.

3

a) The two oldest England players in this 1920-21 squad:

Wilfred Rhodes (born Oct 1877) - A middle2
and (more surprising to me: uncapped, Vice-Captain, etc.):

Mr ER (Rockley) Wilson (March 1879) - A middle3.


b) The two oldest Australia players in this team (pictured) to start the series:

Warwick Armstrong (born May 1879) - B front3
and:
Warren Bardsley (December 82) - B front2


Marginal note: there was an error in my setting of the question, which does not in fact damage the question.

The oldest representative for Australia - though Yorkshire-born! - in the SERIES was Hanson ("Sammy") Carter, born March 1878. He played in the 4th and 5th Tests.

(The newcomer Oldfield's keeping had been marginally criticised in the 3rd Test; but I guess they played the veteran to keep his eye in (or test him out?), with a view to inclusion of both keepers for the Ashes tour of England immediately following.)

I confused myself between "played in this series" and "pictured in this photo/for this Test" - but it does not substantially affect the question - only the correct choice of player in that actual team photo!


A difference in age profiles between the sides becomes more evident if it's Bardsley rather than Carter that we're counting. And that small-looking but significant differential becomes more important when we turn to Q4 - and we might add, in the course of the series ...

4

a) three of them - PGH Fender, JW Hearne & A Waddington. (Harry Howell turned 30 the month before the 1st Test.)

Abe Waddington - the "baby" of the squad, at nearly 28 years of age (!) - born Feb 1893;
Fender (who always looked ancient to me, but hey) - Aug 92;
"Young Jack" Hearne - Feb 91;
(and Harry Howell - Nov 90)

NOTE: only THREE out of that squad of 16 were under 30 when the series began (!)


b) four - Jack Gregory, Nip Pellew, Johnny Taylor, Bertie Oldfield.

Johnny Taylor, who was "Terror" (now journalist) Charlie Turner's prediction to be the next Trumper (big shoes!) was the youngest: Oct 95;
"Gelignite" Jack Gregory: Aug 95;
Bertie Oldfield: Sept 94;
Clarrie "Nip" Pellew, pride of South Australia: Sept 93.

Roy Park (born July 92) did replace "the Governor General" in the 2nd Test, but he's not in the photo.
(Incidentally, Australia's 12th Man for the 1st Test @ the SCG was not Park, but ER Mayne (see photo B back2), who had already played for Australia before the War.)

Ted McDonald also made his debut later in the series, just after his 30th birthday (Jan 1891). -

Hence: four of Australia's XII for the 1st Test, and five of the 14 players Aus put out in the series, were under 30 years of age when they took the field.


If you look at the answers also to Q3 above, an apparently small but significant difference emerges in the age profile of the respective teams in the series.

In an era where very young players were rare at international level, England's were significantly older. It was an old squad, for at least two causes. This appears to have become increasingly a factor as the series developed.

5

(Photo #1) Mr RH (Reggie) Spooner was named captain of the squad when invitations were issued on 26th July 1920, and he accepted: but then pulled out of the tour three weeks later (16th August), for variously announced reasons. Douglas was promoted to skipper at that point.

Dashing if inconsistent, Spooner (much-admired by experts in Australia too) his withdrawal was made for two separate stated reasons. Either a knee injury, or his doctor advised he was constitutionally not up to the arduous schedule of long sea journeys and a punishing six months tour down under, including five "timeless" Tests, lots of other matches and travel in between. I'm not saying Spooner was a liar: perhaps both reasons that were made public were valid. But (an amateur, remember), he had turned down an invitation to tour Australia for the previous Ashes series there (1910-11): and in many quarters, his appointment came out of the blue. (Fender was - true to Fender's ambitious (and then grudge-bearing) nature - waiting at his phone, expecting the call.)

Spooner was after all 40 years old. He had never toured Australia. And of the 28 matches his county Lancashire had played in the County Championship in 1920, Spooner had participated in exactly three, with 6 innings at an average of 27.8. His only "scores", but in the 60s, were at Old Trafford vs Yorkshire in mid-season. Perhaps that was the only game the MCC selectors saw with him in it?

It's also strange to think that Spooner was newly married (26 May 1920). An amateur and non-tourist, with a new bride at 40, suddenly to be England's captain.

Was it his knee that was playing him up?



All in all, a strange choice.

The biggest thing going for him - apart from dash, and a certain flamboyant style - was his reputation as a "googly specialist". Perhaps the selectors saw "Australia's googly bowler" (aka Arthur Mailey) on the wall?

We might also note that SIX of the England team taking the field at Sydney had played against Australia last time, eight years before (Triangular Tournament, August 1912). Only three of the Australian team returned. Is there a suspicion that the England selectors were placing too much hope in the nostalgia of wishful thinking?

(Photo #2:)

Indeed the great SF Barnes. With his phenomenal reputation - and Test record. A living indictment of the "Gentlemen/Players" divide in English cricket, his career had become marked by wrangles with cricketing authorities about acceptable pay and conditions. He had been playing for years outside the County Championship, for Saltaire in the Yorkshire league, and then Staffordshire. when he was invited on 26th July 1920 to be part of the 1920-21 touring side.

Yes, he was outside the fold, and 47 (!!, as Skully said) but was still considered an outstanding, hard-working professional cricketer who scrupulously looked after his fitness, health and talents. His unfathomable variations even at reduced pace (RMF in the modern code?) remained legendary, and still feared by many. His commanding presence, and unflinching steely-eyed glare, added to the mystique.

Let's have fun & try to depict what the batsmen saw - even in 1920. No longer truly fast, but no old has-been. A scary prospect still:



Barnes' terms were primarily that he could take his wife - as the captain (& amateur) Douglas was permitted. Money was always an issue with Barnes, too, whatever you choose to make of the rights and wrongs of that.

The wrangling went on between Sydney Barnes and the MCC (who clearly valued what he could bring!) throughout August, until he finally pulled out in September, shortly before the tour departed. (Cecil Parkin was awarded his place, as his "replacement", although, as a "mystery spinner" with variable speed, it was hardly a like-for-like exchange. And Parkin was uncapped, a local lad wide-eyed on a new adventure.)

Wrangling and withdrawals: unhappy elements in any start to a series.

The short answer to Q5 is therefore: Nothing at all, but disruption! Problems for the tourists before they'd even set out.


Here's someone with shrewd powers of judgment, writing in the (Sydney) Evening News, 27 July 1920.

Note exactly which two players he picks out as most prominent, and one of them at least, still most to be feared by the Australians!

Charlie Macartney wrote: Spooner's Methods

One is pleased to know that Spooner has been invited to come as captain. It will make a big difference to the side.

Spooner is not the batsman who is out to make hundreds every time (not that he would not do it), but rather to get his runs quickly, and with heaps of sparkle. In fact, he is just the type of player a Sydney crowd would gloat over - plenty of strokes at his command, and his execution of them is stamped with a charm and grace rarely seen.

Barnes - a Great Bowler.

S. F. Barnes, of Staffordshire, has been invited. With Spooner and Barnes in the side, added to men like Hobbs, Hendren, and Hearne, Australia will have to look to her laurels. Barnes is about the best bowler on all wickets that England has sent us, and there is no doubt that he was a master in his own department.

Although eight years have elapsed since a team was here, and the years do affect a bowling arm, Barnes must still be capable of at least knocking the stumps over occasionally, to be invited again to visit Australia.

Barnes first came to Australia with McLaren's team in 1901-2, when he made his name, and has ever since been in the front rank of bowlers. His action is perfect, and being a tall man he never fails to get every inch out of his height.

He makes the ball fly and swing on this Sydney wicket, and in fact on almost any wicket that is not absolutely dead.

His performances in Australia with Warner 's 1911-12 team will never be forgotten by the players and spectators. The mess he made of Australia's best at Melbourne in the second test match of that series will long be remembered.

The batsmen were practically helpless before his deadly accuracy, and this was not the only occasion that he performed such feats with the ball.

The Best Style

Barnes' style of bowling will always remain the best. His length was perfect, and his ability to spin and swing the ball was of such a nature that he always commanded respect, even at his worst.

6

a) The RMS Osterley.

Signed memento:




b) There was a fatal case of typhus on the ship (sometimes reported as typhOID - different disease, the similarity of names shows how the two used to be considered essentially the same: but see Lardbucket's distinction on the Question thread).

This meant the squad had to be tested, and quarantined for a week, after arrival in Perth on 23 October 1920.

The question contained a bad pun: in undertaking. A passenger boarding at Naples died and was taken off the ship at Colombo (where the MCC also had a scheduled stopover for a jolly old game of cricket).

The consequent delay, where the MCC/England squad had to twiddle their thumbs and cool their heels in isolation at Woodman's Point quarantine station outside Fremantle for a week, was less serious than death, but not - all things considered - a great kickoff for the tour, with a 3-day match abandoned and a one-day knockabout hastily arranged before the onward journey to Adelaide.

I've also seen reference to "an outbreak of cholera" in Western Australia at the time, although that might be fanciful, ill-informed, or a sensationalist gingering-up of fact with fake news. (No new thing.)


One extra setback - largely self-imposed by the MCC - three squad members caught up with the ship in France, but Bill Hitch - a *third choice* for the tour, all-rounder Vallance Jupp having been added in September to make up for Barnes' late withdrawal, then Jupp himself dropping out at the last minute before the Osterley sailed on 18 September - was not on the ship with the squad at all, but had to catch up with the squad in Adelaide.

So none of this for "Billitch" (I'm uncertain which ship voyage this was, but one of the England tours of the Inter-War era):



He might have sidestepped typhus and quarantine, but not a great start to the tour for him, either. A third-choice seamer spending weeks on a solo passage. And more generally, another case of "poor binding" of the squad. Compare the "AIF" core of the Australian team, mentioned above!

7

a) Members of the MCC squad having their temperatures taken by nurses, during the period of quarantine forced on them after an outbreak of typhus on board RMS Osterley (see Q6!).

btw: As I see it (see Q1 again for full MCC squad photo), the individuals are, from left to right:

Standing: Hobbs, Howell, Woolley, Waddington? (he looks like a zombie here - maybe it's just the low-grade old photo), Russell, Makepeace, Rhodes, Manager Toone, and right - getting nurse attention - Douglas

Front: Parkin, Hendren and (possibly Hearne, probably:) Wilson.

The others (e.g. Strudwick, Fender) must be off to the left. Hitch was still on the high seas. ...


Here's the more common picture of the same scene, with fewer (currently non-!) players enduring their fate:




b) Woodman's Point Quarantine Station, outside Fremantle.

c) Written on the back of the photos was: "In Quarantine" - and on the back of the second, also "Fishing".

For want of something more active to do, some are casting, hoping - but these are watching, waiting.

Player IDs from left to right:
Pic left: Hearne, Parkin;
Pic right: Makepeace, (indiscernible profile, might be Waddington?), Dolphin (looking at camera), and far right, that looks like the back of the head of Parkin again.

At a guess, perhaps ER Wilson took those "family snaps". Mainly Northerners there!

8

Abe Waddington.

The man with the perilous action. Left-arm fast, is the clue, if you check records.



Two seasons of first class cricket just completed.

Not only - at almost 28 - "the baby" of the squad, but in Pelham Warner's solemn view, still "wants careful nursing". How ominous was that! :-O

Was played in the 1st and 4th Tests, without notable success. And never again. Charlie Macartney sounds disgusted in his Autobiography (My Cricketing Days, 1930) that he was the only one in Test cricket ever to lose his wicket to the green lad from the outskirts of Bradford. Maybe he wasn't so well "nursed", in the event.



He went on to look quite a bit less "green" than he looks there with MCC on the 1920-21 tour.  And was an important part of his county's successful bowling attack, so he was actually no mug with the ball.

But is that bleached hair, in this cigarette card portrait? A Yorkshire man in the 1920s - BLEACHED HAIR??

9

a) The two captains, Warwick Armstrong (left - did you need that clarification?) & JWHT Douglas.

b) The toss before the 1st Test.

c) the SCG. (The two HINT pictures under the spoiler in Q9 are both shots taken at that 1st Test.)

At the start of a historic series, as it turned out - for all the wrong reasons for Douglas & his men.

Here's a less often seen photo of the toss for the 2nd Test (at the "MCC", as it was commonly, perhaps confusingly known in those days. "MCG" seems to have taken over later as the usual ground appellation).



btw: that MCG picture, and all the most ropey pics in this quiz are ones I took straight from scans of the Aussie press at the time (see "Trove" resource in the list of "Sources" at the end of the questions).

I optimised those as best I could - esp. brightening & contrast-adjusting the very dark, dismal pics - so that something could be vaguely discernible in them. But the digitalised collections online were obviously scanned as DOCUMENTS, not PHOTOS. Hence, not only are those photos 100 years old, printed in dotty form on cheap paper for the press. They're even murkier for being archive-scanned for texts, & not as photographs. But I still think there's some more than dry-archival interest in those images - when they're the images I could not find elsewhere.

10

a) Harry Makepeace, the Lancashire opener

b) 39 on Test debut in the 2nd Test at the "MCC", commencing Dec 31, 1920.

England's funny little Lancastrian before Paynter, you might mutter, if you're a Tyke (Yorkshire person).

Only ... Makepeace was Yorkshire-born, so take that, Tykes.

He was a fine, if not always consistent, then a hard-working and conscientious* & occasionally ton-scoring. leading-from-the-front #1, who scored several centuries in the 1920 season (he always took first strike for his county). And went on to be a County champion FOUR TIMES with Lancs in the 1920s.

*Did he play in ALL of Lancs'  28 CC games in that 1920 season? I haven't checked every last one, but it almost seems so.

Introduced in the 2nd Test, but at #3, and kept there for the rest of the series, Makepeace had mixed fortunes in his eight England innings. He scored one century, but there were mainly low scores in his unfamiliar position. He never played for England again, even in the return Ashes series immediately following this Australian tour. At 39, another WW1 loss to England Test cricket, perhaps.

Like several other players of the era (Howell is another), Makepeace played another sport during the winter, for as long as his legs, lungs and muscles lasted!

A four-times-capped international in football as in cricket, here he is in 1912 in Everton colours (he played for them until 1919). The description seems to reflect his qualities and worth also as an opener.


That was 1912. Regarding 10b), you may have have noticed a certain implication in my wording of this question ... about the age of Douglas's squad.

11

a) All bowled by "Gelignite", aka Jack Gregory.

b) Jack Hobbs (for 49), Frank Woolley (for 5) and Patsy Hendren (for 36).

In the 1st, 2nd & 3rd Tests respectively. Each, crucially, in the first innings of those three decisive Tests that settled the series.

(btw: the photograph of the State Library of South Australia - fantastic online resource - erroneously identifies the third victim as "Douglas". That's definitely not Johnny's stature, stance or face!).

Regarding the answer that Victim #2 might be Wilfred Rhodes: look carefully and you'll see that the very tall figure standing part-way down the pitch, after deciding to take the bowler on (Woolley was famous for this type of buccaneering courage, as Mailey relates in his "10-66 and All That") and now dismayed at the scene of the vanishing bails is .... a southpaw.



Also, Rhodes was fairly tall. But Woolley and Jack Russell (also RHB) were positive giants, I'd guess around 2 metres (6'6"/6'7")? See the previous images in this quiz, both team photos & quarantine photos.


Just to add: 9 of Gregory's 23 victims in the series - very front-loaded in the first 3 Tests - were clean-bowled. Devastating in the series.



And - if you ever wondered why Jack was known as Gelignite (or alternatively a bounding kangaroo):

outstanding work Peter

Thanks. Takes time and ends up with TMI though. Pick out what you will. ...

12

a) JWHT Douglas c Armstrong b Mailey 7 (Final innings & final day of 1st Test, SCG 20 Dec 1920).

b) Armstrong (snatching a catch at some sort of backward short leg) and Douglas. (Others: It looks like very Gregory in his usual fielding position of first slip. Keeper impossible to make out from the document-quality scan from the newspaper of the day, but it must be Oldfield. The stature and stance look right.)

c) The cartoonist IS the bowler Arthur Mailey (also spot-on by Skully).

Here's the original cartoon, included in Mailey's autobiography, though presumably produced before the mid-50s - notice how he phrases the incident (as well as how he portrays Armstrong - not altogether flattering!):


The England captain ended up in a number of tight spots through the series (here described by Frith as "somehow narrowly avoiding getting stumped" in the 4th Test):



The incident on the last day of the 1st Test was the first of a couple of incidents in the series where Douglas is described as having been "very surprised" - which looks like a typical euphemistic formulation of that era!


But, even though the less reputable parts of the Aussie press - even before the Poms set out on the Osterley! - were eager to suggest Douglas was a cocky, headstrong loser (incidentally, not at all how the Aussie pros read it - Macartney & Mailey for example (autobiographies) both lavish praise on his tireless, combative efforts & good sportsmanship, and in the press Turner, Clem Hill & Noble also find no fault with him personally), any anger he expressed seems to have been without the modern petulance.

Whether furious with himself, or privately outraged by a feeling he had been "gunned" (what does Mailey's "fluked" mean?) - or perhaps even a bit of both - the skipper was clearly dismayed to find himself cut off near the start of an innings trying his damnedest (as he always did) to make a rearguard stand on Day 5.

Here's a typical study of Douglas, this from 1921 I think, which suggests his best qualities. See the eyes, the face, the immaculate turnout, the pride in both appearance and performance, whatever happened:




But how other-worldly some of this reads nowadays! "The past is a foreign country"? Or were they simply more diplomatic 100 years ago?

13

a) Herbie Collins, known as "Lucky" and "Horseshoe". The nicknames apparently merely on the basis of his luck/knack at winning tosses, as NSW and later Aussie skipper. (In other words, nothing to do with his famous obsession with betting, or his batting!)

The picture shows him in a typical stance of a slightly gaunt, even prematurely hunched, rather slightly built man with ultra-baggy cap.

(Then, when he turns round, facially I'm reminded of Scobie Breasley, if anyone recalls that name. Premature wrinkling and tanning: signs of too much regular sun exposure without skin protection!)

These images are from 1921 and (I think) 1925 respectively:




b) I agree you'd need to have an eagle eye to pick up the visual clues here. But the - in this case - butterfingered third slip seems to be getting on a bit, and to have an old-fashioned belt?

It's not Woolley, as one guess went. No wavy hair, for a start - and as noted in Answer to Q11, Frank was even taller than this steel-eyed chap, who looks very awkward as the ball strikes him on the hip.

(Also - two other guesses that were made - Fender wasn't played in that Test, and Hobbs didn't generally field at slip.)

So here's the culprit:



In this series, Rhodes often fielded at one of the slip (or else other close catching) positions, for more than one reason I suppose. Age considerations may well have been a factor. But Wilfred was also regarded as a generally fine catcher, a "safe pair of hands".

Unfortunately for England, not in this case.

Not sure what the bowler, Howell, thought at that particular moment ... but I can guess.

NOTE: I said "culprit". Some spills end up more crucial than others ...

Context: this drop by Rhodes off Howell was on the opening day of the 2nd Test. Worse still, it was the 4th ball of the first innings.

The Aussie opener was on 0, the Australian score on 0.

Collins then went on to make 64, in a first-innings stand of 116 with Warren Bardsley ... and worse was to come for England (see next question).

England ended up exhausted after the best part of two broiling hot days in the field, their openers eventually going out to bat against a score of 499. They quickly lost two wickets for 32 ... and the writing was - well, if not on the wall - then pretty well scripted for this 2nd Test (innings defeat!), and the Ashes series as a whole.

The importance of certain dropped catches!!

14

a) "Nip" Pellew (left) & Jack Gregory (yet again!!).

Clarrie Pellew: Sadly, the poor-quality photo (& also his cap) don't give a sight of the sandy hair. However, you can gain some impression of the trademark "army captain" tache and toothy grin, also rather close-together eyes.

Pellew here pictured in 1921, during the return series, pausing for a pull on a ciggie at the dressing room door. (Why DID people smoke so much in those days? Cool, fashionable mystique? Looks almost a comic parody of the "dashing Hollywood blade", to our eyes. Madness!):



b) As JGK indicated, this was the pivot of a massive turnaround in the game at Melbourne, 2nd Test - arguably the decisive turn in the whole series.

And a real morale-breaker for the visitors, unexpectedly chasing a lot of leather on an absolute baker of a day. ... And then losing wickets before stumps were drawn.

Details: As pictured, Pellew is about to resume on 95*, Gregory (thanks to some typical, lusty biffing) had already reached 59* at that point, namely lunch on Day 2, as mentioned in the question. (<- Those small markers help trackability if you have the patience, time and inclination to search on the Net.)

Australia stood at 7 down for 404 at the point of the photo, lunch, Day 2.

Already a massive build-up of the innings, from the Collins drop off the 4th ball of the first day of the match (Q13), and despite an ensuing century opening stand, and towards the end of the day an attractive, battling half-ton by Johnny Taylor, a loss of 6 wickets before the close of the day.

The progress of Pellew and Gregory to a potentially match-winning total by Lunch on Day 2 explains the broad grins of these two batsmen, referred to in the question.

Pellew went on to 116, Gregory to exactly 100.

Their partnership of 173 started on the 2nd ball of that Day 2 - Ryder out without adding to his overnight score. At that stage, Australia: 7 down for 282. (They'd lost their fifth wicket at 224 on the first day, and though Taylor (out for 68), Pellew & Ryder had stabilised the position in the last session, England were widely regarded in the Aussie press as having had the better of the opening day - which was considered a laudable, doughty and skilful fightback by the visitors, after a bad loss of the First Test.

Pellew was eventually bowled by Parkin to make it 8-455. Gregory biffed it around a bit more, Bert Oldfield added a few at the end, and the home side ended on 499.

England deflated, overheated, fatigued.

Two of their wickets went down for 32 in the third session - effectively 3 down, as their linchpin #3 Hearne had already exited the match, and as it transpired, the whole series (a bad loss for MCC/England!), with a badly ricked back leaping jerkily backwards for a catch - which, yep, you guessed it, he didn't take - during the course of Day 1.

Hobbs & Hendren hung on to the close of Day 2, for 2(= "3")-93, but the writing was on the wall:

MCC: 251 (Gregory 7-69 - even bigger grins!)! & (following on:) 157 - lost by an innings & 91.

This match had been turned decisively on its head. And the whole Ashes series set decisively in an accelerating motion.

PS: The Australian newspapers of the time - there were heaps of them in those days (no TV, limited radio and no live radio cricket coverage in 1920, remember!) - covered the events of the match meticulously, some accounts read in parts quite close to ball-by-ball commentaries.  

The fine detail above, tracking the course & fate of this match (and series!) was extracted from them.

15

a) Percy Fender - finally brought in for this match. And making a pig's ear of a crucial sitter.

I agree it's too tough to make out the wavy hair (and specs). But there was a clue in the question as to his county & status.

btw: I didn't ask for the bowler, he's not in the picture. But this drop too was off the unfortunate Harry Howell (see also Q13!).

There were a number of other England slip fumbles in this series, it seems - and to judge by the commentaries and comments, most seem to have been off the Warwickshire quick.

Even a decade later (in his autobiography), of all comments on the England bowlers, it was the badly let-down misfortune of Harry Howell that stood out in Charlie Macartney's memory (my emphasis):



b) "The leading all-rounder ... off (whom the snick came)" - see question - meant to indicate the man you see holding the bat, and not an unseen. off-camera England bowler. (Apologies for any ambiguity in the wording of the question, if you went "offscreen" to puzzle over who the unfortunate bowler might be!)

If you check the all-rounder (with the bat in this case, standing tensely, expecting the worst) for his height, build, etc - and esp if you go online to look into the 3rd Test and what happened there - it would probably have brought you to the man illustrated below.

We've just seen Pellew (Q14), now here comes that other AIF captain mentioned in Q2!:


ANOTHER FATAL DROP.

Charlie Kelleway went in to bat when Australia stood one down for 34 in their second innings (16 overs). Note: still 59 runs behind England on 1st Innings.

*This (again!) was England's big chance finally to grab a hold - now 0-2 down in the series - clinch a match, and leave the Ashes hanging in the balance*.

The 3rd ball that the new batsman received, he nicked to the ever-ambitious Fender at 3rd slip. And he ... muffed it.

Kelleway went on to score 147 ... in a stand of 194 with his captain Armstrong (121) that kept the Poms baked, frazzled & increasingly demoralised out in the field, and was to pave the way for an Australian Second Innings total of 582 - Pellew notching another ton, Gregory 78 - which effectively finished the series.

To their credit, and to unironic praise from the Australian press, the England batting fought their way to 370 (with a ton from Hobbs) ... and lost by "only" 119 runs in the end.

Ashes: settled.

cricinfo's entry for Charlie Kelleway actually highlights THAT drop as defining for player and series. Without naming the culprit (- which seems a pity, in view of Fender's perennial entitled expectation of the England captaincy, his simmering resentment about his treatment by England, & a typical eagerness to participate in plotting vengeance on SOMEBODY, his chance coming via Jardine and the Bodyline series ):

Wisden profile, C Kelleway: wrote:"In the Australian season of 1920-21 he was a prominent member of the very powerful side captained by WW Armstrong which beat England under JWHT. Douglas in all five Tests. Kelleway averaged 47.14 in the series and took 15 wickets at 21.00 apiece, the lowest cost for either side.

In the third encounter at Adelaide, England gained a lead of 93 on the first innings, but then Kelleway, missed before scoring, stayed nearly seven hours for 147, a display that earned him the nickname of 'Rock of Gibraltar'."

Poor old Harry Howell.

16

a) Pictured here (for 3rd Test, Adelaide) but who were not in the XII for the 1st test (Sydney - see Q1) are:

"Back5" - Ted McDonald - making his Test debut;



and
"Front5" - Roy Park (who had played in the 2nd Test, but was now 12th man for this 3rd Test. And that was his Test career. See Q17!)



b) Replaced by the above, and missing from the new (Adelaide) XII are:

"Back 2" of the Sydney team photo - Edgar Mayne (12th Man for the first 2 Tests, not included in the rest of the series;
btw: Tommy Andrews acted as 12th Man in the 4th & 5th Tests, before making his debut in England)


and
"Front 4" at Sydney - Charlie McCartney. (Question S3 deals with why he's absent from Adelaide.)

17

Now pay attention! Here's the question with the error in it.

Q17 read as follows:
"Only ONE member of "Team B"'s total 16 selections in this series - either to play or be 12th man - took no part in the return series immediately following it.

a) Can you name the unlucky man?
b) What was his (main) profession?"

Skully wrote: a) Charles Kelleway.

b) Advertising staff member on the Sydney Morning Herald.

And Skully was quite right (hence a bonus point, on a scrapped question): although Kelleway originally accepted the ACB invitation to join his victorious teammates on the return tour, his job ("Business interests", they were always called a century go) forced him to wihdraw before the ship sailed.

My mistake.

THE OTHER Aussie from 1920-21 not travelling was

a) Roy Park
b) Doctor

Dr. Park was one of an unfortunate group of internationals often cruelly described as "one-Test wonders".

His one cap was in the 2nd Test (Melbourne), where his only significant contribution was to be out first ball in his only Test innings.

Not needed for a second innings, because - as we saw above - England were routed by an innings.

The scorers, grimly, wrote: RL Park b Howell 0

See, ... if only he'd been able to nick it at one of those England slip fielders ... he might have made a debut ton.

Whereas ... life can be very cruel:

wiki wrote:He was said to have been called late during the night for medical duties, and not to have got any sleep before his debut. He never played Test cricket again. Legend has it that his wife, who was watching in the stands, dropped a stitch in her knitting as he prepared to face his first ball, bent down to retrieve it at the moment of delivery, and thus missed his entire Test career.

Hence "the unlucky man" of my question.

He looks on the way out even in the second shutter-click of that photo shoot. Out of the team, ready to exit Stage Right, to medical duties, never to return in the Baggy Green. But that's probably just another example (as so often) how a camera can catch someone in an awkward split-second ... trash newspapers exploit such unfortunate snaps all the time. As proof of whatever they want.

You should by now be able to pick out most of the individuals in the Aussie team photo at Adelaide, by the way. As used in QQ16 and 17.

Just in case you were wondering:


Third Test v England, at Adelaide, January 14-20, 1921.

Australia cricket team with Warwick Armstrong, captain, seated centre of the front row:

(back row): JM Taylor, W Bardsley, J Ryder, JM Gregory, EA McDonald, AA Mailey, CE Kelleway.

(front row): CE Pellew, HL Collins, WW Armstrong, WAS Oldfield, RL Park (12th man).

18

a) Adelaide. (In fact, the very last match of the benighted England/MCC tour - vs South Australia.)

b) Dolphin & Wilson each played only one Test in their careers, which was on this 1920-21 tour.
(And as Skully added, rubbing salt in that wound, each averaging less than 10 with the bat - A. Dolphin (relieving Bert Strudwick in the 4th Test only) 0.5, Mr E.R. Wilson 5.0.



For fairness & in mitigation, it might be countered that Rockley Wilson - in his brief moment of international exposure, in the 5th Test - topped the England Test bowling averages for the tour with his low-arm slingy legspin. In the two Australian innings of that last Test, a total of 20.3 overs, 5 maidens, 3 wickets for 36 (with no no-balls, no wides),



You really have to wonder, after Wilson, a schoolteacher - in the 1920 season only occasional appearances, though fairly effective bowling figures for his county - was unexpectedly appointed as Vice-Captain for the tour, why he was introduced to play only one Test, at the end of the series.

It looks like more selection inconsistency on the part of the MCC. As if there weren't problems enough.

c) Abe Waddington played 2 Tests - also both on this tour (in the 1st and 4th Tests). So how well was he "nursed", I wonder? It doesn't look great that he was brought in instead of Howell for the 1st Test, then dropped, reintroduced when it may look as if it was concluded there were no other quick options in the 4th Test (Hitch having been wheeled in also in the 1st Test, then not played again in any of the Tests), only to be dropped again for the 5th. And never selected again.

d) All three named above, plus Wilfred Rhodes, were all Yorkshiremen.

Here's the Yorkshire CC squad of 1919, which surprised predictions in coming through to win the County Championship in that first post-War season. (Only fourth in 1920 however - which again makes you slightly wonder if the MCC selectors chose four Yorkshiremen a season too late, and then on the tour regretted it, using all but the seasoned veteran Rhodes sparingly, you might even say stingily in Tests.)

At this stage, you may be able to pick out the four tourists of 1920-21 in the Yorks squad of 1919!


(Back row, from left): Arthur Dolphin +, Roy Kilner, Abe Waddington, Billy Williams, Herbert Sutcliffe.
(Middle): George Hirst, Wilfred Rhodes, Mr Cecil Burton*, Mr Rockley Wilson, David Denton.
(Front): Percy Holmes, Emmott Robinson


One further observation on the photo (see Q18) of the MCC team that played South Australia at Adelaide 11-15 March 1921, winning by an innings & 63 runs in the final match of their tour:

Back row: Arthur Dolphin, Abe Waddington, Jack Russell, Frank Woolley, Cec Parkin, Harry Howell, Bill Hitch (12th man!).
Front row: Wilfred Rhodes, Rockley Wilson, Johnny Douglas (Capt), Percy Fender, Jack Hobbs.

Four Yorkshiremen all banded together at one end (left as we see them) - three men of Surrey collected at the other end of the seats (right): not perhaps a good sign in any touring band of brothers.

But then, it had been a long and - in terms of the Tests, despite undaunted, battling spirits among the team reported by the Aussie press, up to the very end - unprecedentedly catastrophic tour.

19

a) Jack Gregory.

Indeed it's that man again. Despite all of Mailey's wickets (he collected bucketloads of them: especially prevalent in the second half of the series), the big man was surely England's chief tormentor in 1920-21.



Rambunctious express-pace bowler (remember: 9 clean bowled out of his 23 wickets in the series - 19 of those in the decisive first three Tests), also a couple of crucial innings (note the characteristic "no-gloves" approach!), one at a decisive turn in the series (2nd Test, Day 2) - and also bags of slip catches. Consistently at specialist first slip when not bowling (look through all the images in the quiz!)

b) Harry Makepeace and Jack Russell; the keeper is Hanson "Sammy" Carter.

The giant that was the first "Jack" Russell:



Snaffled off bowlers Kelleway and Armstrong respectively in the second innings of this Test, I think. (Although Gregory also bagged those same two batsmen (both off Mailey) in the first innings!)

20

7 new Australian caps in the 1st Test @ the SCG: Collins, Taylor, Pellew, Ryder, Gregory, Oldfield and Mailey.

A huge number, though these were far from greenhorns (note in particular the AIF tour of England in 1919).

But perhaps for obvious reasons these were their first baggy greens - 8 years on from the previous Tests, the first Test after WW1.

Given "the War and all that", the more surprising thing is perhaps that England (or its governing body, the MCC) gave first Test caps to only FOUR men in the same match. That seems doubly significant: relative age profile of the squads, and an apparent nostalgia for old winning days on the part of the MCC.