Picture Quiz & Gallery: ~ Some Things (Never) Change ...

Perhaps mainly for Wally, if he's around!

Q1 (and the basic question): How are these 16 images all connected?

(If Q1 is too easy .................)

Q2: What's the connection between Images 02 to 04?

Q3: And between Images 05 to 07?

Q4: And between 08, 09 and 10?

Q5: What's the particular significance (in this same context) of the players depicted in 08. 09, 11, 12, and (together or apart) 13 & 14?


Apart from the Quiz element, I think it's fairly interesting to see changes in physical appearance and cricket gear between then and now. The batsman in Image 11 (also in 05 if you look for him) seems to me strikingly "modern", despite bizarrely dated gear. (Well nourished, well built and physically in good shape, as opposed to showing the results of genetic undernourishment, or a bit underweight or out of shape like a few of the others.)

On the other hand .... looking at an English "summer" in Images 01 and 16, you can see some things never change ....


Oh, and if you are answering, please cover under a SPOILER, in case someone else wants a go ....

01

02, 03, 04

05, 06., 07

08, 09, 10

11

12

Not playing but welcome back Pete!

(Cheers Vilks. Hope you're well!)

13, 14

15

16

13 and 14 are Clem Hill and Victor Trumper. My guess at their connection would be the players strike of 1912, when neither toured England after a dispute with management.

Wally will love this one. It's way too tough for me.

I wonder if this whole thing might be about 1912 which was by all reports as wet a summer as 2012.

Helllooo Peter! I've missed you man.

Well, 5,6,7 are the Triangular Tournament teams - as JGK said.

CB Fry (03) and Sid Pegler (10) retired after 1912.

I don't know anything else though. You're right it's probably up to AD and Wally.

JGK wrote:I wonder if this whole thing might be about 1912 which was by all reports as wet a summer as 2012.

Could be, MrK and Dan. The pics all look a similar vintage.

Will look forward to AD and Wally's answers.

Interim feedback

Spoiler:

2 is Syd Gregory.

Is 13b Macartney and possibly 14 Roy Minnett?

1912 was when the ill-starred Triangular Tournament took place in England - the first attempt by the cricketing authorities to stage a World Cup - although purely in terms of 3-day Tests. It was also the first time that Tests were played in England involving sides other than England.

There were only 3 sides at the time with recognised Test status (West Indies became the fourth in 1928) - England, Australia & South Africa. Pictures 02, 03 & 04 clearly refers to the 3 captains at the time - Syd Gregory, C.B.Fry (the only occasion he captained England) and Frank Mitchell although Louis Tancred stood in for Mitchell in 3 of the games.

The idea was that each side would play the other 3 times. Although play took place in all 9 games 3 were ruined by rain including 2 of the three games between England and Australia - England winning the last match at The Oval by the comfortable margin of 244 runs thanks largely to a remarkable 10-wicket haul by Frank Woolley who had also scored 62 in England's 1st innings.

It was announced in advance of the match that whichever side won the Test would be Tournament Champions despite the fact that England had already won 3 matches to Australia's 2 (all against South Africa) and the match would be "timeless" - the first such to be played in England although the result was achieved in 4 days - 1 day longer than the normal limit applying at the time.

The Tournament did little except to show that South Africa was a long way behind the standard of the other two international sides, especially away from home and Australia was still bruised from their 4-1 thrashing at home by Douglas' side the previous winter (although the Ashes were not at stake in 1912 - the first occasion since the trophy's creation - the exemption was to be repeated for the 2 centenary Tests in 1977 & 1980, the Bicentennial Test in 1988 and the 3-match post-Packer series of 1979-80 - also involving 3 Test sides although England only played the West Indies in ODIs). It also showed that England was a strange place to play cricket.

The outstanding feat was probably Jim Matthews' double hat-trick in the first game against South Africa at Old Trafford. Now I shall have to try and answer Peter's questions apart from Q2 which is all were the respective national captains in the 1912 Triangular Tournament. If there is anything else in the mass of irrelevancy above that is useful in supplying answers to Peter's questions please feel free to steal or disregard.

AD saves the day!

05, 06 & 07 are respectively the Australia, England & South African sides in the 1912 Tournament, I should guess.

Apologies, already been answered.

Well, I see nobody's spoiling any more ..... *sigh*


JGK is right about 02, but not the others.


AD has overkilled the bloomin' Quiz (in an informative way) ... so here's ticking the bits he's definitely covered:

01, 16: well exactly. What a summer, then as now. And with sodden, often sticky wickets all summer, very few batsmen got a handle on it (ha!) during the said Tournament. Low batting averages for all but a select few.

02, 03, 04: orl korrekt. (And 05-07, correct following BM/JGK)

Other images have been covered by some of the names AD has mentioned .... but to spin out the quiz a little while longer, I'll sit on the fence and wait for the attributions, as to who is which!


And as for South Africa: a bit harsh. South Africa were a team in the making. The problem was double: (1) their feared set of spinners, esp. a set of LBG specialists, had proved rather ineffective on the unfamiliar tracks of Oz in the (first) tour there (and second tour anywhere) in 1910-11, so it was not so much that their national team was off the scale, rather that they had experienced a setback in their progress; (2) business shenanigans and mismanagement (then as now?) meant that the inspirational SA captain and their leading spinner (*) were not on the trip to the Triangular Tournament either.

(*) variously referred to as "Bert" or "Ernie" Vogler, but by no means a muppet.

Apologies, Peter, I forgot about the spoiler which rather "spoiled" your quiz, especially as you put so much effort into researching the pictures. Bert Vogler was one of 4 spinners in the South African side including Aubrey Faulkner (legspin), Reggie Schwarz (off spin) and Gordon White (legspin) who rarely played together but who could be lethal when they did. A similar spin quartet did not emerge on the international scene until Chandrasekhar, Bedi, Prasanna and Venkatraghvan appeared in the Indian sides of the 1970s.

South Africa, like India, were not good travellers. They had been beaten 4-1 in Australia in 1910-11 and 18 months later Douglas was to lead an England side that defeated them at home 4-0 with Barnes taking 49 wickets in only 4 matches (it was a 5-Test series) 3 more than Laker was to take in 5 matches in 1956. It was Barnes' last Test series. He declined to play in the final Test at Port Elizabeth because he objected to the accommodation the tour authorities had found for his wife.

His replacement was Major Booth (Major was his name not his rank), the Yorkshire captain and many thought future captain of England. Despite Barnes' absence England completed a ten-wicket victory in the last Test before the outbreak of WWI 5 months later. Booth was killed in France in 1916.

Barnes had already demonstrated the hold he had over the South African players in the 1912 Tournament and, despite Matthews' feat, was very much the bowler of the tournament taking successively 5-25, 6-85,6-52,4-63,5-28 & 8-29 in 3 matches against the South Africans - 34 wickets at an average of 8.29. In the final match against Australia he also took 5-30 in dismissing Australia for 111 in their 1st innings. Thus remarkably Barnes took 83 wickets in 7 consecutive Tests against South Africa home and away.

So ... who is who (in that thur quiz)?

Picture identifications:

Spoiler: