England vs South Africa Quiz

Three Cheers to JGK and Gary. Two beers for Danny. A shot for The Jammer.
Lines for the rest of us.

On an accuracy note, the Timeless Test in Durban was not the final Test before the outbreak of WWII. The following summer England played a 3-Test series against the West Indies winning 1-0, the final Test at The Oval finishing on 22 August, only 12 days before Britain declared war on Germany.

The tourists, who were still in England when war broke out had their tour cut short but it took them 4 months to return home because of the dangers of crossing the Atlantic (they returned via the US). The series maked the final appearance in Tests of Learie (later Lord) Constantine and Leslie Hylton who, 16 years later, was executed for murdering his wife.

An England tour of India was also scheduled for the winter of 1939-40 (the first since Jardine's inaugural tour of 1933-4) led by Jack Holmes, the Sussex captain, who had not played Test cricket but was nonetheless a Test selector (he was Chairman for four years after the war). As became the practice with sub-continental tours until Tony Greig's tour of India in 1976-77 the leading players of the day declined to tour. The tour was cancelled on the outbreak of hostilities and it was not until 1951 that an official England tour of India took place.

That September Test v Germany was a pretty long one, too.

"Bomber" Goering was a big of a handful opening the German attack.

And "Ricky" Hitler was far from a happy chappy as skipper most of the time.

Brass Monkey, that funky monkey. Brass Monkey junkie - that funky monkey.

Fookin hell Gaz - that 4* well done PCS - I got the qunt roight too, I got the qunt reet.

How many accents are you brazenly apeing in that one then?


Ah, but you see, Dan, the difference is ... I didn't look ..... I just guessed at a round, ultra-low number.

(You've got to boast about SOMETHING when you are that bad.)

Either that, or Gary was trying to encourage the slower pupil.

I've got more spice than the Frugal Gourmet.

Gary 111 wrote:And the scores on the doors were...

*drumroll*

17 and a half - JGK
16 and a half - Brass Monkey
15 - PearlJ
9 - Taipan (sorry couldn't wait for the rest of your answers!)
9 - PeterCS
8 - JKL

Sorry about that, was on holiday

PeterCS wrote:That September Test v Germany was a pretty long one, too.

"Bomber" Goering was a big of a handful opening the German attack.

Goering's flawed captaincy in the "Battle of Britain" match enabled us to avoid an innings defeat and come back from one-down in the series after losing the First Test in France.

Possibly the greatest dressing-room pep-talk of all time by someone whose Wisden obituary reported as having been in the St Paul's XI for two seasons as an opening batsman:


"I want first of all to introduce myself to you. You do not know me. . . . I have only been here a few hours. But from what I have seen and heard since I arrived I am prepared to say . . . I have confidence in you. . . .

I believe that one of the first duties of a commander is to create what I call "atmosphere," and in that atmosphere his staff, subordinate commanders, and troops will live and work and fight. I do not like the general atmosphere I find here. It is an atmosphere of doubt, of looking back to select the next place to which to withdraw, of loss of confidence in our ability to defeat Rommel, of desperate defensive measures by reserves in preparing positions in Cairo and the Delta. All that must cease. . . .

The defence of Egypt lies here at Alamein and on the Ruweisat Ridge. . . . Here we will stand and fight; there will be no further withdrawal. I have ordered that all plans and instructions dealing with further withdrawal are to be burned, and at once. We will stand and fight here. If we can't stay here alive, then let us stay here dead. . . .

Now I understand that Rommel is expected to attack at any moment. Excellent. Let him attack. . . . Meanwhile, we ourselves will start to plan a great offensive; it will be the beginning of a campaign which will hit Rommel and his army for six right out of Africa. . . . The great point to remember is that we are going to finish with this chap Rommel once and for all. It will be quite easy. There is no doubt about it. He is definitely a nuisance. Therefore we will hit him a crack and finish with him. "

and as Wisden states, they did.

Sometimes, there's something to be said for bringing in a captain from outside the team.

On the other hand:

Never


in the history of cricketing conflict

have so many owed so much to a First XI.


Are we happy? Phew!!!

I am always happy...the saffie series win was well deserved