Where:
1 Was Tilia reduced to 7ft?
2 Did Garry and Frank take 36 and 34 off Malcolm?
3 Did Steve and Venkat say “Enough” after 62 balls?
4 Is the venue a memorial to a Brotherly Leader and Guide?
5 Did rain terminate the event with an aggregate score of 1,981?
6 Did the home side make 42 and 87 after snow caused abandonment on the previous day?
7 Did Eddie and Botham appear on opposite sides in an ODI?
8 Was the international venue uniquely below sea-level?
9 Was the pavilion the victim of suffragette arson?
10 Did fried squid render the ball unplayable?
Cricket grounds. Not sure if the name of the ground is sought or just the name of the host city: the wording of 8 implies the latter but I’m playing safe here.
1. Tilia is a tree, specifically a lime tree. Canterbury is famous for having a tree within the boundary and I think it’s the St Lawrence Ground.
2. is definitely St Helens Park, Swansea. Garry Sobers of (I think) Notts scored six sixes in an over off Malcolm Nash of Glamorgan, the first time it had ever been done. Some years later Frank Hayes of Lancashire scored five sixes and a four from one over by the same bowler.
4. is the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore (one of the titles assumed by Muammar Gaddafi)
5. Is the Timeless Test in Durban. Can’t remember the name of the ground there.
6. Haha! As a Lancashire fan I remember this so well, not least because it snowed in Liverpool in the first week of June 1975 as I was queueing up to be admitted to an exam room. Meanwhile in elevated Buxton, The Park cricket ground had several inches of lying snow and play on the second day of the match between Derbyshire and Lancashire was abandoned. It had been warm and dry for several weeks up to and including the first day of the match on the Saturday, when Lancashire made a very large score on a dead wicket. Sunday was a rest day even as a freak weather system blew in from the Arctic and dumped the snow on the Monday. On Tuesday the snow had melted and soaked into the pitch, meaning that Derbyshire had to bat twice on the stickiest of wickets. Two days after that it was the first Euro referendum and a warm sunny day – the weather stayed that way for the rest of the summer.
i feel i am probably not wildly off-target if i suggest the theme is CRICKET
no answers proposed to any of the questions, garry in (3) may be sir garfield sobers
Dear dear! All these public school and Oxford lads and this bog-standard comp and Redbrick woman has to fill in these answers about cricket! ;)
1. The lime tree at Canterbury was apparently foreshortened in a gale some years ago so yes, St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury.
2. St Helens, Swansea
3. Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica. Umpires Steve Bucknor and Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan abandoned a Test match after the wicket proved dangerous.
4. Gaddaffi Stadium, Lahore, Pakistan
5. Kingsmead, Durban, South Africa. The Timeless Test of 1939, abandoned after ten days with no result after rain set in and the England team needed to catch the boat home.
6. The Park, Buxton.
7. Still baffled by this.
8. Bourda Oval, Georgetown, Guyana
9. Nevill Ground, Tunbridge Wells
10. Boland Park, Paarl, South Africa. Some spectators were having a picnic beyond the boundary which involved deep-frying squid in a pot on a portable stove. A player hit a six and the ball landed in the pot of hot oil.
7 – the answer is the Gabba and concerns names written on a pig. It’s explained here:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/that-1980s-sports-blog/2013/apr/09/cricket-pitch-invasions-1980s
This would appear to be level cleared, and at only 4 comments, so I’ll not add a summary!