The answer you’ve been waiting for

A few days ago I posed a question. Who took nine wickets on his only appearance for England, in a match against Bangladesh in 2003?

I apologise for the delay in giving the answer, but it seems there was a flaw in the question. I plumped for Martin Saggers, who did indeed play in that game, his debut. But Saggers didn’t take nine wickets, and he went on to to play in two more Tests.

The answer (according to the Guardian) was actually Richard Johnson (below), who finished with match figures of 9 for 93. However, according to my research, Johnson too played in three Tests. Everyone following at the back?

There was a further cricket question in Wednesday’s paper -

“New Zealand batsmen Bert Sutcliffe holds the world record for Tests played without ever tasting victory. How many failures did he suffer?”

The answer, if we can trust it, is an incredible 42. Sutcliffe’s debut was in New Zealand’s fifteenth Test in 1947, and when he made his last appearance in 1965, the Kiwis had still not won a single match.

It puts Bangladesh’s current plight, winning 3 out of their first 64 Tests, into some kind of perspective.