For each Championship and One-Day Cup home game this year, the Sussex Cricket Museum will be producing a quiz for attending fans, with the answers made available here on the day after the conclusion of the match. Questions will focus on the history of games between Sussex and the opposing team.
YORKSHIRE: 15 September, 2025
QUESTIONS
1 What was important about the first-ever first-class match played by Sussex in Yorkshire, in 1827?
2 Jack Brown started it off with 311 for Yorkshire against Sussex at Bramall Lane, Sheffield in 1897. How many triple centuries have batters scored for Yorkshire in the Championship since? Five, seven or nine
3 Lord Hawke led Yorkshire to more Championships as a captain than any other county captain. True or false?
4 The match at Headingley in August 1920 between Yorkshire and Sussex was curtailed on its first two days by what type of weather?
5 Yorkshire have had the only two all-rounders who have scored more than 20,000 runs and taken 2,000 wickets in Championship cricket. They were both born in the same village – which?
6 On the last day of the Yorkshire match here at Hove on 1st September 1939, the German Army invaded Poland. Yorkshire won by nine wickets. What did Jim Langridge, of Sussex, do in the visitors’ second innings that has not happened since?
7 Yorkshire beat Sussex in a famous run-chase here at Hove in early September 1959. What was important about this match?
8 In which season did Yorkshire ‘break with their tradition of relying exclusively on players from within the county’?
9 Yorkshire, by far the biggest county in area, has played home Championship matches at more grounds than any other county club. True or false?
10 Yorkshire have never fielded a Sussex-born player in Championship cricket. True or false? (To be checked out further.)
ANSWERS
1 Played at Sheffield, it was one of a series of three between Sussex and ‘England’ to assess the then new-fangled ‘round-arm’ bowling style. (The other matches in the series were played at Lord’s and at the Royal New Ground in Brighton.)
2 Including Brown’s 311, seven altogether; two each by Brown and Percy Holmes, one each by George Hirst, Darren Lehmann and Herbert Sutcliffe.
3 True: he was captain in eight seasons, 1893, 1896, 1898, 1900-1902, 1905 and 1908
4 Heavy fog, presumably industrial in origin: Sussex avoided losing. (We have occasional sea mists here at Hove, of course, but Leeds is over fifty miles from the sea!)
5 Kirkheaton, near Huddersfield. The players were George Hirst and Wilfred Rhodes.
6 He bowled the last-ever eight-ball over in English first-class cricket. (Eight-ball overs were in use in 1939; the experiment has not been repeated in this country.)
7 Yorkshire thus won the Championship, displacing Surrey who had won the title for the seven previous seasons.
8 In 1992, when they took on the nineteen-year-old Indian Test cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. He scored 1,072 runs in sixteen matches, but his employers still finished 16th in the Championship table. (They had originally signed Craig McDermott, but he was unable to play because of injury.)
9 False: Yorkshire have used thirteen grounds for home fixtures. Kent and Leicestershire have both used fifteen grounds.
10 False: Andrew Hodd, born at Bexhill, kept wicket for Yorkshire in 53 matches from 2012 to 2018.
HAMPSHIRE: 8 September, 2025
QUESTIONS
1 Which Hampshire player, brought up in Horsham, and later a travel writer, ‘top gun’ and naturalist, wrote pulp fiction (‘Don Q’) with his mother that rivalled Conan Doyle in popularity?
Hesketh Prichard (‘Hex’ to his friends), who played 60 matches for Hampshire between 1900 and 1913.
2 What was ‘unpardonable’ about the conduct of the Sussex team in only the second Championship match ever played at Priory Park, Chichester, in 1908?
Sussex didn’t turn up on the second day to play Hampshire Rain prevented play on the first day. Several Sussex players were not at the ground when play should have started during a dry period on the second day. It transpired that it was raining heavily at Shillinglee Park, Kirdford, twenty miles away, where they had stayed overnight and they had assumed the weather would be the same at Chichester. There was thus no play on the second day. Hampshire were entitled to be awarded the match but this did not occur.
3 Hampshire and Sussex have each fielded a player in the Championship who went on to become a full General in the Army. Can you name either?
Dallas Brooks, who played seven matches for Hampshire in 1919 and 1921: Miles Dempsey, who played once for Sussex, also in 1919.
4 What record did Sussex-born Fred Hyland set when he played in his only Championship match for Hampshire in June 1924?
The match, v Northamptonshire at Northampton, was washed out after only two overs: he fielded during those but never played again. His is the shortest first-class playing career.
5 Which Hampshire batter holds the Championship record for scoring a thousand runs in a season most often?
Philip Mead, with 26 from 1907 to 1936.
6 ‘Back in the day’, counties sometimes played 32 Championship matches in a season. Which Hampshire opener holds the record for most Championship innings in a season?
Jimmy Gray, who played 62 innings in thirty-two matches in Hampshire’s winning year of 1961.
7 How many Championship matches have Hampshire played on the Isle of Wight? None, ten or twenty?
Ten, between 1938 and 2019, comprising seven at White’s Ground, Cowes, two at the Victoria Ground, Newport and one at the Newclose Ground, Newport.
8 Hampshire’s Championship success in 1973 made them the first recipients of what?
The Lord’s Taverners’ Trophy. (This was the first time the trophy was awarded.)
9 Which Hampshire cricketer had the longest life of any first-class cricketer?
John Manners, a Royal Navy man who played six matches for Hampshire between 1936 and 1948, died at Newbury, Berkshire in 2020 aged 105 years, three months.
10 What was unusual about Hampshire’s home first-class matches with Surrey and Essex in 2020?
They were both played at Castle Park, Arundel, in Sussex.
YORKSHIRE at Hove: 24 August 2025
1 What was odd about the outcome of the 1835 first-class match between Yorkshire and Sussex at Hyde Park, Sheffield?
Sussex conceded the match on the third day.
2 The famous George Brown – Brown of Brighton – played in that match. What cricket-ball throwing achievement stands to his name?
He is said to have thrown a ball over the London Road railway viaduct in Brighton at the age of sixty.
3 Yorkshire’s Johnny Wardle holds the record for bowling most maiden overs in Championship cricket in a season. How many overs? 539, 573 or 686.
He bowled 686 in 1952. (The highest in 2024 was 103 by Simon Harmer of Essex.)
4 In what year did Sussex and Yorkshire first play one another in a limited-overs county match?
In 1963, here at Hove: Sussex won by 22 runs.
5 The record for the best-ever bowling return in limited-overs county cricket was set here at Hove in 1988. By whom?
Mike Holding with eight for 21 for Derbyshire. (He didn’t even use up his quota of twelve overs.)
6 How many grounds in Yorkshire have staged Test cricket, including women’s matches?
Four. Leeds, Sheffield and, of course, Collingham and Scarborough.
7 The Second Eleven Championship has been running since 1959 for the ‘reserve teams’ of the leading counties. Around 14,000 matches have been played altogether. A Yorkshire player holds the record for the highest individual score in the competition. How many runs did he score? 283, 332, 371 or 441.
It is 441 by Finlay Bean, against Nottinghamshire at the Nottinghamshire Sports Ground, West Bridgford in 2022. (The second highest score is 332 by Marcus Trescothick in 1997.)
8 Yorkshire won most Championship titles, with 33. Which county has won most one-day tournaments?
Lancashire, with 16.
9 Which former player holds the record for most Test matches umpired by a Yorkshireman?
Richard Kettleborough, who had stood in 90 Tests by the start of the 2025 season.
10 Northamptonshire play matches at Northampton, Derbyshire play at Derby, but do Yorkshire play at York?
Yes, Yorkshire have played two limited-overs matches this season at Clifton Park, York.
SOMERSET at Hove: 21 August 2025
1 Who is the Somerset amateur who took more wickets in the Championship than Maurice Tate’s 2,014 wickets for Sussex?
Jack White, who took 2,080 for Somerset from 1909 to 1937. (His total is the most by amateur.)
2 There have been four triple centuries scored in county matches here at Hove. How many individual scores of 300 or more have they had down at Taunton?
Ten. These include two quadruples and one this season: there have also been a 298 and a 297.
3 Somerset had a scorer from 1946 to 1952 and a player from 1988 to 1996 who shared an interesting presidential surname. What might that be?
Trump.
4 Jim Parks played his county cricket for Sussex and Somerset between 1949 and 1976; he also went on overseas tours. On how many grounds did he play first-class cricket altogether? 79, 86 or 113.
He played on 113 grounds, three fewer than the record holder, Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
5 At Taunton in the Gillette Cup in 1964, Nottinghamshire scored 215 all out in 58.2 overs, Somerset scored 215 for nine in 60 overs. What was the result?
Somerset won because they had lost fewer wickets.
6 Who was the former Somerset cricketer who umpired in nearly a thousand county matches from 1966 to 1995?
Peter Wight. (He umpired 483 Championship matches and 462 limited-overs matches.)
7 Apart from trips into Bristol, Somerset have always played their first-team home matches within the county’s traditional boundaries. True or false?
False. Somerset played five Sunday League matches at Torquay from 1969 to 1975.
8 Somerset hold the record for the ‘highest runs win’ in English limited-overs cricket, set in 1990. What is it, give or take fifty runs?
In a Nat West Trophy match at Torquay, Somerset won by 346 runs, so accept 296 to 396. They scored 413 in sixty overs (Chris Tavare 162) and dismissed Devon (ahem) for 67.
9 Mushtaq Ahmed played in limited-overs matches for Somerset against Sussex and for Sussex against Somerset. True or false?
True. He played four matches for Somerset from 1995 to 1998, and six for Sussex from 2003 to 2007.
10 The scorecard in the Championship match Somerset v Surrey at Taunton in 2023 reports ‘C.Overton c Foakes b J.Overton 5’. What is special about it?
It is one of only five instances of twin dismissing twin in the Championship.
LANCASHIRE at Hove: 15 August, 2025
1 Who has made the highest individual score by a right-hander in Championship cricket?
Archie MacLaren, with 424 for Lancashire against Somerset at Taunton in 1895.
2 Fifteen players have scored 30,000 runs or more in the Championship. Two are brothers; who are they?
J.T. (‘Johnny’) (30,865 runs) and Ernest Tyldesley (31,903), both of Lancashire. (For Sussex John Langridge scored 30,343 and brother James 25,893.)
3 Who was the Lancashire keeper who kept wicket for England in Test matches while still his county’s second-string?
Bill Farrimond, who played four Tests for England from 1931 to 1935 when George Duckworth was Lancashire’s ‘main man’.
4 Lancashire won the toss in a Championship match at Hove in July 1937 and scored 640 for eight on the first day. How many overs, give or take two, did Sussex bowl during the day?
136.2, so accept anything from 134 to 138. Eddie Paynter score 322 for Lancashire.
5 Which Lancashire cricketer also managed Brighton and Hove Albion?
Freddie Goodwin, who played eleven first-class matches for Lancashire in 1955 and 1956, and managed Albion from 1968 to 1970.
6 According to ‘Bumble’, this amateur opened the bowling for Lancashire wearing a cravat. Who was he?
Richard Bowman, whose first Championship match for Lancashire was against Sussex at Worthing in 1957.
7 In what year did Lancashire and Sussex first play one another in a competition limited-overs match?
The first match was in April 1969 here at Hove in the Player League: Lancashire won by five wickets.
8 In what year was the famous Lancashire v Yorkshire match in the Sunday League at Old Trafford when the crowd ‘stormed the gates’ to get into the ground?
In August 1970, when Yorkshire won by seven wickets to take the league title.
9 Lancashire have played one home Championship match outside the county’s traditional boundaries in what used to be the West Riding of Yorkshire. (Shock horror!) Where is it?
Sedbergh School, now in Cumbria. (Match was Lancashire v Durham in 2019.)
10 In which season did Sussex and Lancashire last meet in a limited-overs match?
In 2022 here at Hove, when Lancashire beat Sussex in the semi-final of the Metro Bank Cup.
KENT at Arundel: 7 August, 2025
1 Welcome one and all to Arundel. In which village not far from here were seven men fined in the church courts for playing cricket in the churchyard in April 1622 ‘during time of evensong’?
Boxgrove, about eight miles west of here.
2 What was special about the first-class match played between Sussex and Kent at Lord’s in 1873?
It was the first match in a knock-out tournament for a silver cup arranged by MCC. But all the other counties dropped out and the cup was never awarded.
3 In which decade was the original construction of this delightful ground completed?
In the 1890s. It was completed in 1895, using up to 200 labourers, with the first formal record of a match dating to June 1897.
4 In the Championship, against Kent at Hove in August 1922, Arthur Gilligan won the toss for Sussex and decided to bat. What happened next?
Sussex were dismissed for 43, with Alf (‘Tich’) Freeman taking nine for 11, the best-ever nine-wicket return in the Championship.
5 Sussex Second XI and Kent Second XI used to play one another regularly in the Minor Counties Championship. True or False?
True. They played eight matches, home and away, between 1948 and 1951.
6 There is a long-standing tradition of international touring sides playing friendly matches at this ground. Which surprising country was the first in that tradition, in 1954?
Canada, who played the Duke of Norfolk’s XII in a one-day game in August of that year. The visitors’ fixture list included four first-class matches.
7 In which season did Sussex get around to playing competition first-team matches here?
In 1972, when they lost to Gloucestershire in the John Player League match in a tight finish. Championship matches came rather later, in 1990.
8 Kent’s Colin Cowdrey had special links with Arundel, of course; and he was made a life peer in 1997. How many Championship cricketers have been members of the House of Lords? 16, 23 or 32.
Twenty-three. These include four from Kent (Messrs Cornwallis, Cowdrey, Harris and Tufton), but only two from Sussex (Freeman-Thomas and Sheppard).
9 How many international matches have the England Women’s team played here?
Four. Three were one-day matches in 1993, 2006 and 2008, and one twenty-over match in 2012.
10 Finally, something a bit less historical. In what competition did Jordan Cox and Jack Leaning compile their 423-run second-wicket partnership, the highest in matches between Kent and Sussex?
Bob Willis Trophy, in August 2020 at Canterbury.
ESSEX: 22 July, 2025
QUESTIONS
1 Which Essex bowler was the first player to take all ten wickets in an innings for any county in the ‘official’ Championship?
2 Buxton, at about 300 metres above sea level, is well known as county cricket’s highest venue. Which Essex park has the lowest altitude of any Championship ground?
3 Which Essex captain won an Olympic gold medal as a middleweight boxer?
4 Who was the Sussex all-rounder – he’s featured in the Museum – who, at the age of 46, bowled a spell of 85 six-ball overs, the longest spell in county cricket, at the famous old Leyton ground spread over two days and in both Essex innings?
5 Who has scored most runs for Essex in the County Championship?
6 Which Essex player is the only Championship cricketer to ‘record a number-one hit single’?
7 Once upon a time, Essex were usually found in the lower half of the Championship table. But they’ve now won the title eight times. In which year did their total of Championship match wins overtake their total of match losses? 1986, 1996 or 2006.
8 What was special about the Championship match played here at Hove in 1993 between Essex and Sussex?
9 Essex played Somerset at Lord’s in the final of the Bob Willis Trophy in 2020, the covid year. Played over five days, the match was drawn. What was special about its length?
10 How long have Essex been playing first-class matches at their current headquarters at New Writtle Street, Chelmsford?
ANSWERS
1 Henry Pickett, who took ten for 32 against Leicestershire at Leyton in June 1895 in only the fourth Essex match in the competition.
2 Southchurch Park, Southend-on-Sea, where Essex played 112 matches between 1906 and 2004. Ordnance Survey mapping shows a spot height of just 2m next to its western boundary. Part of the ground was covered by the sea in the floods of February 1953.
3 J.W.H.T.Douglas, county captain from 1911 to 1928, won the middleweight title in the 1908 London Olympics. His Dad refereed the final bout and this has raised doubts about its legitimacy ever since!
4 In 1920 Albert Relf bowled through both Essex innings, with Essex following on; he took nine wickets for just 93 runs. His overs included 38 maidens.
5 Percy Perrin, an amateur who played from 1896 to 1928, scored 27,703 runs in 496 matches for the county. (A few hundred more than both Graham Gooch and Keith Fletcher.)
6 Geoff Hurst, who was in the 1966 England football team which successfully recorded ‘Back Home’ in 1970. He had played one Championship match for Essex in 1962.
7 In 1996, at the end of which their wins had totalled 634 and their losses 632.
8 A total of 1,808 runs were scored over four days, at the time the highest total in a match in England. Essex won by seven wickets.
9 It was the first five-day inter-county match since 1834 when Yorkshire played Norfolk on 14 to 18 July at Sheffield. (Norfolk conceded that match and went home!)
10 They played their first match there against Oxford University on 20, 22 and 23 June, 1925, a hundred years ago this season.
WARWICKSHIRE: 29 June, 2025
QUESTIONS
1 The first-ever first-class match played in Warwickshire was North v South at Leamington Spa in 1849. It had a special Sussex connection. What was this?
2 Which Test cricketer played for Sussex (briefly) and for Warwickshire and came from a family which owned the Edgbaston cricket ground?
3 At the age of 52, he took seventeen wickets in the match for Sussex against Warwickshire ‘on his home turf’ at Horsham in 1926. Who was he?
4 Which Sussex and Warwickshire cricketer was a member of the first expedition to climb Kamet (7,756 m) in Northern India in 1931, at the time the highest peak yet climbed?
5 A Sussex-born player, playing for Warwickshire, is the oldest player to score a century in the County Championship and also the oldest player to take five wickets in an innings in that competition. Who is he?
6 Ian Thomson’s ten for 49 against Warwickshire at Worthing in 1964 is still remembered here, but who achieved the best bowling return by a Warwickshire bowler against Sussex?
7 What was the almost ‘legendary’ institution which, from 1957, helped convert the Edgbaston ground from an ordinary county ground into a regular Test match venue?
8 A well-known Sussex cricketer played six Sunday League matches for Warwickshire a couple of seasons after his retirement from first-class cricket. Who was he?
9 Around 7,500 cricketers have played in the Championship since its ‘official’ start in 1890. Bastien Zuiderent of Sussex is the last, alphabetically, of these. Which recent Warwickshire is at the top of that alphabetical list?
10 At the start of the 2025 season, Warwickshire and Sussex had met – to the nearest ten – in how many Championship fixtures?
ANSWERS
1 The ground was run by John Wisden, Brighton-born, who played 82 matches for Sussex from 1845 to 1963. He started his almanack which still runs, in 1864.
2 Freddie Calthorpe, who played for Sussex in 1911 and 1912, and for Warwickshire from 1919 to 1930.
3 George Cox senior, who took eight for 56 in the first innings and nine for 50 in the second; he achieved a new personal best in each innings.
4 Romilly Lisle Holdsworth, who played 28 Championship matches for Warwickshire from 1919 to 1921 and 34 for Sussex from 1925 to 1929.
5 Willie Quaife, (‘W.G.’) born at Newhaven, who scored 115 v Derbyshire at Edgbaston in 1928, aged 56 years 4 months in August 1928, and took five for 81 also against Derbyshire at Edgbaston in 1926, aged 54 years 3 months.
6 Charles Grove, who took nine for 39 in the visitors’ first innings at Edgbaston in June 1952.
7 The County Supporters Club ran a football pool.
8 John Snow, who played 248 Championship matches for Sussex from 1961 to 1977, played six Player League matches for Warwickshire in 1980. (There was also the small matter of 49 Tests for England.)
9 Aamer Jamal, the Pakistan Test player, who played two Championship matches for Warwickshire last season.
10 154 matches, so will accept 150 or 160. Warwickshire have won 53, Sussex 39, with one tied (here at Hove in 1952) and 61 drawn.
WORCESTERSHIRE: 9 May, 2025
QUESTIONS
1 Over its long history, Sussex have fielded more than forty sets of brothers in first-class cricket. Worcestershire, however, have had one family which provided seven brothers. Who were they?
2 What sporting achievements do Reginald Erskine Foster (of Worcestershire) and Charles Burgess Fry (of Sussex) have in common?
3 Maurice Jewell played thirteen first-class matches in 1919, including four for Sussex and seven for Worcestershire. In those days registration rules were very strict, so why was he allowed to play for two counties in a season?
4 Arthur Herbert Tennyson Somers-Cocks, who became the sixth Baron Somers at the age of 12 in 1899, played 16 Championship matches for Worcestershire from 1923 to 1925. What was he later better known as?
5 The eighth holder of this title played for Worcestershire and the ninth holder played for Sussex. What title are we referring to?
6 Which ‘legendary’ umpire, previously a Worcestershire player, umpired his last-ever Championship match here at Hove in 1955?
7 In a Championship match at 1957, at Eastbourne, Sussex scored 332 and 199 for six declared, and Worcestershire 323 and 208 for five. What was the result of the match?
8 Who is the prime minister who moved from Worcestershire to Sussex apparently to improve his social life?
9 Which Worcestershire wicketkeeper is co-holder of the world record for most dismissals in an innings in a fifty-over match?
10 In the fixture list in 2019, Worcestershire were listed to play Sussex at Worcester on June 17 to 20. The match was actually played at Kidderminster from June 18 to 21. Why the change?
ANSWERS
1 The Foster family, from Malvern, provided seven players to Worcestershire starting in 1899 and ending in 1934. (There was also a brother-in-law, J.W.Greenstock.)
2 They both played for England at cricket and football.
3 The rules were strict, but he did; Worcestershire didn’t take part in the Championship in 1919 so the authorities took no action.
4 He took over from Lord Baden-Powell as Chief Scout of the Empire in 1941.
5 Nawab of Pataudi, a title now extinct. (The eighth Nawab played 33 Championship matches for Worcestershire from 1932 to 1938 and the ninth Nawab played 82 matches for Sussex from 1957 to 1970. Both captained India.)
6 Frank Chester, who had lost part of his left arm in the Great War, umpired his 531 st and final Championship match here at Hove in 1955; he had also ‘stood’ in 48 Test matches
7 It was drawn. Sussex scored four points and Worcestershire six.
8 Imran Khan, at the start of the 1977 season.
9 Jamie Pipe, who made eight catches in an innings v Hertfordshire at Hertford in the C and G Trophy in June 2001.
10 The New Road ground at Worcester had been flooded by the River Severn . . . again.
SURREY: 18 April, 2025
QUESTIONS
1 In what year did the first-ever first-class matches between Surrey and Sussex take place? In 1830, 1840 or 1850?
2 Who was the Surrey player and ‘Roman general’ who coached Sussex’s own Hollywood superstar, Aubrey Smith, whose portrait is displayed in the museum?
3 Which Surrey captain led the county for two seasons while also a member of the House of Commons as Liberal MP for Midlothian?
4 Only two counties have arranged their first-class fixtures so that they played two at the same time. One of these is Surrey. What were the results of their matches?
5 The Championship match between Surrey and Sussex at Hove on 3 to 5 September, 1914, was cancelled at short notice by the Surrey club. Why was this?
6 Which Surrey player scored a triple century for England in a Test match, but never played for England again?
7 Surrey were Champion County for seven successive seasons from 1952 to 1958. They played Sussex eleven times in those years. How many of those matches did Sussex win?
8 Which Surrey player has scored the most runs in an innings in a first-class county limited-overs match?
9 Who scored a triple century for Surrey in his last-but-one Championship match?
10 Surrey have won the County Championship in the last three seasons. Which Surrey player has taken most wickets for them in those years?
ANSWERS
1 Two three-day matches were played in 1830, one at Godalming and one at West Lavington, near Midhurst. Surrey won one and the other was drawn. Sussex were dismissed for 19 at Godalming, still the county’s record lowest innings total.
2 Julius Caesar, who played for Surrey from 1849 to 1867, later coached at Charterhouse School, Godalming where Aubrey Smith was one of his charges. Smith played in about 100 Hollywood films as well as cricket for Sussex.
3 Lord Dalmeny in 1906 and 1907.
4 Surrey played two matches at the same time from 21 to 23 June, 1909. They lost both by an innings; and they never did it again. One was a Championship match against Lancashire at The Oval; the other was twenty miles away at Priory Park, Reigate against Oxford University. It wasn’t an administrative error, apparently.
5 It was cancelled by Surrey, in response to public concern about cricket continuing while severe fighting was under way in Belgium. The war had started on 4 August.
6 Andrew Sandham, who scored 325 against West Indies in Jamaica in April 1930, aged 39.
7 Sussex won just one match out of the eleven, at Guildford, in 1953.
8 Ally Brown, who scored 268 off Glamorgan in a C and G Trophy match at The Oval on 19 June 2002. Surrey scored 438 in their fifty overs and Glamorgan 429: all in a day’s play!
9 Kevin Pietersen, who scored 355* against Leicestershire at The Oval in May, 2015.
10 Dan Worrall, Surrey’s Australian-born fast-medium bowler, with 139 wickets.
SOMERSET: 11 April, 2025
QUESTIONS
1 Sussex started playing first-class cricket in 1815, Somerset started in 1882. What year did they first meet?
2 In what year did Sussex and Somerset first meet in a limited-overs match?
3 Who was the Somerset captain who spent formative years here in Sussex, who played Test cricket for two countries, rugby union for England, hockey for Somerset and football for the Sussex amateur team?
4 What was special about the Somerset cricketers Alfred Bowerman and Montague Toller?
5 In the Championship match at Taunton in August 1901, the Sussex captain, K.S.Ranjitsinhji, batted through the last day scoring 285* to save the match for the Sussex. What had he done the night before?
6 What was special about the first meeting (in May, 1919) between Sussex and Somerset after the Great War?
7 Who was the Somerset batter who played for the county for just three seasons, yet scored 6,975 runs at an average of 69.75?
8 What else was special about the Sussex total of 742 for five at Taunton in 2009
9 What do the Sussex clubs Eastbourne and Horsham, and the Somerset club Bath have in common?
10 When did Somerset and Sussex last meet in the County Championship?
ANSWERS
1 Their first meeting was on 21 and 22 July, 1892 at Taunton. (Somerset won on the second of the three days allocated. The return match here at Hove in September was almost completely washed out.)
2 In 1964 in the quarter final of the Gillette Cup at Taunton, then sixty-overs affairs. (Sussex won, scoring only 141 in 54.5 overs, but they bowled out Somerset for only 125 runs.)
3 Sammy Woods, who was Somerset captain from 1894 to 1906.
4 They played cricket for the team representing England in the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris. (They were members of the Devon and Somerset Wanderers side representing England which won in the only cricket match ever played in an Olympic Games.)
5 He had been fishing all night – apparently. (His 285 set a new Sussex record not beaten until his nephew’s 333 in 1930.)
6 The match was tied, with the last Sussex batter in effect ‘timed out’. (This was the famous Heygate incident. With the scores equal, the last Sussex batsman, Harold Heygate took more than two minutes to reach the wicket – he had not been expected to bat because he was suffering from rheumatism and came out wearing his ‘street clothes’. On an appeal from Len Braund, the Somerset Test player, umpire Alfred Street, a Test umpire himself, gave him ‘out’.)
7 Jimmy Cook, later a South African Test player, who was the leading Championship run-scorer in 1989, 1990 and 1991.
8 It included Murray Goodwin’s 344 not out, the highest individual score in first-class cricket for Sussex. (Not surprisingly, the match was drawn.)
9 They have all won the National Club Championship. (Eastbourne won it in 1997, Horsham in 2005 and Bath in 2021. The competition has been running since 1969.)
10 In September 2015, at Hove. (The match was a rain-curtailed draw.)