Music of the Spheres Trivia Quiz

Answer: Squash

Australian-born Heather McKay was arguably the greatest squash player of the 20th century. When she retired from top level competition in 1981, she had been undefeated in over twenty years, winning 16 consecutive British Opens (the forerunner of the World Championships) without dropping a single game in any of those finals. She won two World Opens in 1976 and 1979. She also played field hockey for Australia and was a world champion in racquetball.

Born in Peshawar, Pakistan in 1963, Jahangir Khan was a squash prodigy. At the age of 17, he beat squash legend, Geoff Hunt, to win his first World Open in 1981. He won 5 more World Opens (and was runner-up 3 times) and 10 British Opens from 1982. He retired in 1993.

Answer: Tennis

After leaving her native Czechoslovakia for the USA, Navratilova turned professional in 1975. Over the next 15 years she won 18 Grand Slam tournaments, including Wimbledon 9 times, and 31 Grand Slam Doubles tournaments including all 4 in 1984 with partner, Pam Shriver (plus another 15 Grand Slam Mixed Doubles titles).

Left-handed Rod 'Rocket' Laver was born in 1938 and helped Australia to win the Davis Cup four years in a row from 1959 (and then again in 1973). He won the Grand Slam as an amateur in 1962 and then turned professional, thus rendering hm ineligible for these tournaments until the 'Open Era' commenced in 1968. He then completed the Grand Slam again in that year. Overall he won 200 singles titles and the main court in Melbourne used for the Australian Open is named in his honor.

Answer: Golf

Swedish golfer Annika Sorenstam retired in 2008 after a career starting in 1992. During that 16 year period, she crafted an extremely impressive playing record including 72 wins on the LPGA tour, another 17 wins on the European tour, 10 Major championships and 60 weeks as the world's top-ranked female golfer. She represented Europe in the Solheim Cup (against the USA) and continued as non-playing captain of this team after retiring from playing.

American Ben Hogan (1912-1997) has a profound effect on the game of golf. Known as 'The Hawk', Hogan combined an exquisite skill with his clubs and a fierce will to win, resulting in 64 wins on the PGA tour, including 9 Majors. Arguably, his biggest impact was on the teaching of golf where his "Five Lessons" covering the basics of the golf stance, grip and swing have hugely influenced amateur and professional golfers since 1957.

Answer: Basketball

After playing college basketball for Texas Tech, small forward/shooting guard Sheryl Swoopes was drafted by the Houston Comets for the inaugural WNBA season in 1997. She played 359 regular and post season games for Houston (1997-2007), Seattle (2008) and Tulsa (2011), winning 6 WNBA All-star awards, a host of individual league awards and 4 championships with Houston (1997-2000). She was an integral part of USA teams that won Olympic Games gold medals in three successive Olympics (1996, 2004 and 2004).

Selected first in the 1979 NBA Draft, point guard Earvin 'Magic' Johnson played for the LA Lakers until retiring in 1992 after 874 regular season games and another 190 playoff games. He returned at the age of 36 for a further 32 games in 1996. During his playing career he made 12 All-star teams, 3 times league Most Valuable Player, averaged nearly 20 points per game and helped the USA to the gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Answer: Hurling

Born in Ballyhale, County Kilkenny in 1979, Henry Shefflin made his senior team debut in the 1999 season. Regarded as one of the greatest exponents of hurling in the game's history (some pundits nominate him as the greatest ever), Shefflin won ten All-Ireland medals and captained the All-Ireland team in 2007. At the time of his retirement from inter-county hurling in March 2015, Shefflin's career total of 28 goals and 485 points in 71 games made him the highest ever scorer in the championship.

Senior hurling in Ireland is organized at county level. Counties compete for the provincial title and then the most successful teams then compete at the national level. Up until 2019, County Kilkenny has won more All-Ireland titles (36) than any other county; the next most successful counties have been Cork (30 wins) and Tipperary (28 wins). Kilkenny have also won 71 Leinster provincial titles.

Answer: Cricket

NSW-born Belinda Clark was captain of the Australian Women's Cricket team from 1994 until her retirement in 2005. Her career highlights are many but include being the inaugural winner of Wisden Australia's 'Cricketer of the Year' (even more meritorious as this award is across both men's and women's teams and the Australian men's team were dominant at this time) and scoring the first ever double century in One Day International matches. Her 229 not out at the 2007 World Cup in India was the highest international score in this form of cricket until Rohit Sharma's 264 for the Indian men's team in 2014. Clark also captained her national team to World Cup success in 1997 and 2005 (and beaten finalist in 2000).

Sachin Tendulkar is known as 'the little master' due to his slight stature. However, his batting performances are regarded with awe, especially in his homeland of India. He made his international debut in 1989 at the age of 16 in a Test Match against Pakistan and his One Day International debut in the same year. Upon his retirement 24 years later, Tendulkar had amassed over 34,000 runs in international cricket and was the first player to score 100 international centuries (51 in Tests, 49 in ODIs). He was a technically correct but also very stylish batsman.He was also an accomplished bowler and took exactly 200 wickets in his 663 international matches.

Answer: Association Football, Soccer

Johann Cruyff (1947-2016) grew up in Amsterdam and joined the junior program at perennial Dutch powerhouse football club, Ajax, at the age of 10. He moved up to the Ajax senior team in 1964 and was instrumental in them winning 8 national titles, 3 European Cups and an Intercontinental Cup. He joined Barcelona for a then record transfer fee in 1973 and helped 'Barca' win La Liga that season. He then led the Dutch team to the final of the 1974 World Cup, in which he was awarded 'Player of the Tournament'. He was also awarded three Ballon d'Or (1971, 73,74) as the world's best footballer.

One of the world's most famous and richest soccer clubs, Spain's Barcelona FC was established in 1899. Over the next 120 years, 'Barca' won 26 league titles, 30 Copa del Rey (a national knock out competition) and several other trophies, plus at an international level: 5 x UEFA Champions League titles, 4 UEFA Cup Winners' Cups, 5 UEFA Super Cups and 3 FIFA Club World Cups. Their fabled and fierce rivalry with Real Madrid has elevated their matches (originally in La Liga, and now for any encounter, known as 'El Clasico') to one of the most enduring and compelling battles on the soccer pitch worldwide.

Answer: Ten Pin Bowling

Born in Florida in 1961, Lisa Wagner was coached in bowling by her parents. She turned professional in 1980 and had a brilliant first decade on the Ladies Professional Bowling Tour marked by her accolade as the tour's bowler of the decade, along with many 'Bowler of the Year' titles. Further success occurred in the 1990s but not at the stratospheric levels of the previous decade. Wagner was elected to the US Bowling Congress Hall of Fame and upon her retirement in 2001 she had won more tournaments (32) than any other female bowler.

Earl Anthony (1938-2001) began bowling after serving in the US Air Force. After several years playing in amateur tournaments, Anthony turned professional in 1970 and had immediate success. He set several records in his career including the first bowler to earn $100,000 in a season (1975) and in 1982 was the first to earn one million dollars in a career. In a 14-year professional career he won 43 titles, recorded 25 perfect games (a score of 300) and was ranked as the greatest bowler of the 20th century by the bowling industry and his peers. He was inducted into the Professional Bowlers Association's Hall of Fame in 1981 while still being an active competitor.

Answer: Baseball

Theodore 'Ted' Williams (1918-2002) is regarded as one of the finest hitters the game of baseball has seen. Williams played his entire career with the Boston Red Sox after joining them for the 1939 season. In 1941, his batting average was 0.406 - no one over the next 79 years has managed to reach 0.400. His career statistics are phenomenal: 19 times All-Star, two batting Triple Crowns (1942 & 1947), 521 home runs, a career average of 0.344, two-time American League Most Valuable Player and elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. His statistics may have been even higher but for active military service in World War II and the Korean War. He was also an active fund raiser for medical research and in 1991 was awarded the highest US civilian honor - the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The New York Yankees came into existence in 1913 after the franchise started in Baltimore in 1901 and then moved to New York as the 'Highlanders' in 1903. Up until 2020, the Yankees have been the most successful team in Major League Baseball, winning 27 Wold Series (the next highest is the St Louis Cardinals with 11) and 40 American League pennants. Some of the most famous players in baseball history have starred in the Yankees' pinstripe uniform including Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Whitey Ford, Derek Jeter, Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra.

Answer: Cue Sports

Cue Sports encompasses billiards, snooker and pool (with all that game's variations).

English-born Allison Fisher started playing snooker at the age of 7. Ten years later she claimed the first of her 11 world titles. She moved to the USA and switched to the Women's Professional Billiards Association tour, focusing on 9-ball pool. She was ranked number 1 on this tour almost continuously from 1996 to 2007, where she has won 50 tournaments. She won an individual gold medal at the 2009 World Games in Taiwan. She also competed very successfully against the world's leading male players on TV's "Matchroom Snooker".

Walter 'Wally' Lindrum (1898-1960), was born in Western Australia and became internationally famous for his startling exploits in the sport of billiards. In the 1920s, he was so good that many other players refused to play against him, hence exhibition matches were organized to showcase his prodigious talent. He was the World Professional Billiards Champion from 1933 until his retirement in 1950. He set a record of 4,137 against his great rival Joe Davis in 1932 - each shot in billiards scores just 2 or 3 points (or occasionally combinations of these). His prowess resulted in the rules of the sport being changed to limit the number of 'nursery cannons' a player could score consecutively. A cannon is a shot where the player's cue ball hits both the other balls in the same shot. Lindrum would play these shots effortlessly, skillfully manipulating the positions of the balls after every shot to set up the next one. During his lifetime he also raised over 2 million pounds for charity, primarily through playing exhibition matches.