The Test Career of Geoffrey Boycott [3] Quiz

Answer: carried his bat through an England innings

Here was a match which England could have won after skipper Mike Brearley's bold decision to put Australia in on the first morning - the home side were struggling at 127-5 in mid-afternoon - but in the end the tourists lost by 138 runs, in spite of Boycott's heroic second-innings effort, which lasted more than six hours.

Boycott finished with 99 not out - the first time this exact score had ever been registered in a Test match, although a few other players have recorded it since. Bob Willis, England's No. 11, could not stay with his senior partner long enough to see him through to three figures - but the real blame lay with the specialist batsmen, some of whom let Boycott down by getting out to loose strokes at critical moments. "Geoff did his job superbly," commented Brearley after the game,"but we didn't do ours." Or in the words of Wisden, "Only Boycott showed the technique and determination needed to survive."

England also lost the other two Tests of this three-match rubber (which, for various reasons, was not accorded Ashes status) but they were at the receiving end of some controversial umpiring decicions - more than once involving Greg Chappell, Australia's captain and star batsman, who seemed to lead a charmed life at the crease.

Answer: Ian Botham

Boycott had wanted the England captaincy badly since at least 1973 and was considered by many (including, of course, himself) to be the person best qualified for the job, but it seems that the board of selectors (and in particular their long-serving chairman, the unflappable Alec Bedser) had decided a long time before this that the Yorkshireman was a hopeless loner whose behaviour under extreme pressure was dangerously unpredictable. (The selectors were not always unanimous in these matters, however: Boycott's old Test buddy John Murray had resigned from the panel in protest in the autumn of 1978 after his one-time teammate was deprived of the England vice-captaincy.)

All this led to Botham's being thrown in at the deep end as skipper against Clive Lloyd's all-conqueroring West Indians, and the extra pressures of captaining the side against such ultra-powerful opposition certainly seemed to affect the brilliant young player's batting form, which returned in 1981 immediately after he relinquished his extra burden.

Boycott was a key player in Botham's team, and he played his heart out as always. England lost the summer series only 1-0, and nobody will ever know if the extra expertise that Boycott would have brought to the top job might not even have tipped the end result in England's favour. Boycott would also have had his say in selection meetings, without any doubt: he is on record as commenting, for instance, that he thought the selectors had made a pretty good blunder in dropping the classy Kent batsman Bob Woolmer from the England squad after only two Tests of the summer, and then not even bringing him back for the Caribbean tour which followed, when several players of lesser ability were chosen.

Answer: Gooch scored 123 at Lord's after Boycott failed

Although both openers averaged about 40 in the five-match series - no mean feat against the opposition's fearsome fast-bowling quartet - they did not manage a really big partnership together, their highest being 95 in the second innings at Headingley. There was an invigorating stand of 155 for the first wicket at the Oval, but this was mainly between Gooch and Somerset's Brian Rose, after Boycott had retired hurt in the opening overs.

Gooch's 123 at Lord's was an exciting innings which seemed to demonstrate to his teammates - including Boycott - not only that it was possible to score runs against this formidable attack but also that it was possible to enjoy doing so.

Answer: by scoring a century

There was some excellent cricket played in this historic game by both sides, in particular by the young Australian vice-captain Kim Hughes (who batted beautifully for 117 and 84), but the captains were not prepared to take risks and persistent rain over two days - and then a waterlogged outfield - curtailed play and, together with Boycott's dogged resistance, ensured a draw. Boycott top-scored in both England innings, playing the fast men Lillee and Pascoe more confidently than anybody else in the England camp.

Sadly, this match is more likely to be remembered for an unsavoury incident in which Umpire David Constant was physically assaulted in the members' enclosure by a man protesting about delays to the restart of play. After Constant had been rescued by the two captains, the Australian skipper Greg Chappell - revealing a hitherto unsuspected sensitive side to his nature - complained about having been "embarrassed" by some of the strong language used by angry MCC members during this incident.

They're an eccentric bunch, these Lord's members: it is said that some of them used to get down on their knees before the start of every Test match in which Geoffrey Boycott was due to play, and pray to the God of Cricket for his early dismissal. Well, at least they never did him any physical harm.

Answer: Michael Holding

The single devastating over which the lean and hungry-looking Holding unleashed at Boycott in the first innings, the sixth ball of which clean-bowled him, has gone down in Caribbean folklore, and there must have been some joyful calypsos written about it afterwards. It is reported that the perfectionist Yorkshireman afterwards studied innumerable video clips from different angles of the delivery which had dismissed him, before finally concluding that there was no way either he or anybody else could have kept that ball from hitting the stumps.

England lost this match by 298 runs, but some pride was salvaged by Boycott's opening partner, Graham Gooch, who hit a defiant 116 as his teammates fell around him in the second innings.

Answer: by scoring a century

The honour of scoring the first Test century at St John's went to Northamptonshire's Peter Willey on the first day: he played brilliantly, but since he was batting down at No.7 he predictably ran out of partners soon after reaching three figures. Boycott's 104 not out came in the second innings as he and Gooch (83) ensured a comfortable draw. Except for his double failure in Barbados, Boycott - who had just turned 40 when the tour began - scored good runs in all the Tests and won praise for his cricket from all quarters, including from some of his former critics.

Answer: Keith Fletcher

Fletcher, "the Essex Gnome", captained England in India and Sri Lanka in 1981-82, but did not particularly endear himself to the Indian crowds either by his introverted manner or by his negative tactics on the field, especially after England had lost the First Test at Bombay by 138 runs. It was a low-scoring game, which they should have won.

This match was poised in England's favour after the painstaking efforts of Boycott and his snail-paced understudy from Kent, the slow-scoring Chris Tavaré - "a worse version of me", as the Yorkshireman remarked grimly. The dedicated pair had, in making the two top scores of the match (60 and 56 respectively), put together a solid second-wicket stand of 92 in England's first innings, only to see their teammates fritter away the edge thus gained (aided, admittedly, by one or two grotesque umpiring misjudgments in India's favour).

The sight of two such slow batters occupying the crease for hours together - even if they were helping to edge England into a good position - was too much for the late great Denis Compton, covering the series as a journalist, as he prepared his evening copy for a British tabloid newspaper. "Never again!" he spluttered over his vindaloo, "never again must Boycott and Tavaré be allowed to play together in the same England side!"

Answer: he resumed the vice-captaincy of the side

Boycott returned to England early after having reportedly been found practising his strokes on a golf course when he should have been fielding in the Fourth Test at Eden Gardens, Calcutta. He was also later revealed to have played a leading part in organising a rebel tour to apartheid-ridden South Africa which was to take place the following year, something which led to his not being considered for an England place for the next three years - and he didn't play for England again.

It is said that most of Boycott's teammates in India were quite glad to see him go home early, although he was warmly defended by his long-time colleague Derek Underwood, who remarked that the younger players criticising "Fiery" had "never seen him in Australia, batting for hour after hour in the blazing heat."

Answer: 108

Quite a lot of people - and not only in Yorkshire - think he should have played in more. There was one last chance to bring him back, in the Caribbean on David Gower's tour of 1985-86 when Mike Gatting's nose got in the way of a Malcolm Marshall bouncer and he was forced to withdraw from the series.

The 45-year-old Boycott, who had been compiling mountains of runs for Yorkshire in the summer and was covering the winter tour as a journalist, courageously volunteered to step into the sudden vacancy and square up again to the fearsome pace of the world's most dangerous bowlers.

His offer was politely declined, and a younger player was drafted in from England - although personally I think Boycott would have physically glued himself to the wicket rather than let any England team of which he was a member lose 5-0 in a rubber (which they managed to do without him).

Answer: 47.73

The other three Test batting averages given are - in descending order - those of Gower, Gooch and Fletcher respectively. Boycott averaged 84.42 against Pakistan, 57.05 against India, 47.50 against Australia (with seven centuries) and 45.93 against the West Indies (with five centuries).