They Didn't Have a Prayer Quiz | Australia

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. 1882, test cricket: an Australian team toured the "mother country", playing a single Test match in London. The Aussies did not bat particularly well, leaving England a target of only 85 runs to win. But fast bowler Fred Spofforth destroyed the English side in the second innings, bringing his team an 8 run victory--to the immense surprise of the locals, who hadn't expected they could be beaten by "the colonies". Thus goes the origin story of The Ashes -- but what were they ashes of, exactly?

Answer: The body of English cricket, according to a mock obituary

While the 1882 match was not the first between England and Australia, it was the one that gave rise to the legend of The Ashes. The local press was in fact quite gracious in defeat, praising the touring team for their unexpected victory. The most famous reaction was that of Reginald Brooks, published in The Sporting Times:
"In affectionate remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at the Oval on 29th AUGUST 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. RIP. NB-The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia."

The English team's tour of Australia the following summer became known as "the quest to recover the ashes". It wasn't for another 20 years that the contest became routinely known as "The Ashes". More recently, the Australian media have taken to giving the name to any regular sporting contest between the two nations, but purists including your humble author will have none of that!

2. 1940 Melbourne Cup: "The race that stops a nation" was won by a seven-year-old gift horse who had been retired after breaking down two years earlier. The winner started the race at 100-1 odds, beating the 7-4 favourite as well as the previous year's runner-up. What was the name of this horsey underdog?

Answer: Old Rowley

Old Rowley was named after the favourite horse of King Charles II--a nickname later given to the king himself. Our Old Rowley was given to his owner/trainer as a present from a friend, and ran second place in a couple of big races before breaking down in the spring of 1938. He was put out to pasture and after a year of resting regained his fitness, although he was still a skinny, unimpressive looking animal compared to the rest of the Melbourne Cup field.

Old Rowley wasn't the first horse to win Australia's most famous race at 100-1 odds. Previous winners from these odds were The Pearl in 1871, and Wotan in 1936.

3. 1983 America's Cup: An Australian team attempting to loosen the New York Yacht Club's 132-year hold on the cup found itself 3-1 down in a best-of-seven competition. Skipper John Bertrand pulled off a miracle when he won three consecutive races to secure the historic victory. What was the famous, and controversial, design element that gave Australia II the winning edge?

Answer: Winged keel

Designed by Ben Lexcen, Australia II included a number of innovative elements, of which the keel attracted the most attention. The winged keel improved the yacht's stability and manoeuvrability while lowering drag. The New York Yacht Club lodged a protest against the Australian team, arguing that the boat's design strayed from the boundaries of a 12 meter class yacht. However, the legality of the design was upheld.

The America's Cup victory is now best remembered in Australia for the joyous declaration of the celebrating Prime Minister, Bob Hawke: "Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum".

4. 1989, State of Origin rugby league series: Game 2 was one of the most brutal in Origin history. Queensland lost three of their stars before half-time--Allan Langer with a broken ankle, Mal Meninga with a fractured eye socket, and Paul Vautin with an elbow injury. Two more players retired hurt in the second half, leaving the Maroons a man down with 5 minutes to go as they'd exhausted their reserve bench. And still Queensland won! Who led his team to victory with a kingly effort, including a 40m individual try?

Answer: Wally Lewis

"King Wally" considered Game 2 of the 1989 State of Origin series to be his team's greatest performance. Meanwhile many commentators and fans think that the game showed Lewis at his tough and brilliant best. Queensland won the match 16-12, after taking the first game 36-16. Meninga, Langer and Bob Linder (who stayed on the field with a fractured ankle for part of the second game) were recuperating from their injuries during the final match, which Queensland took 36-16 for a series clean sweep.

5. 1996, one-day cricket: Australia faced the West Indies at the SCG. Set 173 for victory, Australian found itself 6 wickets down for only 38 runs when the top order collapsed spectacularly. However, one batsman's dogged persistence whittled away at the total before scoring a boundary off the last ball of the match to pull off a thrilling victory. Considered the best limited overs batsman of his time, who was the Aussie hero that New Years Day?

Answer: Michael Bevan

In the days before 20/20 cricket changed the short form of the game, Michael Bevan was the one day king. He retired from ODIs with almost 7,000 runs at an average of 53.58--higher than any other player at that time. The 1996 New Years Day game was not a high scoring affair but remains an example of one-day cricket at its finest: a splintering bowling attack, skilful batting with the tail by Bevan, and a nail-biting finish. Just magnificent.

6. 1996, Atlanta Olympics. World record holder and defending Olympic champion Kieren Perkins entered the games plagued by illness, injury and poor form. He performed badly in the heats, barely qualifying for the final in last place (he qualified 8th out of a field of eight). But the next day Perkins inspired a nation when, from the outside lane, he won the gold medal nobody expected--not even himself. What was Perkins' race?

Answer: Swimming: 1500m freestyle

In 1991, at the age of 18, Kieren Perkins broke the world record in the men's 1500m freestyle event. He went on to set new record times twice more over the next two years (including at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona), shaving almost 9 seconds off the total all up. In 1994 Perkins broke world records for 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle including, astonishingly, the last two in the same race!

By 1996 it appeared that the Australian distance champion's star was fading. He scraped into the Olympic final by less than a quarter of a second and even considered pulling out of the race. But thankfully he decided to press on against the odds, securing a fondly-remembered place in Australian sporting history in the process.

7. 2002, Salt Lake City: Australia's first ever gold medal in a Winter Olympics came in the most unusual circumstances. Considered unlikely to progress past the speed skating heats, serendipity sent Steven Bradbury to the final. There he was definitely the underdog: the oldest racer, worn out from skating four races back-to-back. What happened to send him home with gold?

Answer: All the other racers crashed on the final turn

Steven Bradbury's heat included the defending World Champion (Canadian Marc Gagnon) and the race favourite (American Apolo Anton Ohno), and with only the first two finishers from each heat moving to the semi-finals Bradbury's third place would not normally be good enough. However, Gagnon was disqualified for obstruction. Three skaters crashed in the semi-final, allowing the Australian to finish second--good enough to progress to the final. Bradbury's tactic in the final was to stay clear of the lead pack and hope that a risky manoeuvre in the tussle for gold might benefit him again, but even he didn't expect to be the only man standing at the finish line!

The underdog story became even more compelling when Australians learned that Steven Bradbury had almost died in a horrific skating accident 8 years earlier. His thigh was sliced through by another skater's blade following a collision, resulting in the loss of more than half his blood volume. It took a year and a half for Bradbury's leg to fully recover, and just as long for me to stop shuddering when I thought about that crash.

8. 2006, FIFA World Cup: only once before had there been an Australian team in the competition, in 1974. Having come heartbreakingly close to qualification in the previous two cycles (1998 and 2002), Australians were filled with ecstatic disbelief when their place was secured with a penalty shoot-out against the much higher ranked Uruguay. But just getting into the competition is one thing - how far did the Socceroos progress?

Answer: To the round of 16

In both 1998 and 2002 the Socceroos finished at the top of the Oceania division in the qualification round, but had to also make it through two Inter-Continental Playoff matches. In 2002 they lost to Uruguay, and in 1998 tied both games against Iran but failed to progress due to the "away goals" rule (1-1 away 2-2 at home). Painfully close!

In 2006 Australia's qualification again came down to an Inter-Continental Playoff series against Uruguay. The South Americans won the first game 1-0 (at home), and Australia evened things up with a 1-0 win (at home) in the second game. Tied on games and goals the nation's sporting fate rested on a penalty shootout, which the Aussies won 4-2.

At the point of qualifying, Australia was ranked second last of the participating teams. The team finished second in the group round, ahead of the higher-ranked Croatia and Japan, and advanced to the knockout stage. A controversial penalty goal in the last seconds of the match saw the Socceroos bow out after their Round of 16 game against Italy--a historical result for an Australian men's team and better than even the most die-hard fan could have hoped for.

9. 2009, rugby league: Two-thirds of the way through the season the Parramatta Eels sat only three points away from the bottom of the ladder. However, fortune turned in late July with the blue and gold winning seven of their remaining eight matches to squeak into the finals series by a solitary competition point. The Eels romped through the preliminaries, beating the top three placed teams along the way, to secure the unimaginable Grand Final berth. After all that excitement comes the big question: which team does history show were the 2009 premiers?

Answer: No one

Parramatta's 2009 season was the first time since the top 8 finals format was introduced that an eighth placed team made it to the Grand Final.Unfortunately for the fairy tale ending, the Melbourne Storm beat the mighty Eels 23-16 on Grand Final day.

However, in 2010 the Melbourne club was found to have engaged in a fraudulent scheme to break the competition's salary cap rules, and was retrospectively stripped of its recent premiership titles. Instead of awarding the premiership to the runner-up, the record books were amended to show the title in 2009 (and 2007) as vacant. Parramatta was robbed!

10. 2012, London Olympics: the Australian team's poorest performance in 20 years stood in contrast to some inspiring individual triumphs. One of these was Anna Meares, who became one of the most successful track cyclists in Olympic history. What extraordinary setback from four years earlier had she overcome to win gold?

Answer: A broken neck

Meares left the London games a five-time Olympic medallist: 2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze over three meets. She has won medals in the 500m time trial, the individual sprint and the team sprint. Meares has also won gold more than a dozen times in Commonwealth Games and World Championships.

In January 2008 Meares suffered a broken neck in an accident at a World Cup event. She recovered in time to qualify for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where she won a silver medal. Four years later she did one better, beating the host country favourite and lifting the national mood in the process.

Source: Author lorance79

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor gtho4 before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

They Didn't Have a Prayer Trivia Quiz

Australian sport fans love nothing more than an underdog (unless it's a foreign underdog beating an Aussie!) This quiz looks at 10 occasions from a mix of Australian sports when we got behind someone who didn't have a prayer.

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