As the deadline for answers has passed for this year's quiz, I'll put my answers up and anyone that likes can discuss them and tell me I got certain ones wrong (happens every year)! I made almost literally a last minute change to question 28, and also reworded 35 just before I sent in my answers. Questions 23 and 41 were the only two where I had to take some element of a guess.
2009 remembered
1 Which ground provided the unusual sight in a Test match of a bowler starting his run-up from inside the penalty area?
Antigua Recreation Ground (in St.Johns, Antigua)
2 Which former Gloucestershire cricketer, dismissed for 111 when scoring his maiden first-class century, died in 2009?
Sir Derrick Bailey
3 Possible future participation in which activity prevented Andrew Flintoff from signing an England contract, according to his agent Chubby Chandler?
Bungee-jumping
4 Which test cricketer called it a day in first class cricket after losing his off stump to a novice (though he was clearly batting on a substandard surface)?
Michael Vaughan
5 What first occurred in the 2009 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack?
A woman [Claire Taylor] was named one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year
6 What 75-year Test hoodoo was finally broken?
England beating Australia in an Ashes Test at Lord’s
7 Which studious partnership was blamed by many for England’s defeat by West Indies in the Twenty20 World Cup?
Duckworth and Lewis
8 Which double-agent grafted his way past one of Don Bradman's records?
Justin Langer
9 Which son of a former England test wicketkeeper, on his first class debut, was thrown the gauntlets in the second innings and took four catches out of the six wickets to fall?
Jonathan Bairstow
10 Which ‘new Ian Botham’ ended up as the new Norman Stanley Fletcher?
Chris Lewis
Testing Times
11 Who is England’s leading Test run scorer in the Noughties (2000-2009)?
Marcus Trescothick
12 Who is England’s leading Test wicket-taker in the Noughties (2000-2009)?
Matthew Hoggard
13 What links the following pairs: Ian Botham and Gordon Greenidge; Andrew Caddick and Gary Kirsten; Mike Atherton and Jack Russell; Alec Stewart and Nathan Astle?
Each pair of players shared the player of the match award in the same test match
14 What honour links Joel Garner, George Headley, Malcolm Marshall and Brian Statham?
All four players have ends named after them at international cricket grounds
15 In the controversial Oval test against Pakistan Kevin Pietersen’s big hitting was said to have damaged the ‘tampered’ ball. How many sixes did KP belt with the offending ball?
Zero
16 At Cardiff in July 2009 James Anderson and Monty Panesar held out for 69 deliveries. What was the previous record for most balls survived by Nos.10 and 11 at the end of a Test?
60 balls (by Darren Powell and Fidel Edwards)
17 Who is the odd one out and why?
Jonathan Agnew, Phillip Hughes, Graeme Swann and Ian Bell
Ian Bell is the odd one out as he is the only one without an active, genuine Twitter account
18 Who is the odd one out and why?
Greg Ritchie, Clive Lloyd, Phil Tufnell and James Anderson
James Anderson is the odd one out as he is the only one without a “cat” nickname
19 In the 1970s what practice, now commonplace, was considered so objectionable by two of the opposition that they refused to play in a test against England?
Playing Test cricket on Sundays
20 Which Lancashire player's stop-start Test career meant he missed ‘the next test’ on more occasions than any other cricketer - over 20 times?
Brian Statham
21 Name the former Test cricketer in the following anagram: TALL GREY BOWLER IS IGNORED
Robert George Dylan Willis (better known as Bob Willis)
22 Middlesex kindly provided Phillip Hughes with batting practice in 2009 but which county, since the War, once selected for a championship fixture four overseas Test players who would, later the same summer, beat England in two Tests?
Warwickshire was the county, and Rohan Kanhai, Alvin Kallicharan, Deryck Murray and Lance Gibbs were the players
Anoraks corner
23 Prior to summer 2009 when was the last time that six wickets fell before lunch on the first scheduled day of a Headingley test?
In 1899 in the Headingley Ashes test between England and Australia
24 Which opening batsman in the second innings of an Ashes Test decided it would be best if he took all the bowling from one end, not taking the strike at the opposite end until the 40th over?
Arthur Morris
25 Why did Don Tallon receive no applause on scoring a first-class century?
Tallon was dismissed for 96 for Queensland against New South Wales, but at the close of play, the opposition wicket-keeper, Bert Oldfield, pointed out that Tallon had touched a ball that was signaled as four byes. These were then given to Tallon, giving him a century, but as he had already departed for 96, he therefore received no applause.
26 Name the four players who have scored over 4,000 Test runs, all been ranked No.1 Test batsman by the ICC rankings yet never scored a test century in England.
Kumar Sangakkara, Doug Walters, Andy Flower and Alvin Kallicharran
Connections
27 What cinematically links Jack Hobbs, Michael Slater, Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar?
The players were possible answers to a TV quiz question in the movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
28 What unhappily links Paul Collingwood, Hansie Cronje, Desmond Haynes and Peter Roebuck?
They all captained their national side to a loss in a limited overs match against the Netherlands
29 What unimaginatively links Mike Atherton, Michael Vaughan, Mike Denness and Denis Compton?
They all wrote an autobiography with the same title already used by another cricketer for their autobiography
30 What painfully links Inzamam-ul-Haq, Rohan Kanhai, Arjuna Ranatunga and Graeme Smith?
They all batted in a test match (official or unofficial) with a hand injury
31 What repeated feat speedily links Michael Bevan, Jimmy Cook, Graeme Hick and Eric Russell?
First batsman to score 1,000 first class runs in an English season
32 What frustratingly links Anil Kumble, Courtney Walsh, Wasim Akram and Makhaya Ntini?
They have all taken 10 wickets in a first class match in vain because they still ended up on the losing side
Off Field Highlights
33 Which black teenager – famous for frequently invading the pitch at Lord’s – appeared in Wisden’s obituaries during the 1960s?
Peter the Lord’s Cat
34 Which batsman, taking strike right-handed in fading light, adorned the cover of a 1970s UK top-10 album?
Elton John
35 Translate this sentence into modern day cricketing parlance: "He played the goose game after a scout had buttered him in the box"
He [a batsman] played extremely cautiously/defensively after a fielder had dropped him at gully/backward point
36 Which fictional cricketer in the 1950s; made a century on Test debut; once stonewalled for six runs between lunch and tea; and signed off, lbw, with an emotional second-ball duck?
Sam Palmer
37 How did Flintoff, Pietersen and Vaughan make living history alongside the Queen in 2005?
They were the first living people, apart from the Royal Family, to be recognizable on Royal Mail stamps
Fantastic Feats
38 Mitchell Johnson, playing in his 23rd test, became the quickest Australian player to amass 500 runs and 100 wickets. Whom did he displace?
Geoff Lawson
39 Though many cricket historians seriously doubt its authenticity, what almighty feat has not been bettered since 1856, according to Wisden?
The longest distance a cricket ball has been hit (175 yards)
40 Apart from Sir Ian Botham which England player has won the most Test man-of-the-match awards against Australia?
Derek Randall
41 Stuart Broad registered the quickest five-for (taking his fifth wicket after bowling 8.4 overs) by an England bowler in an Ashes test since the War. Who had done the previous best?
Bob Willlis
42 Andrew Flintoff, following his 5 for 92 in 2009, now appears on both the batting and bowling honours boards at Lord’s. Which six other players are also in this select club?
Sir Ian Botham, Ray Illingworth, Sir Gubby Allen, Sir Garfield Sobers, Keith Miller and Vinoo Mankad
, however pretty confident I will have to guess 6 or 7 questions at least 