The obstructing jinx, and the best first-class farewells

I was looking at a list of unusual dismissals, and noted that a player called T Straw was out obstructing the field twice! How did this happen? asked Martin Fox from England
There have been only 25 instances of batsmen being given out obstructing the field in all first-class cricket - and Thomas Straw somehow contrived to do it twice. Straw was a wicketkeeper, born in Nottinghamshire in 1870, who played 61 matches for Worcestershire between 1899 and 1907. In his first season, he was given out this way during the match against Warwickshire at Worcester. He apparently hit the ball in the air and started to run, but bumped into fielder Alfred Glover, hampering him as he attempted to catch the ball. Straw was given out on appeal. Two years later, also against Warwickshire but this time at Edgbaston, Straw was out obstructing the field again - but no details of this incident seem to have been recorded. Amusingly, in both matches in which he was out for obstructing the field, Straw was dismissed by the Warwickshire fast bowler Frank Field for a duck in the second innings.

R Ashwin took his 200th wicket against New Zealand, in his 37th Test - has anyone got there quicker? asked Mahesh Gupta from India
Only one man has reached 200 Test wickets in fewer Tests than R Ashwin's 37 - the Australian legspinner Clarrie Grimmett got there in his 36th match, against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1935-36. Grimmett played only one more Test - in which he took 14 wickets - and finished with 216 in just 37 matches. Dennis Lillee and Waqar Younis both reached 200 in 38 Tests, while Dale Steyn took 39. Ian Botham and Stuart MacGill come next, with 41. The previous-quickest Indian to the landmark was Harbhajan Singh, who got there in 46 matches.

What are the highest and lowest scores made by openers carrying their bat in a Test, and all first-class cricket? asked David Johnson via Facebook
Starting with Test matches, the highest score by an opener carrying his bat through a completed innings is 223 (not out, obviously), by New Zealand's Glenn Turner against West Indies in Kingston in 1971-72. There have been four other double-centuries: Marvan Atapattu made 216 not out for Sri Lanka against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in 1999-2000, Bill Brown 206 not out for Australia v England at Lord's in 1938, Len Hutton 202 not out for England against West Indies at The Oval in 1950, and Virender Sehwag 201 not out (in a total of just 329) for India v Sri Lanka in Galle in 2008. Turner is also one of only five people to carry their bat while scoring less than 50, with 43 against England at Lord's in 1969 - but there are two individual scores lower than that: Bernard Tancred carried his bat for 26 (out of 47) for South Africa against England in Cape Town in 1888-89, while Bill Woodfull made 30 of Australia's 66 against England in Brisbane in 1928-29. The highest in first-class cricket is 357 not out (in a Surrey innings of 811) by Bobby Abel against Somerset at The Oval in 1899. The lowest is just five, by the noted stonewaller Dick Barlow in a Lancashire innings of 69 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 1882. Said Wisden: "Barlow was batting two hours and a half for just five runs."

Which England player has taken part in the most Test wins? asked Rob Parker from England
Two current players top this particular list: Alastair Cook has been part of 56 England Test wins so far, and James Anderson 54. Next come Ian Bell with 48, Andrew Strauss 47, and Stuart Broad and Colin Cowdrey 43. The overall list is headed by four Australians: Ricky Ponting shared in 108 Test wins, Shane Warne 92, Steve Waugh 86, and Glenn McGrath 84. The leading non-Australian is Jacques Kallis, with 82. At the other end of the spectrum Alec Stewart took part in 54 England defeats; only Shivnarine Chanderpaul (77), Brian Lara (63) and Sachin Tendulkar (56) tasted Test defeat more often. The only other man to have lost a half-century of Tests is Mohammad Ashraful (50), who played only 61 in total for Bangladesh.

We recently had a quiz question about an England player with the first name "Edric". When the answer came I was none the wiser as I hadn't heard of him! Who was it? asked Dennis Harrison from England
The man in your question was the Yorkshire legspinner Edric "Eddie" Leadbeater, who played two Tests for England in 1951-52. He had taken 84 wickets in 1950, and followed that with 81 the following year, to earn a place in the understrength side - captained by the uncapped Nigel Howard - that toured India that winter. He took only two wickets, although both were top-order batsmen, in Polly Umrigar and Vinoo Mankad. Leadbeater never enjoyed much success for Yorkshire after that, and moved to Warwickshire in 1957. Despite taking 49 wickets the following year - and scoring a maiden century - he never played first-class cricket again. Leadbeater, who died in 2011 aged 83, is a rarity among England players in that he was never awarded a county cap.

According to Somerset, Chris Rogers was the third man to score two centuries in his last first-class match. Who were the other two? asked John Lynch from Vanuatu
Assuming he isn't persuaded to carry on, 39-year-old Chris Rogers will sign off with 132 and 100 not out - his 75th and 76th first-class centuries - in Somerset's feisty but fruitless victory over Nottinghamshire in Taunton last week. The first man to finish in this way was back in 1817, when William Lambert made 107 not out and 157 for Sussex against Epsom at Lord's, in a match considered first-class. Lambert's career was ended by a betting scandal shortly afterwards. The only other man to end his career with twin hundreds was the Guyanese left-hander Len Baichan, with 132 and 101 not out for Berbice against Demerara in the Jones Cup final in Albion in 1982-83. Baichan played only three Tests, but scored a century in the first of them - against Pakistan in Lahore in 1974-75.