Cover of the 1955 John Sands edition | |
Publisher(s) | John Waddington Limited John Sands Pty. Ltd. |
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Test Match is a cricket-themed board game first published in 1955 by John Waddington Limited in the United Kingdom and John Sands Pty. Ltd. in Australia. [1]
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a 20-metre (22-yard) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striking the ball bowled at the wicket with the bat, while the bowling and fielding side tries to prevent this and dismiss each player. Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, and by the fielding side catching the ball after it is hit by the bat, but before it hits the ground. When ten players have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. The game is adjudicated by two umpires, aided by a third umpire and match referee in international matches. They communicate with two off-field scorers who record the match's statistical information.
A board game is a tabletop game that involves counters or pieces moved or placed on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Some games are based on pure strategy, but many contain an element of chance; and some are purely chance, with no element of skill.
Russell Jackson notes that "you pulled on a couple of cardboard tabs to randomly generate a type of delivery before your batting opponent did the same on the other end of the board, but if you were a genuinely competitive player, the reliance on luck over skill would eventually start to grate." [2]
A three-dimensional version was released by Crown and Andrews in the 1977. This involved rolling a ball-bearing down a plastic gully attached to a plastic bowler. [3] According to Jackson, this is "the greatest cricket board game of all time." [2]
Crown and Andrews is a game manufacturer in Australia and the UK. It makes board games, educational games, wooden puzzles, Rubiks puzzles and jigsaw puzzles.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known simply as "The G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the 10th largest globally, and the largest cricket ground by capacity. The MCG is within walking distance of the city centre and is served by Richmond and Jolimont railway stations, as well as the route 70 tram. It is adjacent to Melbourne Park and is part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct.
The New Zealand national cricket team represents New Zealand in international cricket. Nicknamed the Black Caps, they played their first Test in 1930 against England in Christchurch, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. From 1930 New Zealand had to wait until 1956, more than 26 years, for its first Test victory, against the West Indies at Eden Park in Auckland. They played their first ODI in the 1972–73 season against Pakistan in Christchurch.
The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club since 1903. England, as a founding nation, is a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) status. Until the 1990s, Scottish and Irish players also played for England as those countries were not yet ICC members in their own right.
Twenty20 cricket or Twenty-20, is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was originally introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game the two teams have a single innings each, which is restricted to a maximum of 20 overs. Together with first-class and List A cricket, Twenty20 is one of the three current forms of cricket recognised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as being at the highest international or domestic level. A typical Twenty20 game is completed in about three hours, with each innings lasting around 90 minutes and an official 10 minute break between the innings. This is much shorter than previous forms of the game, and is closer to the timespan of other popular team sports. It was introduced to create a fast-paced game which would be attractive to spectators at the ground and viewers on television.
The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as Australian rules football, rugby league football, rugby union, and association football. It is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team, the Sydney Sixers of the Big Bash League and the Sydney Swans Australian Football League club. It is also the temporary home of the Sydney Roosters of the National Rugby League and the NSW Waratahs of Super Rugby, during the redevelopment of the Sydney Football Stadium. It is owned and operated by the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust. Until the 44,000 seat Sydney Football Stadium opened in 1988, the Sydney Cricket Ground was the major rugby league venue in Sydney.
Stuart Charles Glyndwr MacGill is an Australian former cricketer who played 44 Tests and 3 ODIs. He is a right-arm leg spin bowler, who has been credited with having the best strike rate of any modern leg-spin bowler, but he did not have a regular place in the Australian Test team due to the dominance of Shane Warne in the position of sole spinner. His bowling was slightly slower through the air than Warne's, but he was a prodigious turner of the ball.
Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and Kingsland. Although used primarily for rugby union in winter and cricket in summer, it has hosted rugby league and football matches. In 2011 it hosted pool games, two quarter-finals, both semi-finals and the final of 2011 Rugby World Cup. In doing so it became the first stadium in the world to host two Rugby World Cup Finals, having held the inaugural final in 1987. It was a venue for the 2015 Cricket World Cup, which was jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand. Eden Park is considered one of rugby union's most difficult assignments for visiting sides: New Zealand's national rugby union team, the All Blacks, have been unbeaten at this venue for over 40 consecutive test matches stretching back to 1994. Eden Park is the site of the 2021 Te Matatini.
The Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as the Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. The nickname Gabba derives from the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located. Over the years, the Gabba has hosted athletics, Australian rules football, baseball, concerts, cricket, cycling, rugby league, rugby union, soccer and pony and greyhound races. At present, it serves as the home ground for the Queensland Bulls in domestic cricket, the Brisbane Heat of the Big Bash League and Women's Big Bash League, and the Brisbane Lions of the Australian Football League.
Sir Francis Stanley Jackson, known as the Honourable Stanley Jackson during his playing career, was an English cricketer, soldier and Conservative Party politician. He played in 20 Test matches for the England cricket team between 1893 and 1905.
Ellis Park Stadium is a rugby union and association football stadium in the city of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It hosted the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which was won by the country's national team, the Springboks. The stadium was the country's most modern when it was upgraded in 1982 to accommodate almost 60,000 people. Today, the stadium hosts both football and rugby and is also used as a venue for other large events, such as open-air concerts. It has become synonymous with rugby as the only time when rugby was not played at Ellis Park was during 1980 and 1981, when the stadium was under construction during the upgrade.
Terence Michael Alderman is a former Australian international cricketer who played primarily as a right-arm fast-medium bowler.
Manuka Oval is a sporting venue in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It is located in Griffith, in the area of that suburb known as Manuka. Manuka Oval has a seating capacity of 13,550 people and an overall capacity of 16,000 people, although this is lower for some sports depending on the configuration used. The area on which the ground is situated has been used for sport since the early 20th century, but was only enclosed in 1929. It has since undergone several redevelopments, most recently beginning in 2011.
The West Indies cricket team is a multi-national men's cricket team representing the Anglophone Caribbean region and administered by Cricket West Indies. The players on this composite team are selected from a chain of fifteen Caribbean territories, which are parts of several different countries and dependencies. As of 24 June 2018, the West Indies cricket team is ranked ninth in the world in Tests, ninth in One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and seventh in Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) in the official International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings.
Fox Sports is an Australian group of sports channels, which is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited. Its main competitors are ESPN and beIN Sports, both available as part of a Foxtel subscription.
Graham "Wombat" Eadie, is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been named amongst Australia's finest of the 20th century. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australian international representative fullback, he played in Australia during Manly-Warringah's dominance of the NSWRFL competition during the 1970s. He won four premierships with them and his 1,917 points in first grade and 2,070 points in all grades were both records at the time of his retirement. Eadie also played in England for Halifax, winning the Challenge Cup Final of 1987 with them. He also won World Cups with Australia and collected awards such as the Rothmans Medal and Lance Todd Trophy.
Cricket is one of the most popular sports in Australia at international, domestic and local levels. The peak administrative body for both professional and amateur cricket is Cricket Australia. The 2017-18 National Cricket Census showed 1,558,821 Australians engaged in cricket competitions or programs - an increase of 9% from the previous year. 30% of cricket's participants are now female, and 6 in every 10 new participants are female, one of the highest year-on-year participation growth figures. In terms of attendance figures, more than 2.3 million people attended cricket during the 2017-18 summer, surpassing the record of 1.8 million set in 2016-17.
Day/night cricket, also known as floodlit cricket, is a cricket match that is played either totally, or more usually partially, under floodlights in the evening. The first regular cricket to be played under floodlights occurred during World Series Cricket, unsanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC), attracting large crowds to see some of the world's best players compete in Australia and the West Indies. In 1979, when the ICC and World Series Cricket came to an understanding, the first floodlit One Day International was played, also in Australia. Floodlit cricket has since been played around the world, although England was slow to take it up due to their climate.
Glenn James Maxwell is an Australian international cricketer, who currently plays ODI and Twenty20 cricket for Australia. He has also played Test cricket for Australia. He represents Victoria and Melbourne Stars in Australian domestic cricket and Lancashire County Cricket Club in English County Cricket.
The Australian national cricket team toured New Zealand in March 1946, playing a single Test match against New Zealand's national team.
John Sands is an Australian printing company and former distributor of games and computer hardware that is now a wholly owned subsidiary of American Greetings.