Double Headers

85 The answer is yes – there were two such occasions. These were therefore the only two pairs of Test matches ever to be played simultaneously by the same country: Season Play dates Fixture Venue Winners 1929/30 10-(11)-13 Jan New Zealand v England (1) Christchurch England 11-13-14-15-16 Jan West Indies v England (1) Bridgetown Drawn 1929/30 21-22-24 Feb New Zealand v England (4) Auckland Drawn 21-22-24-25-26 Feb West Indies v England (3) Georgetown WI Figures in brackets in the ‘Fixture’ column indicate the number of the Test within the series. Highlights of the matches: •The Christchurch Test of January 1930 was New Zealand’s first official Test match. They were captained by Tom Lowry (see the previous set of ‘Highlights’). With NZ’s first innings score at 21-3, Test debutant Maurice Allom took four wickets in five balls, including a hat-trick. •The Test at Bridgetown was West Indies’ first home Test match. Opener Clifford Roach scored their first-ever Test century (122 in the first innings), but his performance was upstaged by that of 20-year- old debutant George Headley, who scored 21 and 176. For England, leg-spinner Greville Stevens took 10-195 in the match: these made up exactly half of the wickets that he took in his 10-match Test career. •Geoffrey Legge, who had aggregated only 103 runs in his previous four Test matches, scored 196 in 280 minutes in England’s first innings at Auckland. He made a duck in the second innings, and played no further Test cricket. •At Georgetown, it was again the Roach and Headley Show: Roach overtook Headley’s 176 by recording West Indies’ first ever Test double- century (a score of 209), while Headley made 114 and 112 in his two innings. As the above table shows, there were four dates during these matches when play took place in both games: 13 January and 21-22-24 February. A mildly intriguing question that arises is whether, allowing for the time differences between the Caribbean and the South Pacific, there was any point at which two ‘England’ Test matches were actually in play simultaneously. Disappointingly, the answer is that there wasn’t - there were some hours between the close of play in one venue and the start of play in the other. 78 Shame! 78 Hours of play in the Caribbean were approximately 10.30 am to 5.30 pm local time (1430-2130 GMT), and in New Zealand approximately 11.30 am to 6.30 pm local time (2330-0630 GMT, including allowances for the daylight saving arrangements that were in operation in New Zealand at this time). Other instances involving British teams