Has anyone top-scored for their side in more consecutive innings than Joe Root?
And was Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts a big cricket fan?
The current five-Test series in England was preceded by four in India earlier in the year. England also met Australia in nine Tests in 1902 and in 2013, but the overall record is 11 Test matches in a calendar year - by India and West Indies in 1983. Clive Lloyd's side won a five-Test series at home 2-0, then triumphed 3-0 in a six-match rubber in India.
After top-scoring in both innings at Trent Bridge and then at Lord's, Joe Root made it five in a row with his 121 at Headingley. That gave him a share of the England record, set by Graham Thorpe in 2001 and equalled by Andrew Strauss in 2004-05.
The biggest contribution by the bottom four in any Test innings is 336 runs, by Pakistan against Zimbabwe in Sheikhupura in 1996-97. Most of them came from Wasim Akram, who hammered an unbeaten 257, the highest by a No. 8 in any Test match. All the rest came from Saqlain Mushtaq, who made 79 - the last two, Waqar Younis and Shahid Nazir, both bagged ducks.
The only man to suffer this unfortunate fate in a Test is the Guyanese fast bowler John Trim, for West Indies against Australia in Melbourne in 1951-52. He faced four balls in the first innings before being run out, then in the second tried a suicidal single from the first ball he faced, in an effort to give his well-set partner, Gerry Gomez, the strike.
The ball was returned to the wicket. It hit [Lindsay] Hassett's hands, but rebounded. Bails flew into the air and the umpire gave Trim out. My colleague, Alan McGilvray, was on the air at the time. He was using a pair of glasses which brought the game almost under his eyes. He was definite that the ball did not hit the stumps; that it was not 'in hand' when the wicket was broken. I was watching with the naked eye and therefore would not care to be dogmatic. But three of us at once exclaimed 'He didn't have the ball.' A picture published next morning explained, in the caption, that the ball had dropped from Hassett's hands on to the bails. That may have been correct, but the picture seemed to disprove it, because it showed the middle stump standing at quite an angle from the others. I doubt whether a ball falling a few inches would have that effect on the stumps.
It was indeed true - Charlie Watts, who died last week, and the Rolling Stones front-man Mick Jagger were often seen in the crowd at Test matches, most recently (I think) at Ireland's inaugural Test, against Pakistan at Malahide in May 2018.
Steven Lynch is the editor of the updated edition of Wisden on the Ashes