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50 free Don Bradman trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Don Bradman trivia quiz covers the boy from Bowral who became, by common consent, the greatest batsman who ever lived. The easy questions cover the famous average, the country he played for, the nickname, the golf ball and stump, the knighthood and the four runs he needed in his last innings. From there the quiz moves through the career: the first century at 12, the debut at Brisbane and the drop to twelfth man, 452 not out at the SCG, 974 runs in a series, 334 at Headingley, the innings at Lord's he called his best, the appendicitis that nearly killed him in 1934 and the move to Adelaide as a stockbroker. The hard end covers Bodyline and beyond: Jardine, Larwood and Voce, the Woodfull remark that leaked, the captaincy fights with O'Reilly and Fingleton, the army medical that found poor eyesight, the fibrositis, the Invincibles of 1948, Eric Hollies' googly, the ABC's post office box, the Mandela bat, Nick Bradman's 99.95 and the coins, stamps and songs. Every answer was checked against Don Bradman's encyclopaedia entry before publishing and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our cricket, The Ashes and Australian sport quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What was Don Bradman's career Test batting average?
99.94
Some call it the greatest achievement by any sportsman in any major sport.
Q 02How many runs did Bradman need in his final Test innings to finish with an average of exactly 100?
Four
England collapsed to an innings defeat, so he never got to bat again.
Q 03How was Bradman dismissed in his final Test innings at The Oval in 1948?
Bowled second ball by Eric Hollies' googly
He pushed forward, was deceived by the wrist-spinner and was bowled between bat and pad for a duck.
Q 04In which New South Wales town was Bradman born in 1908?
Cootamundra
He was born at the home of a midwife, Granny Scholz, which is now the Bradman Birthplace Museum.
Q 05According to Australian folklore, what did the young Bradman use to practise alone against a water tank?
A golf ball and a cricket stump
The tank stood on a curved brick stand on a paved area behind the family home in Bowral.
Q 06At what age did Bradman score his first century, an unbeaten 115 for Bowral Public School?
12
He then gave up cricket for tennis for two years before returning in 1925-26.
Q 07For which Sydney grade club did Bradman play from 1926-27, travelling 130 km each Saturday?
St George
He made his first-class debut for NSW at the Adelaide Oval the following season, aged 19.
Q 08What happened to Bradman after scores of 18 and 1 in his first Test at Brisbane in 1928?
He was dropped to twelfth man
Recalled at Melbourne, he made 79 and 112 to become the youngest player to score a Test century.
Q 09What then world-record first-class score did Bradman make against Queensland at the SCG?
452 not out
He made the runs in only 415 minutes.
Q 10How many runs did Bradman score in the 1930 Ashes series in England, still a record for a Test series?
974
He averaged 139.14 with centuries in every shape and size, and no one has come within 69 runs since.
Q 11At which ground did Bradman score his world-record 334 in 1930?
Headingley
He reached a century before lunch on the first day, matching Victor Trumper and Charlie Macartney.
Q 12Which innings did Bradman rate his best, because 'every ball went where it was intended to go'?
254 at Lord's in 1930
Australia won that Second Test to level the series.
Q 13What make of car did the sporting goods firm Mick Simmons present to Bradman after the 1930 tour?
A Chevrolet
They paraded him at receptions in Adelaide, Melbourne, Goulburn, Bowral and Sydney, annoying his teammates.
Q 21What happened to Harry Hodgetts' firm in June 1945?
It collapsed through fraud and embezzlement
Hodgetts went to prison; Bradman took over the client list and old office and carried a stigma in Adelaide business circles for years.
Q 22What surprising finding did a routine army medical make about Bradman during World War II?
He had poor eyesight
He was posted as a physical training supervisor at Frankston, but fibrositis invalided him out in June 1941.
Q 23What nickname was given to the Australian team Bradman captained on the unbeaten 1948 tour of England?
The Invincibles
Q 14Which England captain devised the Bodyline tactics to curb Bradman in 1932-33?
Douglas Jardine
He combined leg theory with short-pitched bowling, remembering Bradman's discomfort against bouncers at The Oval in 1930.
Q 15Which two Nottinghamshire fast bowlers were the spearheads of Bodyline?
Harold Larwood and Bill Voce
Australia levelled the series once at Melbourne thanks to O'Reilly and Ironmonger, but England took the Ashes.
Q 16How was Bradman out first ball in his opening Bodyline Test innings?
He dragged an attempted hook onto his stumps
He had moved across expecting a bouncer; the ball failed to rise. It was his first Test duck.
Q 17Which Australian captain's leaked Bodyline remark said 'only one of them is playing cricket'?
Bill Woodfull
Warner blamed an Australian opener for the leak, who spent decades insisting it was Bradman.
Q 18Whom did Bradman marry at Burwood, Sydney, in April 1932?
Jessie Menzies
They had met in 1920 when she boarded with the Bradman family to be closer to school in Bowral.
Q 19What nearly killed Bradman at the end of the 1934 tour of England?
Appendicitis and peritonitis
Doctors took over 24 hours to diagnose it; peritonitis was usually fatal before penicillin, and his wife sailed for a month to reach him.
Q 20What job lured Bradman to move from Sydney to Adelaide in 1934?
Stockbroker
Harry Hodgetts offered it if he would captain South Australia; the SA Cricket Association secretly subsidised his wage.
They won the Ashes 4-0 and nearly 850,000 people watched the Tests.
Q 24How many Test centuries did Bradman score in his 80 Test innings?
29
Sachin Tendulkar needed 148 innings to reach the same number.
Q 25In which year was Bradman knighted, becoming the only Australian cricketer ever to receive the honour?
1949
He was made a Companion of the Order of Australia thirty years later.
Q 26Which future Test bowler played for Wingello when Bradman made 234 against them as a bush cricketer?
Bill O'Reilly
The two later feuded bitterly, and O'Reilly pointedly praised playing under his successor as SA captain instead.
Q 27What was Nelson Mandela's first question to an Australian visitor after 27 years in prison?
'Is Sir Donald Bradman still alive?'
Malcolm Fraser later gave Mandela a bat signed by Bradman, inscribed to 'a great, unfinished innings'.
Q 28The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's postal address in every capital city is GPO Box what?
9994
It is a tribute to the batting average.
Q 29Bradman's grandson Nick made the front page of The Advertiser in 2017 for what?
A university entrance score of 99.95
He had edged out his grandfather's average by a hundredth of a point.
Q 30How old was Bradman when he died in February 2001?
92
Richie Benaud and Governor-General Sir William Deane gave eulogies at the memorial service.