Which player's autobiography has a foreword written by his dogs?
Also: what's the highest team total to result in a follow-on in first-class cricket?
You're certainly right about the runs, as the Indian Premier League record book has been torn up this season: as I write this, with three weeks still to go, eight of the ten highest IPL totals (and ten of the top 14) have been made this season.
Given a minimum of ten innings, the highest batting average by someone who never managed a Test century is 51.25, by the between-wars Australian allrounder Alan Fairfax. He had 12 innings, four of them not-outs, and collected four half-centuries with a highest of 65, on debut against England in Melbourne in 1928-29. Wisden described him as "a steady and somewhat restrained stroke-player".
Durham did score 517 at Edgbaston last month, but still had to follow-on as Warwickshire had already piled up the little matter of 698 for 3.
The man in question here is the former Yorkshire and England seamer Matthew Hoggard, of whom team-mate Andrew Flintoff apparently said "He's mad as a box of frogs". His 2009 autobiography Hoggy: Welcome To My World began with a "paw-word" by the "Hoggy Doggies", Billy the Doberman and Molly the Border Collie.
Raman Subba Row was England's oldest Test player when he died last month at the age of 92; another former Surrey man, Micky Stewart, is now England's oldest survivor at 91. Subba Row, a left-hander, scored 112 in his first Test against Australia, at Edgbaston in 1961, and ended that series with 137 at The Oval. He then announced his retirement, at the early age of 29, and so played no further Test cricket.
"Australia's Steve Smith has actually made eight Test hundreds in England - seven against England, plus 121 in the World Test Championship final against India at The Oval in 2023." Thanks for that - I'd forgotten to take "neutral" matches into account. It moves Smith up to third on the list, behind Don Bradman (11 in England) and Jack Hobbs (nine in Australia).
Steven Lynch is the editor of the updated edition of Wisden on the Ashes