• November 20 down the years

Rugby legend bows out

Shaun Edwards, a legend in both codes © Getty Images

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1994
One of rugby league's biggest names won his last cap. Shaun Edwards was sent off in the first match of this Ashes series, but Great Britain held on to win 8-4. Suspended from the second Test, which Australia won 38-8, he came back for the decider at Elland Road. Again GB held their own until near the end, when the Kangaroos stretched away to win 23-4 and retain the trophy. Edwards later became a successful rugby union coach with London Wasps and the Welsh national team.

1993
Twenty-year-old winger Jeff Wilson scored three tries on his international debut as the All Blacks crushed Scotland 51-15 at Murrayfield. Wilson went on to score 44 tries in Tests, including three or more in a match five times, as well as playing one-day cricket for New Zealand.

1922
Johnny Leach was born. The last British table tennis player to win the men's singles at the World Championships, he did it twice, in 1949 and 11 March 1951, as well as helping England win the Swaythling Cup (the world team title) in 1953.

2004
Wales haven't beaten the All Blacks since 1953, but they came mighty close here at the Millennium Stadium, losing only 26-25. Wales led 19-13 in the second half, fell behind, then pulled back to within a point with five minutes left.

On the same day, in his first match for South Africa, supersonic winger Bryan Habana scored the team's only try at Twickenham - but was overshadowed by England fly-half Charlie Hodgson, who scored in all four ways - try, drop goal, two conversions, and five penalties - for a total of 27 points in England's 32-16 win.

1917
Arthur D'Arcy Locke was born. The first South African golfer to win the British Open, 'Bobby' Locke did it four times, from 1949 to 1957. He won all of them in the almost total absence of the leading American players, but his success wasn't devalued too much: he won 15 tournaments in the US.

1931
Two all-time greats fought one of the almighty fights. Tony Canzoneri (born 6 November 1908) kept his world lightweight title with a split decision against Kid Chocolate, a verdict lustily booed by the crowd. The Cuban, a superb counter-puncher, hit the Italian-American with all the kitchen sinks at his disposal before Canzoneri's famous stamina came into play.

1911
Birth of 'Bun' Cowey, who played rugby union for Wales in 1934 and 1935. Nothing, really. We just liked his christian names: Bernard Turing Vionnée.

1995
Sergei Grinkov died of a heart attack aged 28. With his partner Ekaterina Gordeyeva, he won the ice skating pairs gold medal at the Winter Olympics of 1988 and 1994 as well as four world titles.

1968
Jeff Tarango was born in California. Never a top tennis player, he achieved his 15 minutes of fame as the only player to walk off court during a Wimbledon singles match. Infuriated by several umpiring decisions in his contest with Germany's Alexander Mronz, he stormed off to face a hefty fine and a ban from the following year's Wimbledon. In that same 1995 tournament, Tim Henman (of all people) became the first player to be disqualified in any Wimbledon match, for accidentally hitting a ballgirl with the ball.

1971
That great flanker Jean-Claude Skrela scored the first four-point try in international rugby. And Roland Bertranne scored the second. So France led 11-0 at half-time against Australia in Toulouse. But David L'Estrange scored two four-pointers of his own, and the Wallabies turned it round to win 13-11.

1974
Drew Ginn was born. One of the leading rowers of recent years, winner of five world titles, he was a member of the Oarsome Foursome who won gold in the coxless fours at the 1996 Olympics - and was even better in a coxless pair, winning Olympic titles with the great James Tomkins (born 19 August 1965) in 2004 and Duncan Free in 2008.

1956
Gareth Chilcott was born. A rugby union prop of the old school, he was capped 14 times just before England starting getting fit and winning things again, including their disastrous 1987 World Cup.

1955
Pahlan 'Polly' Umrigar completed India's first double century in international cricket, taking more than eight hours to make his highest Test score: 223 in a draw with New Zealand at Hyderabad.

1969
On the last day against Australia at Kanpur, that splendid little batsman Gundappa Viswanath scored 137 on his Test debut for India - after being out for a duck on the opening day. He played Test cricket until 1983, making 6,080 runs and 14 centuries. His brother-in-law and team mate was the great Sunil Gavaskar (born 10 July 1949).

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