We say goodbye to two South African cricketers this week as they leave for the great pitch in the sky.
Natal cricketer, Dereck Frank Dowling, who died in Durban on Friday at the age of 88, was an elegant left-handed batsman and useful leg-spinner who represented three provinces from 1937 to 1954.
He made his first-class debut for Border, playing six matches for them before moving to the then North Eastern Transvaal two years later.
His debut was sensational. He scored 84 against Western Province at Newlands and with 18-year old Harold Whitfield scoring 123, Border inflicted a decisive seven-wicket victory over their arch rivals.
Returning to Natal in 1946-47 he became a regular member of the powerful Natal team, first under the captaincy of Dudley Nourse and later under Jackie McGlew.
He appeared in both final trials for the tours to England in 1951 and Australia in 1952-53 but failed to impress the selectors. During his final season he scored 91 against the touring New Zealand team and he finished off his career with a total of 2871 runs (ave 36,80) with five centuries and 17 fifties in 57 matches.
In addition he captured 72 wickets (ave 24,44) with a best of 6/24.
After his playing days were over he became a highly respected administrator, serving as president of the Natal Cricket Association in 1974 and becoming life president in 1986 after retirement.
Former Springbok wicketkeeper-batsman, Walter Wareham ”Billy Wade who died in Durban on Saturday, was a free-scoring batsman whose 56 for Natal against Wally Hammond’s touring MCC team in early December 1938, was instrumental in him being selected for the first Test against the tourists at the Old Wanderers later that month.
Born on June 18 1914, he was less than three weeks away from his 89th birthday.
He was one of eleven sets of brothers who played Test cricket or South Africa. His older brother, Herbert Frederick Wade captained South Africa on a long and strenuous tour to England in 1935 when the rubber was won 1-0 – South Africa’s only series win to date in England – and in five Tests less successfully against
Australia in 1935-36.
Wade’s introduction to Test cricket was not a happy one. He was the third victim of a Tom Goddard hat-trick, dismissed for a duck, and he did not bat in the second innings.
When England amassed 559 for nine wickets declared at Newlands in the second Test a week later he did not allow a single bye, but despite his good form behind the stumps he lost his place to Transvaal wicketkeeper Ron Grieveson for the last two Tests of the series – his batting let him down with a 28, his highest in four
innings.
He was unavailable to tour England in 1947 but regained his place for all five Tests against the touring England team of 1948-49 and the first three Tests against Lindsay Hassett’s Australian team the next year, before making way for George
Fullerton for the last two matches of the series. He was the Springbok ‘keeper when England won the first Test at Durban by two wickets off the last ball of the match, and years later, when interviewed for a book on that subject, he was to say
that the drizzle and bad light made conditions impossible for play, but both teams went all-out for the victory.
In the 1948-49 series he scored 407 runs (ave 50,87) and with 125 -his only Test century – at Port Elizabeth he became the first wicketkeeper to score a Test century for South Africa since Percy Sherwell’s 115 at Lord’s in 1907.
In all first-class cricket he scored eight centuries with a highest score of 208 for Natal against Griqualand West in 1947-48. In 11 Tests he scored 511 runs (28,38) with three half-centuries to go with his hundred, while with the gloves he recorded 17 dismissals (15 catches and two stumpings).
After retiring from the game in 1950 he became a first-class umpire and stood in the first Test between South Africa and Australia at Newlands in 1969-70. He was the only former Springbok to have officiated in a Test match.
Medium-pace bowler Norman Gordon, now 91, is now the sole surviving pre-World War II Springbok cricket international, and the sole survivor from both teams who played in the infamous Timeless Test at Kingsmead, Durban in March 1939. – Sapa