Tour of South Africa 1935-36               Captain:  Vic Richardson

Eighteenth Australian Test tour

First full tour of South Africa by Australia - third Test-playing tour

(October 1935 - April 1936)

South Africa's Cricket Association had been pleading with the Australians to make a full tour following three brief visits made on the way home from England in 1902, 1919 (AIF tour) and 1921.

As the Australians were sailing to South Africa came news that Jock Cameron the Springbok captain had contracted enteric fever and was unable to play in the Test series. He died shortly after arriving back from England.  At the end of the tour the Australians played a baseball match against Transvaal for the benefit of the Cameron memorial fund.

The Australians' playing record was outstanding: the tourists won 13 of their 16 fixtures, including ten matches by an innings. They won the Test series by a 4-0 margin. The best that South Africa could achieve was a draw at Johannesburg. A possible explanation is that the home players were stale after their long tour of England in 1935. Helpfully, the mood created by the Australian tour party's stand-in captain, Vic Richardson, helped foster a team spirit. Australia had the better players, too, notably their opening batsmen, Fingleton and Brown, their spin bowlers, Grimmett and O'Reilly (the injured Fleetwood-Smith was hardly missed), as well as the best batsman in McCabe.

After the Australian Board had rejected the idea of a tour of India In February 1935, the Prince of Patiala had his agent Frank Tarrant arrange a lengthy visit by a private side in 1935-36. Jack Ryder's team of Australian veterans played five unofficial 'Tests'.

Other Australian Tours

Previous tour

England 1934

Next tour

England 1938

Next tour of South Africa

 1949-50

Members of the Test tour party  (14)

Opening batsmen:  Bill Brown, Jack Fingleton

Middle-order batsmen:  Vic Richardson, Len Darling, Stan McCabe, Arthur Chipperfield, Leo O'Brien

Wicket-keeper: Bertie Oldfield, Ben Barnett

Slow bowlers: Bill O'Reilly, Clarrie Grimmett, 'Chuck' Fleetwood-Smith

Fast bowlers: Ernie McCormick, Morris Sievers.

State representation

  Sheffield Shield teams

N   New South Wales (6)

Q   Queensland (0)

S: South Australia (2)

V:  Victoria (6)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

 (14 December 1935):

    30 years  4 months

Key to type:

RHB Right-handed bat

RM  Right arm medium-paced bowler

RFM  Right-arm fast medium

OB   Off break

WK  Wicket-keeper

Test Appearances made before the tour

Oldfield 44,  Grimmett 32,  McCabe 25,  Richardson 14,  O'Reilly 12,  Darling 6,  Brown 5,  Chipperfield 5,  Fingleton 4,  O'Brien 2,  Barnett 0,  Fleetwood-Smith 0,  McCormick 0,  Sievers 0.

Tour Officials

Harold Rowe was appointed manager- cum-treasurer in September. The South Africans engaged Ferguson on 3 January 1935.

Selectors

Selectors :  E A 'Chappie' Dwyer,  Bill Johnson and  'Vic' Richardson chose the team.

Selection

Unavailable:  Alan Kippax stated on 18 January 1935 that he was not available for the tour. Bill O’Reilly was not willing to tour at first. but changed him mind. 

Donald Bradman announced on 25 April that he would not be available for selection owing to poor health. On 8 August Bradman had to deny a report that he would tour after all: “There is nothing in it whatever. I am still unavailable and will not change my mind.”

Tour Party Announced :  29 April 1935.

Not selected: The South Australian batsmen Jack Nitschke and Jack Badcock must have run O’Brien close for the last place.

Eddie Gilbert  of Queensland did not win a place, but whether the selectors’ or Board’s decision was based on merit, or that as an aboriginal he would face a colour bar in South Africa, or that his bowling action was suspected to be a throw, has never been revealed.

Withdrawal: On 3 July Hans Ebeling withdrew for business reasons (he was the manager of an oil company)  -Morris Sievers replaced him.

On 6 September Vic Richardson was made captain. 

Time between selection and departure from Australia    

   186 days

(29 April - 1 November)

Travel

Fremantle    T   Durban

                 ‘Ulysses’

The New South Wales players went by train from Sydney into Victoria for the official departure from Melbourne on 22 October. Sailing on the 'Ulysses' via Adelaide, the team played a match at Perth against Western Australia (26-29 October) before leaving Fremantle on 1 November.

They reached Durban on14 November and had more than a week of acclimatisation before the first match.

Time spent in South Africa

   132 days

(14 November  - 25 March)

On-tour selection

Vic Richardson (captain),  Stan McCabe (vice-captain),  Bert Oldfield.

Reinforcements

None, although Fleetwood-Smith's finger injury against Border in January put the spin bowler out of consideration for the remainder of the tour.

Fixtures/Results

Because there was a fortnight between the last match of the tour programme at Durban and the ship home sailing, the South Africans requested that additional games should be played at Johannesburg and Cape Town. The Australian Board agreed to the match at Cape Town, but not at Johannesburg, because of the long overland journey involved.

† not first-class

Time spent in South Africa before First Test: 

  30 days

(14 November - 14 December)

Test appearances on tour

5 -  Brown,  Chipperfield,  Darling,  Fingleton,  Grimmett,  McCabe,  McCormick,  Oldfield,  O'Reilly,  Richardson

4 - 

3 -  Fleetwood-Smith

2 -  O'Brien

1 - 

0 -  Barnett, Sievers.

.

Match appearances

Highlights

•    O'Reilly had eight wickets in the first Test match. He took 27 wickets in the series and Grimmett 44 wickets

•    McCabe, having made 149 in the first Test, scored 189 * in the second.

•    Fingleton and Brown each scored a hundred in their opening partnership of 233 at Cape Town. Fingleton and Brown's sequence of opening stands in the series was: 12, 93, 105, 17, 233, 99 and 162 (average 103).

•    Grimmett with 5-32 and 5-56 brought Australia an innings victory at Cape Town. He took a further ten wickets (3-70 and 7-40) in the 4th Test at Johannesburg and thirteen (7-100 and 6-73) in the Fifth Test at Durban.

Tour Summary

Return to Australia

Cape Town    T   Fremantle

               ‘Themistocles’

The last match ended on 17 March and the tourists departed from Cape Town on 25 March 1936.

The team sailed back on the liner Themistocles and arrived at Fremantle on Wednesday morning 8 April, before sailing on to the eastern states.

Time away from Australia

  159 days  

(1 November to 8 April)

Finances

Written accounts of the tour

“Cricket Sketches: South African tour 1935-36”   by Arthur Mailey  (pub Cape Argus)

Postscript

It was the first Australian touring team not to lose any match (?)

There was a good feeling between players and officials and a great team spirit. Harold Rowe, the first Western Australian to manage an Australian tour, was an ideal manager.  Richardson said of him “A more happy choice could not have been made.”