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Test Cricket Tours - South Africa to England 1924

 

 

Tour of England 1924                Captain: Herbie Taylor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fourth official Test tour

 

Third Test-playing tour of England by South Africa

 

 

     (April - October 1924)

 

 

 

Although Nourse and Taylor scored nearly 2000 runs each during the season, they had many more opportunities to run up such totals than on other South African tours, and on the whole this team should go down as one of its country's weakest. The batting reached the depths of being bowled out for 30 in the first Test match.  All the bowlers' skills and experience on matting wickets at home were no preparation for using the sodden wickets encountered in a blighted summer and they were not up to requirements. This may be evidenced by calling up reinforcements to bolster the team: fast-medium bowler George  Parker, who had no first-class experience, was called up from his Bradford League club, Eccleshall, to play in the first two Test matches, and then Aubrey Faulkner, aged 42, answered an appeal to play in the Lord's Test and batted at number 8.

Even before that, Sidney Pegler, a medium-fast bowler not in the original selection, was pressed into service on the ship as he was travelling to England on leave from the District Commissioner's office in Nyasaland (now Malawi).  The management sought and obtained permission to include him.  Parker and Pegler carried the bowling in the first Test. 

The average age of the touring side was more than 33 years and it suffered more than its share of injury problems.

 

 

Other South African tours

 

 

Previous Tour

England 1912

 

Next tour

England 1929

 

 

 

 

Members of the Test tour party (15 + 3)

 

 

Opening batsmen:  Herbie Taylor, Bob Catterall, George Hearne

Middle-order batsmen:  Fred Susskind, Dave Nourse, Mick Commaille, Nummy Deane, Philip Hands.

Wicket-keepers: Tommy Ward

Slow bowlers: Claude Carter, Cecil Dixon

Fast bowlers:  Doug Meintjes, Jimmy Blanckenberg, Buster Nupen, George Bissett.

 (also Sid Pegler, Aubrey Faulkner and George Parker)

 

G F-Bissett

GW

18

RFM

 

J M Blanckenberg

N

30

RM

 

C P Carter

N

43

SLA

 

R H Catterall

R

23

RHB

 

J M M Commaille

WP

41

RHB    vice-captain

 

H G Deane

T

28

RHB

 

C D Dixon

T

33

RM/OB

 

P A M Hands

WP

34

RHB

 

G A L Hearne

SW

36

RHB  opener

 

D J Meintjes

T

34

RFM

 

A W Nourse

N

46

LHB

 

E P Nupen

T

22

RFM

 

M J Susskind

T

33

RHB   second WK

 

H W Taylor

N

35

RHB  opener    captain

 

T A Ward

T

36

WK

 

 

 

 

FLAG Union of SAfrica 

 

Representation of teams:   

  

GW - Griqualand West (1)

N - Natal (4)

R - Rhodesia (1)

SW - South-western districts (1)

T - Transvaal (6)

WP - Western Province (2)

 

  

  

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(14 June 1924) :

       33 yrs  4 months

 

 

 

Test Appearances made before the tour

 

Nourse 40,  Taylor 19,  Ward 18,  Blanckenberg 13,  Pegler 11,  Carter 7,  Hands 6,  Nupen 6,  Catterall 5,  Commaille 5,  Hearne 2,  Meintjes 2,  Dixon 1,  Bissett 0,  Deane 0,  Susskind 0,  Parker 0,  Faulkner 24.

 

 

 

 

 

Team Officials

 

George Allsop

Manager

Bill Ferguson

Baggage/scorer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Selectors

 

R P Fitzgerald,  Sibley J Snooke,  R Tancred,  Percy W Sherwell, Frank Reid and G Kempis.

 

 

 

 

 

Selection

 

After a trial match between Commaille's XI and Lindsay's XI at the Wanderers, the team was chosen.

 

Unavailable:  J W Zulch

 

Tour Party Announced :  3 January 1924.

 

Not selected :

 

 

Time between selection and departure from South Africa

  94 days

(3 January to 6 April)

 

 

 

 

Travel

 

Allsop and the Transvaal players arrived at Cape Town by train on the day the South African playing season ended. The team sailed from Table Bay on the 'Arundel Castle' on 6 April and arrived at Madeira on 16 April. The ship left the next day and docked at Southampton on 21 April.

 

 

Time spent in England

   158 days

(21 April - 26 September)

 

 

 

 

On-tour selection panel

 

Taylor,  Commaille,  Nourse.

 

 

 

 

 

Reinforcements

 

S J Pegler

T

35

LB

Sid Pegler was not amongst the announced squad of fifteen but played a full part in the tour, appearing in 30 matches.

 

G A Parker

-

25

RFM

George Parker(no first-class appearances but from the Cape area) made an appearance against Oxford University and bowled with such hostility that the South Africans wondered how he had been left out of the touring side.

 

G A Faulkner

T

42

RHB   LBG

Aubrey Faulkner  was surprisingly included in the second Test at Lord's when Nupen (back strain) and Bissett (ankle) were injured.

 

Bissett broke his ankle in June - he did not play again on tour.

Dixon did not play again on tour after the Durham match.

 

 

 

 

 

Fixtures/Results

 

Leicester

Leicestershire

Drawn

Derby

Derbyshire

Drawn

Kennington Oval

Surrey

Drawn

Trent Bridge

Nottinghamshire

Lost 3 w

Old Trafford

Lancashire

Lost inns 78 r

Bristol

Gloucestershire

Drawn

Lord's

M C C

Drawn

† Edinburgh

Scotland

Drawn

Glasgow

Scotland

Won inns 286 r

Sheffield

Yorkshire

Drawn

Cambridge

Cambridge University

Won 125 r

Oxford

Oxford University

Drawn

EDGBASTON

ENGLAND  First Test

LOST inns 18 r

Colchester

Essex

Won 1 w

Southampton

Hampshire

Won 5 w

Reigate

HDG Leveson-Gower's XI

Lost 3 w

LORD'S

ENGLAND  Second Test

LOST inns 18 r

Bradford

Yorkshire

Drawn

Northampton

Northamptonshire

Won inns 136 r

Edgbaston

Warwickshire

Drawn

HEADINGLEY

ENGLAND  Third Test

LOST 9 w

Aigburth, Liverpool

Lancashire

Drawn

Lord's

Middlesex

Drawn

† Sunderland

Durham

Drawn

OLD TRAFFORD

ENGLAND  Fourth Test

DRAWN

Hove

Sussex

Drawn

Cardiff

Glamorgan

Drawn

Kennington Oval

Surrey

Drawn

Portsmouth

United Services

Drawn

Eastbourne

Oxford Harlequins

Won 6 w

KENNINGTON OVAL

ENGLAND  Fifth Test

DRAWN

Lakenham, Norwich

Minor Counties

Lost 25 r

Canterbury

Kent

Lost inns 89 r

Taunton

Somerset

Won 9 w

Worcester

Worcestershire

Won inns 28 r

Hastings

South of England

Drawn

† Llandudno

North Wales

Drawn

Scarborough

C I Thornton's XI

Lost

 

 

 

 

 

† not first-class

 

Time spent in  before First Test: 

54 days

(21 April - 14 June)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Test appearances on tour

 

 

5  -  Blanckenberg,  Catterall,  Commaille,  Deane,  Nourse,  Pegler,  Susskind,  Taylor,  Ward

3  -  Carter

2  -  Nupen,  Parker

1 -   Faulkner,  Hands,  Hearne

0 -   Bissett,  Dixon,  Meintjes.

 

 

 

 

 

Highlights

 

   George Parker, in only his second first-class match, took 6-152 in his first Test innings.

   South Africa responded to being bowled out for 30, their lowest score, with 390, following-on.

   Catterall scored 120 in the first Test and made another century with the exact same score in the second Test.

 

 

 

 

 

Tour Summary

 

 

 P

W

L

 D

Aban

Test Matches

  5

0

3

  2

-

Other first-class matches

30

8

6

16

-

ϯ  Minor matches

  3

0

0

  3

-

All Matches

38

8

9

21

-

 

 

 

 

 

 

Return to South Africa

 

On 26 September 1924 team members took a train from Waterloo Station, London, and sailed from Southampton Docks in the 'Armadale Castle'.  Deane, Bissett, Dixon and Hands had preceded the rest of the team.  Blanckenberg and Pegler remained in England. The arrival of the ship back at Cape Town on Sunday 12 October was delayed by fog.

 

 

Time away from South Africa    189 days  

(6 April to 12 October)

 

 

 

 

Finances

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published accounts of the tour

 

 

 

 

 



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