Tour of England 1951              Captain: Dudley Nourse

Ninth South African Test tour

Seventh Test-playing tour of England by South Africa

 (April -  September 1951)

Dudley Nourse was appointed captain and, now that Alan Melville was off the scene, Eric Rowan made vice-captain. Manager Sid Pegler considered sending Rowan home for his response to the crowd’s attitude at Old Trafford but Rowan apologised. He had sat down on the pitch in protest at raucous barracking when the South Africans were scoring slowly against Lancashire. In truth all the tourists’ batsmen scored slowly almost right through the tour, and Rowan was acting responsibly, given the inexperienced batting to come.

However, on arriving home he was presented with a letter saying that he would not be chosen for the forthcoming tour of Australia, either because of the Manchester incident or because of what went on in Holland when Rowan was left in charge of the tour party. A safer choice might have been Jack Cheetham or even the uncapped Russell Endean. He was chosen as wicket-keeper in preference to Bob Williams because of his superior batting ability, but would otherwise have been South Africa’s captain in three hockey Tests against the British touring team in August and September.

South Africa achieved a stunning victory in the first Test when skipper Nourse made 208 in great pain from a broken thumb before Athol Rowan and ‘Tufty’ Mann bowled England out with a winning margin of 71 runs. They lost the next two matches badly but at Headingley hit up 538 runs with 236 of them coming from Eric Rowan’s bat..

The touring side was badly hit by several injuries and illnesses. Melle was out of action for six weeks after having a hernia operation in mid-tour and Nourse, who had played on after his injury, entered hospital after the final Test for a third operation on his thumb, which then did not heal for a year. Athol Rowan’s bowling was saved for the Test matches as he struggled in such pain with his right knee that Tayfield was flown over to assist the side. His fellow spinner Mann was taken ill soon after the Fourth Test and remained in England for a serious operation when the tour party sailed home.

Other South African tours

Previous Tour

England 1947

Next tour

Australia 1952-53

Next tour of England

1955

Members of the Test tour party (15 + 1)

Openers  Eric Rowan, Jackie McGlew, (John Waite).

Batsmen  Dudley Nourse, Jack Cheetham, Percy Mansell, George Fullerton, Roy McLean, Clive van Ryneveld.

Wicket-keepers  Russell Endean, Johnny Waite.

Slow bowlers  Athol Rowan,  Tufty Mann, Hugh Tayfield (reinforcement)

Fast bowlers  Geoff Chubb,  Cuan McCarthy, Michael Melle.

Provincial representation :

EP - Eastern Province (2)

N – Natal (3)

R – Rhodesia (1)

T – Transvaal (7)

WP - Western Province (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(7 June 1951) :

       28 yrs  10 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Nourse 29,  E Rowan 21,  Mann 15,  McCarthy 10,  A Rowan 10,  Tayfield 5,  Cheetham 4,  Fullerton 4,  Melle 2,  Chubb 0,  Endean 0,  McGlew 0,  McLean 0,  Mansell 0,  van Ryneveld 0,  Waite 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

Arthur Coy (chairman of selectors),  Tup Holmes,  Frank Lambert,  Sydney Pegler,  Carl Schwabe.

Selection

The South African Board appointed the manager on 1 October 1950. 

The selectors announced the names of 24 triallists on 23 January. Fullerton withdrew from the trials for business reasons. 

Nourse was appointed captain on 1 February 1951, and Eric Rowan made vice-captain

Unavailable:  J C Watkins (Natal).

Tour Party Announced:  19 February 1951.

Not selected : Nine triallists were eventually left at home.

Batsmen Gerald Innes, Lloyd Koch and Keith Kirton were the other tour reserves besides Tayfield.

Time between selection and departure from South Africa

  46 days

(19 February to 6 April)

Travel

Cape Town  T  Southampton

              ‘Arundel Castle’

The ‘Arundel Castle’ left Durban on 29 March.  Accompanied by three newspapermen, the team sailed from Cape Town on 6 April. 

They sailed via the Canary Islands, arriving at Southampton on 20 April.

Time spent in England

   153 days

(20 April - 20 September)

On-tour selection panel

Dudley Nourse (captain),  Eric Rowan (vice-captain),  Syd Pegler (Manager),  Geoff Chubb.

Reinforcements

There was such doubt over the fitness of Athol Rowan’s war-wounded leg that Hugh Tayfield was flown over to assist the side. At the end of the tour Rowan despaired of his knee ever improving and decided to retire from first-class cricket.

The touring side was badly hit by other injuries and illnesses. Melle was out of action for six weeks after having a hernia operation in mid-tour and Nourse played after breaking his thumb three weeks before the Test matches began. He entered hospital after the final Test for a third operation on his thumb, which then did not heal for a year.

Mann was taken ill soon after the Fourth Test. He remained in England for an internal operation when the tour party sailed home but never fully recovered and died the following July, aged 31.

Geoff Chubb, aged 40, was the oldest man in the tour group but one of the few to remain fit throughout.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Time spent in England before First Test:  48 days

    (20 April - 7 June)

Test appearances on tour

5  -  Cheetham,  Chubb,  McCarthy,  Nourse,  A Rowan,  E Rowan,  van Ryneveld.

4  -  Mann,  Waite

3  -  Fullerton,  McLean

2  -  McGlew,  Mansell

1  -  Endean,  Melle

0  -  Tayfield.

Highlights

•    Dudley Nourse’s thumb was broken in the first Test at Trent Bridge but he went on to score 208.

•    Spinners Athol Rowan (5-68) and ‘Tufty’ Mann (4-24) secured South Africa’s victory

•    South Africa notched up 538 at Headingley with major contributions from Mansell, van Ryneveld and McLean but especially an innings of 236 from Eric Rowan. It was the highest South African score against England.

•    Geoff Chubb captured 5-77 at Lord’s and 6-51 at Old Trafford, and ended the series with 21 wickets.

Tour Summary

Return to South Africa

Southampton   T    Cape Town

              ‘Winchester Castle’

The team travelled by train from Waterloo Station in London to Southampton on Thursday 20 September 1951 and sailed on the Union-Castle steamer ‘Winchester Castle’, bound for Cape Town, except for McCarthy (who would be studying at  Cambridge University) and Mann (for medical treatment). Mann stayed in England for three months before flying home.

The ship arrived at Cape Town on 4 October and sailed on to Durban.

Time away from South Africa    163 days  

(6 April to 4 October)

Finances

Profit  £17 500.

Published accounts of the tour

“Noursemen in England”   by C O Medworth  (Werner Laurie, 1952).

chapter 5 ‘The Draw Specialists’  in “Testing Times: the story of the men who made South African cricket”  by Luke Alfred (Spearhead 2003)

Postscript