Test Cricket Tours - South Africa to Australia 1963-64
Tour of Australia & New Zealand 1963-64Captain: Trevor Goddard
Thirteenth official test tour
Fourth Test-playing tour of Australia by South Africa
Third Test-playing tour of New Zealand
(October 1963 - March 1964)
This was South Africa’s fourth and final tour of Australia before isolation because the 1971-72 tour had to be cancelled. This set of players maintained the high standard set eleven years before when South Africa had halved the series. Again South Africa responded to losing early in the series with an emphatic victory at Adelaide.For the first time South Africa had batsmen with an attacking rather than defensive mindset to go with a pair of penetrate strike bowlers in Peter Pollock and Partridge. Yet three more Tests - one at Sydney and two in New Zealand - might have been won had South Africa been able to dismiss resistant tail-enders.
This was the only Test touring party containing two pairs of brothers - Tony and David Pithey, and Peter and Grame Pollock.In 1975 the New Zealanders’ World Cup touring squad included three Hadlees and two Howarths.
In New Zealand all three Tests were drawn but tragedy overshadowed the latter part of the tour. The players wore black armbands in the second Test at Dunedin after Carlstein’s wife, Jackie, and three of his four children were killed in a traffic accident on the second day of the match. His two year-old daughter Marlene survived the head-on collison near Villiers, Orange Free State, but Sarah, an African servant girl accompanying them, was also killed. Flags were flown at half-mast and MCC sent a cable of commiseration.
Opening batsmenEddie Barlow, Trevor Goddard, Tony Pithey
Middle-order batsmenColin Bland, Graeme Pollock, Buster Farrer, Peter Carlstein, Peter van der Merwe
Wicket-keepersJohn Waite, Denis Lindsay
Spin bowlersKelly Seymour, David Pithey
Fast bowlersPeter Pollock, Joe Partridge, Clive Halse
E J Barlow
T
23
RHBopenerRM
K C Bland
R
25
RHB
P R Carlstein
T
25
RHB
W S Farrer
B
26
RHB
T L Goddard
N
32
LHB openerLMcaptain
C G Halse
N
28
RF
D T Lindsay
NET
24
RHBWK
J T Partridge
R
30
RFM
A J Pithey
R
30
RHB opener
D B Pithey
R
27
OB
P M Pollock
EP
22
RF
R G Pollock
EP
19
LHB
M A Seymour
WP
27
OB
P L van der Merwe
WP
26
RHBvice-captain
J H B Waite
T
33
RHBWK
Representation of teams:
Br - Border (1)
EP Eastern Province (2)
N - Natal (2)
NET North-Eastern
Transvaal (1)
R - Rhodesia (4)
T - Transvaal (3)
WP - Western Province (2)
Average age ofteam at time of first Test match
(6 December 1963) :
27 yrs0 months
Test Appearances made before the tour
Waite 41,Goddard 20,Carlstein 6,Barlow 5,Bland 5,A J Pithey 5,Farrer 3,P M Pollck 3,Halse 0,Lindsay 0,Partridge 0,D B Pithey 0,R G Pollock 0,Seymour 0,van der Merwe 0.
Team Officials
Ken Viljoen
Manager
M MacLennan
Scorer - baggage
Viljoen, then President of the S.A.C.A., was on his third cricket tour of Australia.
Selectors
Arthur H Coy (Convenor of selectors), D V Dyer,A Melville and L Tuckett.
Selection
Unavailable: Neil Adcock;Geoffrey Lawrence;Jackie McGlew and Roy McLean had retired and said they were remaining available for business reasons. Even a brewing company’s offer to meet the cost of their wives accompanying them would not make them reconsider.
In December 1962 Trevor Goddard told the selectors he could not spare the time from his new job to go to Australia but on 21 February 1963 the Chairman of Selectors announced that he had changed his mind.
Goddard was confirmed as captain on 31 March 1963.
Tour Party Announced:2 April 1963
Not selected:Given that it was a 5½-month long tour the selectors asked for a sixteenth player - most likely Peter Dodds (Natal) - but the request was turned down.
Time between selection and departure from South Africa
195 days
(2 April to 14 October)
Travel
The team flew from Jan Smuts Airport, Johannesburg, on 14 October 1963, making an overnight stop on Mauritius and flying on via the Cocos Islands to Perth.
Time spent in Australia and New Zealand162 days
(15 October - 25 March)
On-tour selection panel
Goddard (captain),van der Merwe (vice-captain),Waite,Farrer,Viljoen (non-voting chairman).
Reinforcements
None
In the final Test in Australia Halse tore his achillees tendon and Graeme Pollock broke his finger.
Fixtures/Results
Perth
Western Australia
Won 5 w
ϯ Cunderdin
Western Australia Country XI
Won 178 r
Perth
Combined XI
Drawn
Adelaide
South Australia
Lost 8 w
ϯ Whyalla
South Australia Country XI
Won 10 w
Melbourne
An Australian XI
Won 3 w
Sydney
New South Wales
Won inns 101 r
ϯ Ipswich
Queensland Country XI
Won inns 41 r
Brisbane
Queensland
Lost inns 73 r
ϯ Southport
South Queensland Country XI
Won 7 w
BRISBANE
AUSTRALIAFirst Test
DRAWN
ϯ Toowomba
Australian Universities
Drawn
ϯ Lismore
New South Wales Country XI
Won 121 r
ϯ Benalla
Victorian Country XI
Won 10 w
Launceston
Tasmania
Won inns 147 r
ϯ Devonport
Tasmanian Country XI
Won 7 w
Hobart
Tasmania Combined XI
Drawn
ϯ Geelong
Victorian Country XI
Won 5 w
MELBOURNE
AUSTRALIASecond Test
LOST 8 w
ϯ Parkes
New South Wales Country XI
Won 10 w
SYDNEY
AUSTRALIAThird Test
DRAWN
Melbourne
Victoria
Drawn
ϯ Warnambool
Victorian Country XI
Won 9 w
ADELAIDE
AUSTRALIAFourth Test
WON 10 w
ϯ Newcastle
New South Wales Country XI
Drawn
ϯ Canberra
Prime Minister’s XII
Lost 1 w
ϯ Cooma
New South Wales Country XI
Won 7 w
SYDNEY
AUSTRALIAFifth Test
DRAWN
ϯ Hamilton
Northern Districts
Drawn
ϯ New Plymouth
New Zealand Colts XI
Drawn
WELLINGTON
NEW ZEALANDFirst Test
DRAWN
DUNEDIN
NEW ZEALANDSecond Test
DRAWN
Christchurch
Canterbury
Won inns 48 r
ϯ Palmerston North
Central Districts
Drawn
AUCKLAND
NEW ZEALANDThird Test
DRAWN
� not first-class
Time spent in Australia before First Test:
52 days
(15 October - 6 December)
Test appearances on tour
8-Barlow,Goddard,Partridge,P Pollock,
7-Bland,A J Pithey,Waite
6-Lindsay,D Pithey,G Pollock
5-van der Merwe
4-Seymour
3-Farrer,Halse
2-Carlstein.
Highlights
•Peter Pollock took 40 wickets in the eight Test matches, and Partridge took 38. Each bowler took 25 of his wickets in the Australian series.
•Barlow hit a century in each of the first two Tests (114 at Brisbane and 109 at Melbourne) before scoring a double century (201) at Adelaide. He aggregated 898 runs in the eight Tests on tour, averaging 64.
•19 year-old Graeme Pollock became the youngest South African to score a Test century (122 at Sydney)
•Pollock followed this up with 175 at Adelaide, contributing towards South Africa’s then highest total in Test cricket (595), which included their highest partnership to date of 341 between Barlow and Pollock.
•Joe Partridge recorded his best Test figures of 7-91 at Sydney.
Tour Summary
P
W
L
D
Aban
Test Matches
8
1
1
6
-
Other first-class matches
10
6
1
3
-
ϯ Minor matches
17
11
1
5
-
All Matches
35
18
3
14
-
Return to South Africa
Kelly Seymour left for his medical exams in South Africa the day after the fifth Test against Australia, while the rest of the team went from Sydney to Whenuapai Airport, Auckland, on 13 February.
Carlstein who was not taking part in the First Test match against New Zealand, returned to South Africa immediately but his flights were delayed and he arrived on 1 March, too late for the funerals.
At the end of the New Zealand tour Barlow went to England to play league cricket
The team left Auckland early on 19 March for Sydney. Halse went from Sydney to Brisbane where he enroilled on an agronomy course.The team flew by way of Adelaide to Perth and left Australia on Wednesday 25 March.
They landed at Louis Botha Airport, Durban, on the same day and flew on to Jan Smuts Airport, Johannesburg.
Time away from South Africa163 days
(14 October to 25 March)
Finances
Profit was Rs 5000; more than £3000.
Published accounts of the tour
“Bradman, Benaud and Goddard’s Cinderellas”by R S Whitington.
Reports of many incidents on the tour appearaed in Goddard’s biography.