All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

246 Stephen Jefferies in overcast conditions, Jefferies took six wickets in 20 deliveries. Captain Joubert Strydom, who had made a century against Eastern Province the week before, and Sylvester Clarke both failed to score. Clarke’s duck completed a pair for the match and there were probably a few Western Province batsmen who were glad they didn’t have to go in again and face retribution from the fiery Bajan. OFS’s ‘recovery’ to 113 all out was mainly due to Lamb who, having top scored in the first innings with 29, did so again, and Donald (25) who, having already been bowled by a Jefferies no-ball, eventually became his tenth victim, Kuiper taking a reflex catch at short leg. No bowler has had to endure a longer partnership for the last wicket before completing his all- ten. The in-form Lamb’s resistance was not surprising, but in a 316-match first-class career Donald would pass fifty just once, and that feat would have to wait for another ten years. Jefferies had bowled unchanged. According to Wisden it was ‘as fine an exhibition of seam bowling as one could wish to see’. He had been well supported in the field, particularly by 20-year-old Daryll Cullinan, who would soon be embarking on a successful Test career, and by Richard Ryall, still Western Province’s most successful wicketkeeper with 388 victims. It was over eighty years since Ernie Vogler had taken the previous all- ten in South Africa, although two bowlers had since come close by taking the first nine wickets before Tiger Lance and Graham Roope respectively spoiled things: Jackie Botten (nine for 23 for North Eastern Transvaal in 1958/59) and Keith McLaren (nine for 54 for Griqualand West in 1973/74). The previous best figures at Newlands were nine for 23 by Bill Howell for the Australians against Western Province in November 1902, just over three years after he had gone one wicket better against Surrey at The Oval. Although their records were close to identical, Western Province were just pipped at the top of the Southern Section of the Currie Cup by OFS, the latter garnering a few more bonus points and going forward to the Final where they were beaten by Clive Rice’s Transvaal. OFS would have to wait until 1992/93 before winning the cup (by then renamed the Castle Cup) for the first time. Jefferies spent the next two English summers with Hampshire. His impact at the first-class level was limited. However, he hit the heights at Lord’s in 1988 when he bowled Hampshire to victory in the Benson and Hedges Cup Final against Derbyshire. His inswinger going well, he took four for 1 in a spell of eight balls that decided the match in the first hour, and if a hard chance hadn’t been missed at slip he would have had a hat-trick. His final figures were five for 13 and Hampshire, who were playing in their first Lord’s final, the last first-class county to do so, cantered home by seven wickets against a Derbyshire attack led by Michael Holding and Devon Malcolm. For the second time in a year Jefferies had out-bowled illustrious and pacier opponents. After playing all his domestic cricket with Western Province Jefferies had one last season with Boland in 1993/94 before retiring with a career total of 478 first-class wickets and a further 256 in one-day cricket.