Double Headers

101 The two matches were scheduled for three days’ play each, that at Durban on 22-24-26 December, and that at Cape Town on 24-26-27 December. The two games followed remarkably similar courses: in both of them Transvaal ran up similar big scores on the first day (445 v Border at the Old Fort ground at Durban, of which the first J.P.Duminy made 168*, and 452-6d against Eastern Province at the Wally Wilson Oval at Cape Town, with centuries from Fred Susskind and Charles McKay), and then bowled out their opponents twice on the second day of play. In each case this second day was 26 December, as rain had prevented any play at Durban on Christmas Eve; this was therefore the only date on which both matches were in progress simultaneously. At Durban on this day, Border were dismissed for 115 and 109; Duminy starred this time with the ball in the first innings with 6-40, but only managed 1-21 in the second, in which the most successful bowler was Bruce Mitchell with 5-33. Meanwhile at Cape Town Eastern Province made 110 and 121, with Frank Walsh and Quintin McMillan each taking nine wickets in the match (Walsh 6-35 and 3-42, McMillan 3-24 and 6-48). If you now do the maths you’ll discover the most remarkable of all the similarities between the two matches: the results were exactly the same, with Transvaal winning both of them by precisely an innings and 221 runs. You couldn’t have made it up. The decision to allow two Transvaal sides to play in the trial matches was seen to be justified by the results at each tournament. As all the trial games were friendlies there were no overall winners and losers at the two venues, but if there had been, and if points had been awarded on the same basis as was then current in the Currie Cup, the Transvaal sides would have won both tournaments. Perhaps surprisingly, only eight of the 16 players then selected for the England tour came from Transvaal, though these included both the captain and vice-captain (Deane and Herbie Taylor) and the two South Africa - Welcome to the triple-header Jacobus Petrus Duminy – no close relation to the Jean-Paul Duminy of more recent vintage – included three Tests in his 13-match first-class career in the 1920s. The 168* that he scored in a double-header match in December 1928 was his only first-class century, and the 6-40 that he took in the same match his only first-class ‘five-for’.