Double Headers

103 South Africa - Welcome to the triple-header were most definitely not mere friendlies. For in 1936/37 Transvaal actually played two overlapping matches both of which were in the Currie Cup competition – the first of all the instances examined in this book so far in which both the games in a double-header were matches in the premier national domestic competition. Sadly I do not have details of the circumstances which brought about this unlikely turn of events. Suffice it to say that on New Year’s Day 1937 Transvaal – then, as usual, the Currie Cup holders – began a fixture with Western Province at Cape Town, on the last scheduled day of which they also began a match against Border at Johannesburg. As Currie Cup points were at stake in both matches, Transvaal divided their resources more or less evenly between them. Of the XI who had played in Transvaal’s previous fixture, six (including three once or future Test players) played in the fixture at Cape Town, and four (also including three Test cricketers) stayed at home for the match against Border. 84 The balance of the Transvaal XI against Border included three other Test cricketers, while the balance against Western Province had ‘only’ two. Although Transvaal had the better of both games, they could only force a victory in one of them. Against Western Province they secured a big first-innings lead (455 to 217), thanks mainly to an innings of 161 by Syd Curnow. Declaring at 186-7 in their second innings, they left their opponents to make 425 to win, but after losing two early wickets Western Province reached a creditable 331-4 by the time stumps were finally drawn. The game ended with an unbroken stand of 213 for WP’s fifth wicket between Bryan Wallace (81*) and Henry van der Spuy (121*), both of whom made their career-best scores in the process. To this day, this remains Western Province’s record fifth-wicket stand against Transvaal or its successor side, Gauteng. The Transvaal side at Johannesburg was more successful, despite conceding a first-innings lead. Border were dismissed for 294 in their first innings, which must have been a disappointment for them as they had been 215-1 and 251-2. They then bowled Transvaal out for 274, but when they went in again Border continued their first-innings collapse, and were reduced to 46-8 85 before a ninth-wicket stand of 105 between Sinclair Hubbard (51*) and Clive White (60) helped them to a final total of 160. Transvaal needed 181 for victory, and reached their target for the loss of only two wickets. On recent results, Transvaal might have expected to have won both these games, and so dividing their resources between the two matches might not have been thought too much of a risk. Although they ended the 1936/37 season in, for them, a lowly second place in the Currie Cup table, their failure to force victory at Cape Town did not affect this placing: the two 84 One of the XI from the previous game, Test bowler Chud Langton, played in neither match. 85 Across their two innings, Border at one stage lost 15 wickets while adding only 73 runs, and 16 wickets for 89 runs, moving from 251-2 to 294 all out in their first innings, and then faltering their way to 30-7, and 468, in their second. No one bowler dominated in the first-innings collapse, but that in the second innings was chiefly the work of ‘the man from the ministry’ Lennox Brown, who took six of the first seven wickets to fall.