Double Headers

104 extra points they would have obtained if they had beaten Western Province would not have been enough to allow them to pip Natal for the top spot. So over the course of 17 years, Transvaal played three double-headers. At the time these were the only such instances in South African first-class cricket. No single player appeared in matches in all three double-headers, though several appeared in two of them. The closest approach to playing in all three was by Syd Curnow, who played in the Border fixture in 1928/29 and the Western Province game in 1936/37, and who also appeared for Transvaal in 1945/46 but, sadly, not in either of the early-season double- header games. Bother. For consistency with previous chapters, the first three South African double-headers may be tabulated as follows: Season Play dates Fixture Venue Result 1928/29 22-(24)-26 December Transvaal v Border Durban W 24-26 December Transvaal v E Province Cape Town W 1936/37 1-2-4 January W Province v Transvaal Cape Town D 4-5-6 January Transvaal v Border Johannesburg W 1945/46 16-17 December Transvaal v NE Transvaal Johannesburg D 17-18 December Natal v Transvaal Durban D Because I have defined double-headers as meaning only matches in which two teams played simultaneously while bearing the same name or representing the same cricketing entity, matches between or involving sides from within the same political-administrative area do not automatically constitute double-headers. In practice, in the period covered by Phase 1 the administrative area of Cape Province contained four fully-fledged first- class sides – Eastern and Western Provinces, Border and Griqualand West; and after the separation (for cricketing purposes alone) of NE Transvaal from the rest of that province in 1937, the administrative province of Transvaal included two distinct first-class sides. But simultaneous matches involving two or more of the sides from within Cape Province, or involving the two sides in Transvaal province, do not meet our definition of double-headers, and are therefore not detailed here. During researches for this chapter I have come across just one ‘near-miss’ in South Africa that falls chronologically into Phase 1. According to the fixture list for 1957/58 printed in the South African Cricket Annual 1957 , a side named Transvaal B were due to play North Eastern Transvaal at The Wanderers on the same dates (1, 2, 4 November 1957) as Transvaal were playing Natal in a friendly at Kingsmead (there were no Currie Cup matches this season because of the Australian Test tour; note also that at this time, no ‘B’ sides had yet entered the Currie Cup, so for such a side to have played a first-class match would have been a new departure). The annual’s fixture list distinguished first-class from non-first-class matches, and the Wanderers game is not identified there as ‘not first class’ – from which I infer that, at the time that list was printed, the Transvaal B match was regarded as a first-class fixture. But in the event it was denied that South Africa - Welcome to the triple-header