Double Headers

107 South Africa - Welcome to the triple-header The first of these double-headers was on 20 November 1959, when the senior side began a Section A match against Border at Johannesburg , at the same time as the B side was making its first first-class appearance, against Griqualand West at Kimberley. The occasion was a double success for Transvaal, who recorded innings victories in both matches. As a means of increasing the amount and competitiveness of first-class cricket in South Africa, other provincial ‘B’ sides were successively admitted to the Currie Cup competition, or its successors, as follows: First and last seasons as a first-class side Total number of first-class matches played Transvaal B (a) 1959/60 – 1996/97 195 Natal B (b) 1965/66 – 1998/99 178 Western Province B 1975/76 – 1998/99 131 Eastern Province B 1977/78 – 1998/99 113 Rhodesia B (c) 1977/78 – 1979/80 14 Northern Transvaal B (d) 1981/82 – 1998/99 88 Orange Free State B (e) 1989/90 – 1995/96 30 Boland B 1993/94 – 1995/96 15 Border B 1993/94 – 1995/96 15 Griqualand West B 1998/99 6 (a) Played as Transvaal B throughout – never as ‘Gauteng B’ (b) Played as KwaZulu-Natal B in 1998/99 (c) Played as Zimbabwe-Rhodesia B in 1979/80. Rhodesian sides withdrew from South African domestic competitions following Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. (d) Played as Northerns B in 1997/98 and 1998/99. Never played as ‘North Eastern Transvaal B’. (e) Played as Free State B in 1995/96 The figure for the number of matches played includes occasional games outside the Currie Cup and its successors. The double-headers played by these teams over these periods are too numerous to detail separately. In practice, the majority of the B sides’ matches coincided or overlapped with matches played by the senior provincial sides – hardly surprising, given that the domestic fixture lists were generally drawn up with games in Sections A and B being played simultaneously. In total, the numbers of such double-headers by each side were as follows; the figures for Transvaal and Natal each include two instances where one of the matches concerned was not a Currie Cup match. Transvaal 133 Orange Free State 15 Natal 117 Boland 12 Western Province 73 Border 11 Eastern Province 69 Griqualand West 6 Northern Transvaal 50 Rhodesia 5 In the great majority of cases, these double-headers involved one provincial side playing at home while the other played away. There were however