Famous Cricketers No 60 - Ernest Tyldesley

1924/25 – Hon.L.H.Tennyson’s Team in South Africa Not having been selected for the England tour of Australia, Ernest Tyldesley was invited by the Hon. Lionel Tennyson, the Hampshire captain, on a three month tour of South Africa under the auspices of Mr S.B.Joel and the South African cricket authorities. As things turned out it was possibly the happier option as he distinguished himself particularly well in the party which earned itself the obvious soubriquet of “Solly Joel’s Jolly Souls”! In scoring 1,183 runs and averaging 51.43 in all 17 matches he finished well clear of all the other batsmen, whilst in the 11 first-class games he only just fell short of his 1,000 runs for the tour. He soon found his best form in the games at Kimberley and Johannesburg in early December, scoring over 200 runs in total against both Griqualand West and Transvaal. His brilliant innings of 174 in the former, during which he hit 20 fours and 4 sixes, proved to be the highest individual score of the whole trip. These performances assured him of a place in each of the five representative matches against South Africa where, although not adding to his two earlier 100s, he did score over 300 runs at an average of 36.22. Despite his top score of 79 in the fifth of these games, the tourists lost by 21 runs, having been 234 for 4 chasing only 290. Tyldesley was dismissed three times on the tour by his recent Lancashire colleague Alf Hall, now back playing regularly for Transvaal. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 299. Hon.L.H.Tennyson’s Team v Western Province, Cape Town, November 14, 15 (Match drawn) lbw b J.L.Bolton 17 252-9d 118 82-8 300. Hon.L.H.Tennyson’s Team v Natal, Pietermaritzburg, November 19, 20 (Match drawn) c W.J.Lee b M.E.Billing 1 179 202 not out 40 108-5 301. Hon.L.H.Tennyson’s Team v Natal, Durban, November 21, 22, 24 (Match drawn) c V.C.Robbins b D.P.Conyngham 3 154 116 c W.J.Lee b D.P.Conyngham 61 296-9d 172-4 302. Hon.L.H.Tennyson’s Team v Griqualand West, Kimberley, November 29, December 1, 2 (Match drawn) c F.J.Farrelly b C.M.Francois 45 272 293 c P.Rigal b F.J.Farrelly 174 362 246-8 303. Hon.L.H.Tennyson’s Team v Transvaal, Johannesburg, December 16, 17, 18 (Hon.L.H.Tennyson’s Team won by eight wickets) c and b C.D.Dixon 147 349 109 not out 55 117-2 354 304. Hon.L.H.Tennyson’s Team v South Africa, Johannesburg, December 23, 24, 26 (South Africa won by nine wickets) c A.W.Nourse b A.E.Hall 14 198 295 1 c V.H.Neser b D.P.Conyngham 51 149 53-1 305. Hon.L.H.Tennyson’s Team v South Africa, Durban, January 1, 2, 3, 5 (Hon.L.H.Tennyson’s Team won by 48 runs) b E.P.Nupen 21 285 211 lbw b E.P.Nupen 4 174 200 306. Hon.L.H.Tennyson’s Team v South Africa, Cape Town, January 15, 16 (Hon.L.H.Tennyson’s Team won by ten wickets) b I.D.Buys 50 224 113 did not bat - 40-0 150 1 307. Hon.L.H.Tennyson’s Team v South Africa, Johannesburg, February 6, 7, 9, 10 (Match drawn) lbw b E.P.Nupen 38 239 193 1 c E.P.Nupen b A.E.Hall 42 164 16-0 308. Hon.L.H.Tennyson’s Team v Orange Free State, Bloemfontein, February 13, 14, 16 (Match drawn) c L.R.Tuckett b L.G.Cusworth 96 442 384 34