Lives in Cricket No 2 - Johnny Briggs

forced to return home after a family bereavement, while some of the other tourists were reckoned only to be of good club standard. Briggs made his initial Test appearance on South African soil in the first match of the series, played on a matting wicket, at the Crusaders’ Ground, St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth, starting on 12 March, 1889. Scheduled for three days, the match was over just before 3.30pm on the second day. Briggs helped his England team-mates to a comprehensive eight-wicket win, taking 4 for 39 and 4 for 19 although he was a let-down with the bat, failing to trouble the scorers. He again did next to nothing with the bat in the Second and final Test at Cape Town later that month, going in at No.3 and scoring only six. But he was absolutely devastating with the ball, taking 7 for 17 in South Africa’s first innings total of 47 and 8 for 11 as the hosts crashed to 43 in their second innings, sealing an innings and 202-run win for England. Once more, it was all over after two days of a scheduled three-day game. On the first day, England totalled 292 all out, with Abel (120) scoring the first first-class hundred in South Africa. By the close South Africa were already struggling at 2 for 1. But worse – much worse – was to follow on day two for the home side. Briggs was virtually unplayable, taking seven of the remaining nine wickets for 17 runs in 18.1 overs. Following on, South Africa were in dire straits once again. By lunch, they were rocking at 36 for 7, Briggs having taken five wickets for nine runs in 13 overs. Briggs wrapped up the South Africa innings – and an England victory – by taking the remaining three wickets just after lunch. During the morning session, Briggs had taken 12 wickets for 26 runs in 31.1 overs – a measure of his accuracy can be gauged by the fact that eleven of his victims were bowled with the other lbw. It is almost certainly the most destructive pre-lunch Test spell of all time. England’s victorious captain was Surrey’s Monty Bowden, the youngest ever at 23 years 144 days. He was leading the side for the first time in this Test, having taken over from Aubrey Smith, who had skippered the side in the first match of the series. Tragically, Bowden died at an even earlier age than Briggs. He enjoyed the South African way of life so much that he and Aubrey Smith stayed on after the tour to set up a stock broking partnership. He even represented Transvaal in domestic first-class cricket. But after travelling north to Rhodesia he died in Umtali (now Mutare) Hospital in Mashonaland in February 1892 where it is said that his body had to be protected from marauding lions prior to its Taking a hundred wickets for the first time 45