Lives in Cricket No 32 - Eric Rowan

8 Chapter One Growing Up Eric Alfred Burchell Rowan was born on 20 July 1909 in Johannesburg on the highveld of South Africa. He was the first child of Alfred Charles and Jane Rowan in a family that eventually grew to five with the subsequent arrivals of Eric’s sisters Dulcie and Phyllis and brothers Basil and Athol. His mother’s maiden name was Burchell; she was a descendant of the famous botanist Sir William Burchell after whom Burchell’s Zebra is named. Every one of the children was given Burchell as a middle name and the custom has continued through several generations. The family lived in the Johannesburg suburb of Troyeville and, when the time came, the young man was sent to the nearby Jeppe Boys Schools. He began at Preparatory School and then enrolled at Jeppe Boys High School on 25 January 1921, joining Duiker House. The school had been established in 1890, just four years after the discovery of gold in the area, for the purpose of providing education for the children of the miners. Named after Sir Julius Jeppe, the school’s major benefactor, it had been closed during the Anglo-Boer War, but had re-opened in 1902. The school prided itself on creating young men who could face hardship and personal trauma and never give up. These were all qualities Eric would exhibit during his life. Like Burchell’s Zebra, its colours were black and white and mirrored Eric’s strong personality where there were no shades of grey. Sport, in the forms of cricket and hockey, became the driving force of his time in the institution. Eric was at Jeppe for five years, from 1921 to 1925, and it was in the last two years that his cricket began to be noticed. In 1924 under the coaching of a master, Arthur Childe, he played 15 innings and scored 299 runs at 24.99 with a top score of 121 not out. They were good, but not outstanding figures and he finished third in the averages behind HD Wheelwright (597 runs at 37.33) and HN Stranger (735 runs at 33.00), but they had 21 and 22 innings respectively compared to Eric’s 15. He is not listed in the bowling averages, being purely a batsman from the very start. In 1925 he became vice-captain of the First XI. He did not enjoy