Lives in Cricket No 32 - Eric Rowan

54 he was sitting, Eric told him it all depended on how you looked at it. The result? ‘I got off,’ he said with a smirk, showing he still enjoyed remembering the moment some forty years later. He was also in no doubt about the importance of the innings. ‘The fact that they had been a bit harsh towards me made me battle a little bit harder. If I’d failed I could have been out for good, but I got a hundred.’ England keeper Godfrey Evans also appreciated the moment: ‘He was a great character. It made him more determined and he stuck a few fingers up at them. Marvellous.’ Len Hutton preferred to concentrate on the innings itself: ‘Eric Rowan might have been born in Yorkshire or Lancashire. He was a very dour cricketer, a very tough cricketer. I doubt there’s been a harder cricketer come out of South Africa than Eric Rowan.’ Melville came back for the Third Test at Cape Town which was drawn, but the selectors recalled Eric for the next game at Ellis Park. He had a disastrous first innings being run out for six, but in the second he batted four hours in making an undefeated 86 to make sure his side was safe from defeat. The innings added weight to the criticism received by the selectors for dropping him for the Third Test. The ‘V’ Sign Godfrey Evans removes the bails and Eric is run out for 6 in the first innings of the Fourth Test at Johannesburg. [Bassano Collection]