Test Cricket Tours - South Africa to Australia 1963-64

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Tour of Australia & New Zealand 1963-64 Captain: Trevor Goddard

Thirteenth official test tour

Fourth Test-playing tour of Australia by South Africa

Third Test-playing tour of New Zealand

(October 1963 - March 1964)

This was South Africa’s fourth and final tour of Australia before isolation because the 1971-72 tour had to be cancelled. This set of players maintained the high standard set eleven years before when South Africa had halved the series. Again South Africa responded to losing early in the series with an emphatic victory at Adelaide. For the first time South Africa had batsmen with an attacking rather than defensive mindset to go with a pair of penetrate strike bowlers in Peter Pollock and Partridge. Yet three more Tests - one at Sydney and two in New Zealand - might have been won had South Africa been able to dismiss resistant tail-enders.

This was the only Test touring party containing two pairs of brothers - Tony and David Pithey, and Peter and Grame Pollock. In 1975 the New Zealanders’ World Cup touring squad included three Hadlees and two Howarths.

In New Zealand all three Tests were drawn but tragedy overshadowed the latter part of the tour. The players wore black armbands in the second Test at Dunedin after Carlstein’s wife, Jackie, and three of his four children were killed in a traffic accident on the second day of the match. His two year-old daughter Marlene survived the head-on collison near Villiers, Orange Free State, but Sarah, an African servant girl accompanying them, was also killed. Flags were flown at half-mast and MCC sent a cable of commiseration.

Other South African tours

Previous Tour

England 1960

Next tour

England 1965

Next tour of Australia

1971-72 (cancelled)

1993-94

Members of the Test tour party (15)

Opening batsmen Eddie Barlow, Trevor Goddard, Tony Pithey

Middle-order batsmen Colin Bland, Graeme Pollock, Buster Farrer, Peter Carlstein, Peter van der Merwe

Wicket-keepers John Waite, Denis Lindsay

Spin bowlers Kelly Seymour, David Pithey

Fast bowlers Peter Pollock, Joe Partridge, Clive Halse

E J Barlow	T	23	RHB opener RM
K C Bland	R	25	RHB
P R Carlstein	T	25	RHB
W S Farrer	B	26	RHB
T L Goddard	N	32	LHB opener LM captain
C G Halse	N	28	RF
D T Lindsay	NET	24	RHB WK
J T Partridge	R	30	RFM
A J Pithey	R	30	RHB opener
D B Pithey	R	27	OB
P M Pollock	EP	22	RF
R G Pollock	EP	19	LHB
M A Seymour	WP	27	OB
P L van der Merwe	WP	26	RHB vice-captain
J H B Waite	T	33	RHB WK

Representation of teams:

Br - Border (1)

EP Eastern Province (2)

N - Natal (2)

NET North-Eastern

Transvaal (1)

R - Rhodesia (4)

T - Transvaal (3)

WP - Western Province (2)

Average age of team at time of first Test match

(6 December 1963) :

27 yrs 0 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Waite 41, Goddard 20, Carlstein 6, Barlow 5, Bland 5, A J Pithey 5, Farrer 3, P M Pollck 3, Halse 0, Lindsay 0, Partridge 0, D B Pithey 0, R G Pollock 0, Seymour 0, van der Merwe 0.

Team Officials

Ken Viljoen	Manager
M MacLennan	Scorer - baggage

Viljoen, then President of the S.A.C.A., was on his third cricket tour of Australia.

Selectors

Arthur H Coy (Convenor of selectors), D V Dyer, A Melville and L Tuckett.

Selection

Unavailable: Neil Adcock; Geoffrey Lawrence; Jackie McGlew and Roy McLean had retired and said they were remaining available for business reasons. Even a brewing company’s offer to meet the cost of their wives accompanying them would not make them reconsider.

In December 1962 Trevor Goddard told the selectors he could not spare the time from his new job to go to Australia but on 21 February 1963 the Chairman of Selectors announced that he had changed his mind.

Goddard was confirmed as captain on 31 March 1963.

Tour Party Announced: 2 April 1963

Not selected: Given that it was a 5½-month long tour the selectors asked for a sixteenth player - most likely Peter Dodds (Natal) - but the request was turned down.

Time between selection and departure from South Africa

195 days

(2 April to 14 October)

Travel

The team flew from Jan Smuts Airport, Johannesburg, on 14 October 1963, making an overnight stop on Mauritius and flying on via the Cocos Islands to Perth.

Time spent in Australia and New Zealand 162 days

(15 October - 25 March)

On-tour selection panel

Goddard (captain), van der Merwe (vice-captain), Waite, Farrer, Viljoen (non-voting chairman).

Reinforcements

None

In the final Test in Australia Halse tore his achillees tendon and Graeme Pollock broke his finger.

Fixtures/Results

Perth	Western Australia	Won 5 w
ϯ Cunderdin	Western Australia Country XI	Won 178 r
Perth	Combined XI	Drawn
Adelaide	South Australia	Lost 8 w
ϯ Whyalla	South Australia Country XI	Won 10 w
Melbourne	An Australian XI	Won 3 w
Sydney	New South Wales	Won inns 101 r
ϯ Ipswich	Queensland Country XI	Won inns 41 r
Brisbane	Queensland	Lost inns 73 r
ϯ Southport	South Queensland Country XI	Won 7 w
BRISBANE	AUSTRALIA First Test	DRAWN
ϯ Toowomba	Australian Universities	Drawn
ϯ Lismore	New South Wales Country XI	Won 121 r
ϯ Benalla	Victorian Country XI	Won 10 w
Launceston	Tasmania	Won inns 147 r
ϯ Devonport	Tasmanian Country XI	Won 7 w
Hobart	Tasmania Combined XI	Drawn
ϯ Geelong	Victorian Country XI	Won 5 w
MELBOURNE	AUSTRALIA Second Test	LOST 8 w
ϯ Parkes	New South Wales Country XI	Won 10 w
SYDNEY	AUSTRALIA Third Test	DRAWN
Melbourne	Victoria	Drawn
ϯ Warnambool	Victorian Country XI	Won 9 w
ADELAIDE	AUSTRALIA Fourth Test	WON 10 w
ϯ Newcastle	New South Wales Country XI	Drawn
ϯ Canberra	Prime Minister’s XII	Lost 1 w
ϯ Cooma	New South Wales Country XI	Won 7 w
SYDNEY	AUSTRALIA Fifth Test	DRAWN
ϯ Hamilton	Northern Districts	Drawn
ϯ New Plymouth	New Zealand Colts XI	Drawn
WELLINGTON	NEW ZEALAND First Test	DRAWN
DUNEDIN	NEW ZEALAND Second Test	DRAWN
Christchurch	Canterbury	Won inns 48 r
ϯ Palmerston North	Central Districts	Drawn
AUCKLAND	NEW ZEALAND Third Test	DRAWN

“ not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:

52 days

(15 October - 6 December)

Test appearances on tour

8 - Barlow, Goddard, Partridge, P Pollock,

7 - Bland, A J Pithey, Waite

6 - Lindsay, D Pithey, G Pollock

5 - van der Merwe

4 - Seymour

3 - Farrer, Halse

2 - Carlstein.

Highlights

- Peter Pollock took 40 wickets in the eight Test matches, and Partridge took 38. Each bowler took 25 of his wickets in the Australian series.

- Barlow hit a century in each of the first two Tests (114 at Brisbane and 109 at Melbourne) before scoring a double century (201) at Adelaide. He aggregated 898 runs in the eight Tests on tour, averaging 64.

- 19 year-old Graeme Pollock became the youngest South African to score a Test century (122 at Sydney)

- Pollock followed this up with 175 at Adelaide, contributing towards South Africa’s then highest total in Test cricket (595), which included their highest partnership to date of 341 between Barlow and Pollock.

- Joe Partridge recorded his best Test figures of 7-91 at Sydney.

Tour Summary

	P	W	L	D	Aban
Test Matches	8	1	1	6	-
Other first-class matches	10	6	1	3	-
ϯ Minor matches	17	11	1	5	-
All Matches	35	18	3	14	-

Return to South Africa

Kelly Seymour left for his medical exams in South Africa the day after the fifth Test against Australia, while the rest of the team went from Sydney to Whenuapai Airport, Auckland, on 13 February.

Carlstein who was not taking part in the First Test match against New Zealand, returned to South Africa immediately but his flights were delayed and he arrived on 1 March, too late for the funerals.

At the end of the New Zealand tour Barlow went to England to play league cricket

The team left Auckland early on 19 March for Sydney. Halse went from Sydney to Brisbane where he enroilled on an agronomy course. The team flew by way of Adelaide to Perth and left Australia on Wednesday 25 March.

They landed at Louis Botha Airport, Durban, on the same day and flew on to Jan Smuts Airport, Johannesburg.

Time away from South Africa 163 days

(14 October to 25 March)

Finances

Profit was Rs 5000; more than £3000.

Published accounts of the tour

‘Bradman, Benaud and Goddard’s Cinderellas’ by R S Whitington.

Reports of many incidents on the tour appearaed in Goddard’s biography.