Test Cricket Tours - South Africa to England 1965

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Tour of England 1965 Captain: Peter van der Merwe

14th official Test tour

(June - September 1965)

Tenth Test-playing tour of England by South Africa

  (previous tour 1960)

The thirteenth South Africans to England were the tenth side to play a Test series, and the last to do so for nearly thirty years.

Only one player Athol McKinnon remained from the 1960 tour party but six of the side - Barlow, Bland, Botten, Lindsay, Peter Pollock and van der Merwe - had been to England in 1961 with Roy McLean's Fezelas.

The tour was brought forward from 1966 to accommodate the new twin tour arrangements, which saw New Zealand touring in the first half of the English summer and South Africa in the second half, each team playing three Tests against England. The purpose was to enable the popular West Indians to return to England more frequently. However, this strong South African side, had it been awarded a 4th and 5th Test, would have attracted large crowds as well. As it was, the tour made large profits. The South African Board was indignant that it had been relegated to the second tier of Test nations at a time when the team's reputation for stroke-filled batting, fast bowling and thrilling fielding (Colin Bland would give displays of throwing down the stumps from cover) was so high. The Test series ended with South Africa as winners by one match to nil, so reversing the result against England in South Africa the previous season of 1964-65. The team included four players of world class who were among South Africa's greatest cricketers: Barlow, Bland and the Pollock brothers.

Other South African tours

Previous Tour

New Zealand 1963-64

Next tour

West Indies 1992

Next tour of England

1970 cancelled

1975 cancelled

1994

Members of the Test tour party (15)

Opening batsmen: Eddie Barlow,

Middle-order batsmen: Ali Bacher, Colin Bland, Tiger Lance, Graeme Pollock, Peter van der Merwe

Wicket-keepers: Denis Gamsy, Denis Lindsay

Slow bowlers: Athol McKinnon, Harry Bromfield, Norman Crookes,

Fast bowler:Peter Pollock, Jackie Botten, Richard Dumbrill, Mike Macauley

A Bacher	T	23	RHB
E J Barlow	EP	24	RHB opener RFM vice-captain
K C Bland	R	27	RHB
J T Botten	NET	27	RFM
H D Bromfield	WP	33	OB
N S Crookes	N	29	OB
R Dumbrill	N	26	RFM
D Gamsy	N	25	WK
H R Lance	T	25	RHB RM
D J Lindsay	NET	25	RHB WK
A H McKinnon	T	32	SLA
M J Macauley	OFS	26	LFM
P M Pollock	EP	24	RF
R G Pollock	EP	21	LHB
P L van der Merwe	WP	28	RHB captain

Representation of teams:

EP Eastern Province (3)

N Natal (3)

NET North-Eastern

Transvaal (2)

OFS - Orange Free State (1)

R Rhodesia (1)

T Transvaal (3)

WP - Western Province (2)

Average age of team at time of first Test match

(22 July 1965) :

26 yrs 9 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Barlow 18, Bland 17, PM Pollock 16, RG Pollock 11, Lindsay 9, Bromfield 8, van der Merwe 7, McKinnon 4, Lance 2, Macauley 1, Bacher 0, Botten 0, Crookes 0, Dumbrill 0, Gamsy 0.

Tour Officials

J B Plimsoll	Manager
M Maclennan	Baggage / scorer

Selectors

A H Coy (chairman), D V Dyer, A Melville, L Tuckett..

Selection

Unavailable: T L Goddard (retired - but he played again in later years);

On Goddard's retirement, his vice-captain Peter van der Merwe was made captain.

Tour Party Announced : 17 February 1965.

Not selected :

Withdrawal : A J Pithey (Rhodesia) withdrew for business reasons and was replaced by Lance.

Time between selection and departure from South Africa

119 days

(17 February - 16 June)

Travel

The team flew out of Jan Smuts Airport, Johannesburg, for Heathrow on 16 June 1965.

The team practiced at Roehampton but had no warm-up matches, and pitched straight into their first-class programme.

Time spent in

86 days

(16 June - 10 September)

On-tour selection panel

Peter van der Merwe, Eddie Barlow, Graeme Pollock.

Reinforcements

None.

Fixtures/Results

Chesterfield	Derbyshire	Lost 7 w
Sheffield	Yorkshire	Drawn
Colchester	Essex	Drawn
Kennington Oval	Surrey	Drawn
Bristol	Gloucestershire	Drawn
Jesmond	Minor Counties	Won 203 r
Leicester	Leicestershire	Drawn
LORD'S	ENGLAND First Test	DRAWN
Canterbury	Kent	Won inns 147 r
Swansea	Glamorgan	Drawn
TRENT BRIDGE	ENGLAND Second Test	WON 94 r
Lord's	Middlesex	Won 5 w
Southampton	Hampshire	Drawn
Hove	Sussex	Drawn
Edgbaston	Warwickshire	Drawn
KENNINGTON OVAL	ENGLAND Third Test	DRAWN
Old Trafford	Lancashire	Won 166 r
Scarborough	TN Pearce's XI	Lost 8 w
“ Scarborough	TN Pearce's XI (one-day) ¬	Lost 13 r
“ Bradford	Yorkshire (one-day)	Abandoned

¬extra match added when the match at Scarborough ended early

“ not first-class

Time spent in England before First Test: 

36 days

(16 June - 22 July)

Test appearances on tour

3 - Barlow, Bacher, Bland, Botten, Dumbrill, Lance, Lindsay, P M Pollock, R G Pollock, van der Merwe

2 - McKinnon

1 - Bromfield

0 - Crookes, Gamsy, Macauley

Highlights

- Graeme Pollock's 125 at Trent Bridge was scored with awesome power, his tall, upright style drawing comparisons with Frank Woolley.

- Peter Pollock took 10 wickets (5-53 and 5-34) at Trent Bridge, and 20 wickets in the three-match series

- Colin Bland’s was asked to give displays of cover fielding, after demonstrating his abilities in matches such as running out Ken Barrington and Jim Parks at Lord's.

Tour Summary

	P	W	L	D	Aban
Test Matches	3	1	0	2	-
Other first-class matches	15	4	2	9	-
Minor matches ¬	2	0	1	0	1
All Matches	20	5	3	11	-

¬ An extra limited-overs match was played against TN Pearce's XI when the first-class fixture ended early. The match against Gillette Cup champions Yorkshire was abandoned as a draw

Return to South Africa

The team flew home from Heathrow to Johannesburg on 10 September 1965.

Time away from South Africa 86 days

(16 June - 10 September)

Finances

The tour made a profit of £15 000.

Published accounts of the tour