At Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo; 20, 21, 22 November 1965

Reports taken from The Rhodesia Herald. Len Brown was the former South African Test player.

Monday 15 November 1965

NO SHOCKS IN RHODESIAN TEAM TO PLAY TRANSVAAL

By Len Brown

Considering the nature of the Queens Club pitch in Bulawayo, which has always favoured pace bowling rather than spin, there are no surprises in the Rhodesian cricket team to play Transvaal there next weekend, in the first of the season's Currie Cup matches.

The team is: Tony Pithey (captain), Ray Gripper (vice-captain), Tony de Caila, Nick Frangos, Godfrey Lawrence, John McPhun, Dave Napier, Eddie Parker, Joe Partridge, David Pithey, Rob Ullyett. Twelfth man: Peter Swart.

When the trial match played in Salisbury this weekend started on Saturday, it was obvious that nine players were assured of their places - the two Pitheys, Gripper, Frangos, McPhun and Ullyett among the batsmen, Partridge and Lawrence of the bowlers, and de Caila as wicket-keeper.

This left two places to fill, and the selectors had the two days' trial in which to run the rule over several of the bowlers who were on the fringe of selection. In the final analysis, they had no option, after the excellent performances turned in today by pace bowlers Eddie Parker and Dave Napier.

Both bowled lengthy spells, [and] attacked the stumps consistently, especially Parker.

The attack for next weekend features four seamers in Lawrence, Partridge, Parker and Napier, with David Pithey and Napier to supply the spin when necessary.

All the batsmen have been in grand form this season. De Caila was his usual reliable self behind the wicket this weekend, and the fielding in the side chosen should be well up to Rhodesian standards.

Friday 19 November 1995

THIS RHODESIAN SIDE NEEDS TO BELIEVE IN ITSELF

By Len Brown

I don't need much convincing that John Milton, way back in the seventeenth century, did not have the 1965 Rhodesian Currie Cup cricket team in mind when he wrote: ``Oft-times nothing profits more than self esteem, grounded o just and right'' . . . but it is a belief I offer for consideration to Tony Pithey and his men when Rhodesia play Transvaal in the first of the season's Currie Cup cricket matches in Bulawayo, starting tomorrow.

Pithey goes into this match as skipper (he's been appointed for the season) of what I firmly believe to be one of the best Rhodesian sides ever. If only he can make his team believe that too, this could be a season to remember with vast pleasure by Rhodesian cricket followers.

Former skipper David Lewis remarked during that fantastic season several years ago, when Rhodesia won every one of their B Zone matches outright, that his biggest job had been to convince his team they were eminently fit to play in that class of cricket.

Well, if this Rhodesian team will only go into this first match with a little 'self esteem', grounded on their proven ability and experience, with the full knowledge they've every right to be mixing in the Currie Cup company of Transvaal, Natal, Eastern and Western Provinces, I for one am convinced they can go close to winning, not only against Transvaal . . . but the rest of them too.

I'd like fine to have fast bowler Peter Pollock in my side, but I still wouldn't swap Godfrey Lawrence and Joe Partridge for any bowler down there . . . and apart from Graeme Pollock, I very much doubt whether I'd swap any Rhodesian batsman.

In fact, if John McPhun and Rob Ullyett lived down there (after some of the innings I've seen them both play this season), their provinces would have been bellowing long ago for their inclusion in a Springbok team.

Just make them believe in themselves, skipper.

Friday 19 November 1965

Report from Johannesburg

With Johnny Waite suffering from a virus infection and travelling against doctor's orders, the Transvaal team set off for Bulawayo today to launch a new era in Currie Cup cricket.

There are no fewer than 30 Test cricketers available for the competition this summer and because they are distributed over the country to an unprecedented degree each of the five A Section teams, including newly promoted Rhodesia, has a fair chance of winning the cup.

Many believe this will be the Currie Cup's greatest year because it brings into the arena a fascinating challenge to be made against traditionally strong centres by the exciting Eastern Province team containing Graeme Pollock, Peter Pollock and Eddie Barlow.

Saturday 20 November 1965

RHODESIA SEEK THEIR FIRST CURRIE CUP VICTORY OVER TRANSVAAL

From Louis Duffus (Bulawayo, Friday)

Even without Colin Bland, whose absence on honeymoon takes the leading man from the cast, Rhodesia on paper have a well-equipped team to play Transvaal in the season's opening Currie Cup cricket match starting at the Queens Club tomorrow.

Their players have accomplished a string of impressive performances in local cricket and unlike their opponents they are a settled combination, most of whom have played together for many years.

They gained their promotion to the A section by a narrow one-point lead in the tournament of 1963/64 and will seek to maintain their senior status at a time when there are unlikely to be any easy matches for the top five sides of Southern Africa.

Aided by an influx of players, including their three new caps of Bryan Clark, Richard Dumbrill and Raymond White, Transvaal have one of their strongest elevens for several years with six internationals.

Their strength lies in their array of forceful batsmen topped by Tiger Lance, Dumbrill and White, with the captain, Ali Bacher, an invariable pace-setter, [and] their all-rounders, Dumbrill, Lance, Don Mackay-Coghill and Tony Tillim, and the potential effectiveness of their Springbok spin bowler, Atholl McKinnon.

They are possibly vulnerable in having no established opening pair like Ray Gripper and John McPhun, for Ian Fullerton has not quite recovered his erstwhile form and Clark, who learned his cricket in Natal, comes to Rhodesia for the first time to start his provincial career.

It has to be proved, too, whether Transvaal will develop a penetrating opening pair of bowlers in the two left-handers, Mike Macaulay and Mackay-Coghill.

The crux of the match might well hinge on how successfully Rhodesia's seam bowlers, Godfrey Lawrence, Joe Partridge and Eddie Parker, contain Transvaal's explosive batsmen from whom Bacher is bound to expect fast scoring if he hopes to win outright in 21 hours of play.

The conditions, with some prospect of liveliness on the first day and rain hovering about, should suit this Rhodesian attack, but Lawrence and Partridge, who are both 33 and face some enervating heat, might have to strike quickly to do well.

For Pithey's team there is the added incentive that they have never beaten Transvaal in the Currie Cup and only once in 23 first-class matches.

The Sunday Mail, 21 November 1965

PARTRIDGE RESCUES RHODESIA

From Fred Cleary (Bulawayo, Saturday)

Rhodesia 195; Transvaal 80/4 overnight.

Joe Partridge saved Rhodesia again today. After Tony Pithey and the other batsmen had tossed away the initiative in their A Section Currie Cup cricket match against Transvaal here at the Queens Ground with an acute attack of their customary first innings jitters, the now veteran Springbok blasted the game wide open again with a magnificent display of sustained seam bowling.

With 16 deliveries he changed the whole complexion of the game by taking three wickets for only eight runs and four sorry Transvaalers were back in the pavilion.

Actually it was Eddie Parker who made the initial break-through. He started wildly, then found suddenly his length, got Ian Fullerton to chase the ball outside his off stump and be easily caught behind.

The disappointingly small crowd bayed with delight. Then Partridge surged in from the North End to bring one back off the seam and shatter Ali Bacher's off stump.

In came Johnny Waite, veteran of a thousand such crises. But he failed this time. After surviving one confident leg-before appeal he was eventually trapped in front of the wicket by the hostile Partridge.

And when Bryan Clark's stumps were scattered the visiting team were 41 for four and in dire trouble.

Ray White and 'Tiger' Lance now guarded their wickets as if their lies depended on their actions.

Without panicking, they watched every ball with studied care (although Nick Frangos dropped an easy catch in the slips off Partridge when White was four) this pair managed to bring some equilibrium to the Transvaal batting and were still there at the close, having added 39 for the fifth wicket.

So, with six wickets in hand, Transvaal are 115 runs behind and anyone can win.

But had it not been for Partridge, Rhodesia might well have been struggling after only one day in their campaign to win honour and glory in the A Section.

Certainly no one could say their batting overall was of senior grade status.

Except for the courageous Eddie Parker and the patient Nick Frangos, the recognised batsmen came near to panicking on a placid wicket on which the ball came through easily, albeit a shade slow for strokemakers.

Much of the responsibility for this shabby batting on a wicket which was good for many runs can rest on the shoulders of skipper Tony Pithey.

After Frangos and Ray Gripper had made a reasonable but slow start of 56 for the first wicket, and Rob Ullyett had gone cheaply after getting an inside edge to McKinnon, Tony Pithey had Frangos run out in a most inexcusable fashion.

He went himself for only 11 and as a result panic waves rippled through the home middle batting.

John McPhun and David Pithey appeared to toss their wickets away in desperate attempts to plug the gap and had not the burly Eddie Parker been there to bring some equilibrium to the whole affair Rhodesia might have been out for under a hundred.

I just cannot see why Pithey went for that quick single that cost Frangos his wicket.

He turned McKinnon to midwicket, the ball ran about 15 yards straight to the clutching hand of Fullerton, and the ball was returned for Waite to shatter the stumps. Frangos, who had been batting with growing confidence, never had a chance.

But thankfully Eddie Parker was determined to end this nonsense. Getting behind every ball with deliberate care, but smashing everything loose with perfect timing and great natural strength, he put the yapping pack of Transvaal bowlers in their place.

He clobbered Atholl McKinnon for 12 in one over - including one towering six to midwicket - collected six fours during his 77 minutes at the wicket, and along with the dependable Tony de Caila put on 49 for the seventh wicket in 65 minutes.

The Rhodesian innings [ended] dramatically with Dave Napier, the last man in, collapsing with a twisted right knee after lofting Tillim for four.

He was taken to hospital and is unlikely to play again in the match.

Monday 22 November 1995

Rhodesia 195 and 126/5 overnight; Transvaal 219

TRANSVAAL SCRAPE LEAD - MATCH VEERS AGAINST RHODESIA

From Louis Duffus (Bulawayo, Sunday)

After an exciting last-man drama, Transvaal scraped a first-innings lead against Rhodesia at the Queens Club today in one of the closest Currie Cup tussles between the two centres. With a little luck in holding slip catches, Rhodesia might have come out top in a match which now is veering against them.

As it was, Rhodesia, who made 195 and were short of the injured bowler Dave Napier and a batsman tomorrow, dismissed Transvaal for a record low score against them of 219.

In their second innings they have made 126 for five and are thus 102 runs ahead with play ending tomorrow.

Transvaal, at 191 for six, needed only five runs with four wickets in hand when they crashed to the brink of a first-innings setback.

David Pithey had Dumbrill caught by his brother and Lawrence, who had bowled without success for 20 overs, took two wickets in five balls as Mackay-Coghill and Macaulay fell to excellent catches by McPhun and de Caila.

When the last man, Atholl McKinnon, came in three were wanted for the lead. After a misfield by the 12th man, Peter Swart, had tied the scores, McKinnon pushed Lawrence to the covers, ran desperately, collided with Tony Pithey and rolled over into safety.

That Transvaal had wickets to spare in their crisis was due t the attacking top score 58 by White in his first provincial match and the solid innings of 44 by Lance.

They came together at 41 for four and put on 87 for the fifth wicket. White took chances with his strong offside strokes and at 53 was dropped by Frangos in the slips off Lawrence who was swinging away so much with a stiff broadside wind that he changed to over the stumps. This was his first ball.

Frangos, who asked to be moved, unhappily had dropped White yesterday when he was four - a turning point of the innings - but both chances were sliced sharply off the bat.

White made his runs in 109 minutes with eight fours. It took Lance a long time - he scored 2 to White's 27 - before he started hitting his six boundaries. Lawrence held a scorching slip catch to end his innings after 157 minutes.

Partridge, who was used in short spells, did not reproduce his zip and control of the first day, but the steadiness of Parker, Lawrence and David Pithey made Transvaal battle for only 20 minutes shorter than Rhodesia in reaching 195 before a crowd of 1200.

In pre-Bland days the ground fielding would have been regarded as good. The slow pitch and periodic lift made dashing strokeplay difficult.

In their second innings, with Dumbrill used as Transvaal's opening bowlers, Rhodesia tried vainly to push on the score. McKinnon bowled six maidens in his first eight overs and Dumbrill, who was outstanding and unlucky, five in a row.

Ullyett, who hit five powerful fours and was dropped at 29 off Lance, gave most impetus to the score, while Frangos followed his first innings top score of 3 with 40 made in 2 h 21 min.

Waite caught him and made a splendid legside stumping of Gripper. At the end Parker broke a spell of nine maidens by hooking McKinnon for six.

Tuesday 23 November 1995

Rhodesia 195 and 202; Transvaal 219 and 159/9. Match drawn.

RAIN AND BAD LIGHT ROB RHODESIA

By George Parker (The Chronicle)

Bad light and rain robbed a fighting Rhodesian side of almost certain victory in their Currie Cup cricket match which ended at Queens yesterday. Splendid leadership by Rhodesian skipper Tony Pithey, who got a very good response from his bowlers, had Transvaal completely rattled, and there was nobody more relieved to see the black rain clouds form than the boys from Johannesburg, who thus keep that unbeaten Currie Cup record against Rhodesia.

For the record, the game was drawn, but morally the result was victory for a Rhodesian combination that refused to give up.

When Rhodesia were all out at 11.35 for 202, all Transvaal needed was 179 for an outright victory and they had five hours to get them. At this stage, it seemed all over bar the shouting.

But this Rhodesian line-up was a different combination to the one which allowed the game to slip from their grasp on Sunday. Tony Pithey handled his four-man attack brilliantly, and his field-placing, although attacking, was shrewd enough to keep Transvaal from scoring as they wished.

The Rhodesian bowlers responded greatly to the difficult task they were faced with and backed up by some keen fielding, they all gave their best.

When Ian Fullerton and Bryan Clark opened Transvaal's second innings, it was obvious that Pithey and his men didn't agree with the general feeling that the game was already won.

Partridge and Lawrence shared the attack, and once again Partridge had both openers worried. Fullerton in particular had difficulty against him. But it was Clark who was the first to go. He walked into a Partridge inswinger and was trapped in front when the score was 19.

Fullerton at this stage had eight and he was given a life when he snicked one from Partridge hard to Rob Ullyett at gully. Ullyett made a great effort to pull off what undoubtedly would have been the catch of the match.

Bacher came in to join Fullerton and gave a brief glimpse of his true ability when he cut and drove Partridge beautifully in his first few minutes.

When lunch was taken, Transvaal had put on 43 for the loss of Clark's wicket in an hour.

Bacher went almost immediately after lunch when he played one of the most irresponsible shots I have seen. He swung right across the line of a ball directed at his off stump and Partridge had collected his second wicket.

When Johnny Waite joined Fullerton the scoreboard showed 47, and when Waite went caught and bowled by David Pithey Transvaal were only 107 short of victory.

Du Preez was now getting quite a bit of turn out of this slow wicket and nobody looked really safe against him.

A bowling change saw Eddie Parker replace Lawrence and the end of the stodgy Fullerton. Parker had Fullerton snicking a catch to Tony de Caila to end his innings of 24 in 130 minutes.

With the scoreboard reading 80 for four, Rhodesia were right back in the game.

Then came the partnership that nearly put paid to the match. Ray White and Tiger Lance put their heads down against Pithey and Partridge. Both batsmen lived dangerously - particularly against Pithey, who was now bowling at his best.

The score mounted slowly and the game was beginning to swing firmly Transvaal's way. When the scoreboard was showing 143 for four, with White and Lance seemingly in command, one still had thoughts of praying for rain.

But Rhodesia didn't need rain - all they needed was a couple of quick wickets.

Lawrence obliged, and in one dramatic over had White caught at slip by Ullyett and shattered Richard Dumbrill's stumps. When David Pithey induced Lance, who batted well for his 41, to snick a catch to de Caila in the next over, Transvaal had suddenly slumped to 143 for seven.

It wasn't long before Goofy struck again. Tony Tillim followed one outside his off stump and hit a difficult catch to Ullyett, who threw himself forward, clutching the ball inches from the ground.

The Rhodesians were jubilant and right on top as Macaulay came out to join Mackay-Coghill. When the score reached 150 it was Pithey's turn again and de Caila capped a great match performance when he stumped Macaulay.

In came last man McKinnon as rain was threatening. With Transvaal still 20 runs short of victory he appealed against the light.

His appeal was turned down and he faced the rest of Pithey's over before the rain came (5.15) and the players left the field.

The rain stopped at about 5.30, but the umpires, after spending about 20 minutes in the middle, decided the light was too bad for play to go on.

This decision came as a surprise because the light looked no worse than when they turned down McKinnon's appeal.

So the light thwarted Rhodesia's great bid for victory and Transvaal go back with three first innings points. Rhodesia come out of the match with one point but it might so nearly have been six.

It's hard to pick a man of the match for Rhodesia. Eddie Parker gave a great all-round performance and all the bowlers did well. Nick Frangos batted well in both knocks, but all in all the entire team did Rhodesia proud.

BLAND IS BACK

In the midst of the setback in their Currie Cup match in Bulawayo, there was good news for Rhodesia yesterday. On Sunday, Colin Bland arrived in Salisbury unexpectedly early from his honeymoon and will be available for the country's next match to be played against Eastern Province in Salisbury starting on 4 December. He had earlier stated that he would not have time to become physically fit for the match. Now he has nearly two weeks in which to prepare himself.

Friday 26 November 1995

WE'LL NEVER KNOW HOW MATCH WOULD HAVE ENDED

By Len Brown

Rhodesia 195 and 202; Transvaal 219 and 159/9. Match drawn.

We'll never know, will we . . . how that Currie Cup cricket match down in Bulawayo would have ended, had that untimely shower of rain not brought the final curtain down with the situation as it was . . . Transvaal 159 for nine, last pair in, 20 runs to win, and 40 minutes of play left . . . we'll never know.

Knowing Springbok Atholl McKinnon as I do (he was one of the two batsmen in) he'll swear all his life he could have got those runs - all off his own bat. Knowing Godfrey Lawrence equally well, I'll bet the big fellow will abide by his conviction that all he wanted was one ball at McKinnon, to finish off the innings, and give Rhodesia her first ever Currie Cup competition win over Transvaal.

We'll never know which of the two would have been right.

Certain it is that the tragedy from a Rhodesian point of view was the injury to the luckless Dave Napier, which robbed skipper Tony Pithey of the services of the only spinner in the side capable of bowling the ball which 'leaves the bat'.

From reports . . . and having studied the bowling figures of Atholl McKinnon, who bowls the similar ball . . . it would seem the Queens pitch was made for this type of bowling, almost from the first over, and the injury to Napier must be considered number one reason for Rhodesia failing to win.

Another, and more disturbing reason, is this business . . . it's almost our national cricketing weakness . . . of failing to make an adequate score the first time at bat. Time after time, down the years, we've put ourselves well and truly in the cart in the first innings, got made at ourselves and batted like champions in the second innings . . . and wound up just failing to snatch an outright win.

I reckon we're the worst 'first-innings' batting side in Africa . . . and the best second innings batting side. Just take a look at the records for the past 12 years and I think you'll agree with me there.

But there were compensations for Rhodesia in that Bulawayo game, and number one must surely be the form of Eddie Parker, both with bat and ball. This could be a grand season for him . . . and his form could make a material difference to the side in the rest of the Currie Cup games.

The Worcester boys [who toured Rhodesia earlier in 1965] . . . and what better cricket critics are there? . . . always maintained that Eddie didn't get 'stuck in' enough. As that prince of seamers, Jack Flavell, put it to me: ``When Eddie has finished a bowling spell out in the middle, he looks almost as fresh as when he started. When I'm finished a spell, skipper Don Kenyon sometimes asks me if I need a couple of stretcher bearers to cart me out to my place at third man.''

I believe the Rhodesian players feel themselves that they should have had that game against Transvaal wrapped up long before that shower of rain came.

Having run Transvaal so close, with only ten men, they could be right. Let's hope they have as many headaches in store for the other provinces still to be met in the Currie Cup season.

Contributed by John Ward, jward@samara.co.zw