The Troubled Tour by David Potter

Author:David Potter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2022-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

One might have felt that the month of June had already visited enough horrors on the South Africans but there was still a final humiliation awaiting them in Bristol. It was a green-top wicket, but that is no excuse, for good teams can play better on any pitch than poorer ones can. The tourists, however, were now demoralised with quite a few of them clearly pining for home – and the tour still had a couple of months to run! But once more it was necessary to repair to the west country, this time to take on Gloucestershire.

McGlew, Griffin, McLean and Fellows-Smith sat this one out, and Goddard captained the side for a game that lasted little longer than half its scheduled time. The South Africans were shot out for 115, with Tayfield’s 24 being the top score. But then the South African bowlers began to enjoy themselves and dismissed Gloucestershire for 81, giving themselves a lead of 35. A little sensible batting seemed called for now in the second innings, but they collapsed to Dennis A’Court and David Smith for 49, their lowest score in England since 1912 and only Peter Carlstein showed the slightest resistance. The final innings of the game was at least exciting, but just as short-lived as the other three, and Gloucestershire edged home with three wickets to spare, the tourists having made the fatal error of dropping Nicholls who finished the game with 35 not out, by some distance the best individual score of the whole game! Gloucestershire supporters were happy with their side’s performance but entitled to feel short-changed by the lack of cricket! The South Africans at least enjoyed their brief stay in Bristol, seeing among other things the remarkable Clifton Suspension Bridge and wondering at the genius of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

For at least the third time on the tour, the possibility of sending for Peter Heine was raised. This time, the balance of evidence was that another cable was sent, but the request was not fulfilled. Whether the South African Cricket Board decided this, or whether Heine himself (for perfectly understandable reasons) refused is not clear in the welter of conflicting and unsubstantiated claims, but the upshot was that the 15 men remained. Griffin himself, now out of the tour as a bowler, did not go home, but stayed on as a batsman and fielder, roles which he accepted with dignity, enthusiasm and not without success.

Although I was sorry for Geoff Griffin, there were other things on my mind. Late June saw my last few days at primary school, and 1960 was also World Refugee Year. In honour of this, and with me being now a senior and even venerable pupil, I took part in a couple of things, both of which had an effect on me. One was an introduction to amateur dramatics – a silly but imaginative play in which I was the King of Hearts, and had to deal with a problem caused by the Knave stealing some tarts and the state visit of the King and Queen of Spades.

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