Too Black to Wear White by Richard Parry & Jonty Winch

Author:Richard Parry & Jonty Winch [Parry, Richard & Winch, Jonty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781785318252
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2021-02-21T18:30:00+00:00

That this union will not object to any club employing a coloured professional in matches other than championship fixtures and no coloured professional or member shall be allowed to compete in championship matches.7

This was the first racially discriminatory legislation to be introduced into sport in South Africa and would have long-standing ramifications. Previous decisions that barred Hendricks from representative cricket had been made by the Western Province Cricket Union on their own, or at the behest of Milton or Rhodes. The avalanche of insult and hurt was essentially aimed at a cricketer against whom no one was personally capable of uttering a bad word as to his conduct, dignity and bearing. The union’s latest decision smacked of cowardice and selfishness. They feared more coloured players coming through the ranks to challenge their exclusive dominance, but they were specifically scared of Hendricks – of his pace and power and his ability to show them up for what they really were: racists of the worst kind.

At the end of October, The Owl commented: ‘Early to say but looks like Docks and United Services will battle for the wooden spoon in the Championship. It is doubtful that Woodstock without Hendricks will be far from the unenviable position.’8

In drawing up their fixture lists, clubs also arranged to play non-championship matches. These would involve all the championship sides, namely Western Province CC, Cape Town CC, Claremont, Garrison, South African College, Bishops, Woodstock, Gardens, Docks and United Services. One such encounter was played between Cape Town CC and Woodstock at Newlands in November 1896. The match was expected to be one-sided, because Cape Town was one of the city’s premier clubs while Woodstock was a struggling team with no provincial contenders. On this occasion, reported the South African Review, Cape Town CC ‘had their best 11 in the field, no doubt as a mark of respect for Hendricks, the fast bowler, who is playing for Woodstock’.9 The Cape Times said the match was billed as one in which ‘the two fastest bowlers in the Western Province’ – Joseph Willoughby and Hendricks – were on show.10

Woodstock suffered a mauling at the hands of their visitors, the game being lost through a collapse in the batting department. They were ‘powerless’ against Willoughby, who captured 7-7 in a total of 47, of which no less than 20 were ‘extras’. It placed pressure on Hendricks to perform, and he did: his 17.3 overs reaping a memorable 8-32 in Cape Town’s score of 120. ‘It was a remarkable performance,’ said the Cape Times, ‘considering the class of batsmen’.11 His victims included five players – Charles Prince, Howard Francis, Stanley Horwood, Frank Hearne and Willoughby – who had represented South Africa at various times. The fact that Charles Bain, good enough to be a future Western Province player, had figures of 0-49 in 12 overs and Abrahams 1-21 in five, placed Hendricks’s performance in perspective. But the most spectacular aspect of his high-class pace bowling was the fact that he hit the stumps on seven occasions, a feat that Willoughby managed twice.

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