Anton Murray
Encyclopedia
Anton Ronald Andrew Murray (30 April 1922 in Grahamstown
, Cape Province
– 17 April 1995 in Cape Town
, Cape Province
) was a South Africa
n cricket
er who played in 10 Tests
in a little over a year from December 1952 to February 1954, appearing four times against Australia
and then six times against New Zealand
. He later toured England as a member of the 1955 South African side
but did not appear in any of the Tests there. Outside cricket, he was a schoolmaster who founded a noted school in Pretoria
.
from the 1947-48 season, and had a sensational first season for Eastern Province
, scoring 133, which proved to be his highest first-class score, in only his second match, the game against Western Province at Cape Town
. Later in the same season, he took seven wickets for 30 runs, his best single-innings haul, in the match against Orange Free State
at Bloemfontein
.
The suspension of the Currie Cup
competition over the next two seasons while first England
and then Australia toured South Africa limited Murray's first-class cricket to just two matches in the first season. In 1950-51, when the domestic competition resumed, Murray had an unspectacular batting season and, except in one innings, a modest bowling season too: the exception was the match against Transvaal
, when he took seven for 109, the second seven-wicket haul of his career. These were seven of only eight Transvaal wickets that fell to bowlers in the match, which Eastern Province lost by 10 wickets.
There were more runs and more wickets in the 1951-52 season, but no more centuries or five-wicket innings hauls. But at the end of the South African domestic season he was selected for the match between J. E. Cheetham
's XI and D. J. McGlew
's XI which was used by the South African Test selectors to pick the team to tour Australia and New Zealand the following winter. The first two days of the match were lost to rain, but Murray then took four wickets for 36 runs, the best bowling figures of the match, to win a place on the tour.
and New Zealand surpassed previous South African Test efforts, with the series against the Australians drawn – all previous series had been lost – and that against New Zealand won. If the outstanding player for South Africa was the spin bowler Hugh Tayfield
, then many of the others, Murray included, contributed runs, high-class fielding and occasional wickets.
Murray made his Test debut in the first Test of the tour, and such were the numbers of all-rounders played by South Africa that he batted at No 9, making 18 and an unbeaten 11. In the one match of the series where Australian spin, in the person of Doug Ring
, more than matched South African, Murray failed to take a wicket.
Packing the side with batsmen paid off for the South Africans in the second Test: Murray, again batting at No 9, joined Percy Mansell
with the score at 126 for seven wickets, and proceeded to make 51, the highest score in the innings. Fibrositis limited his bowling in the first Australian innings to just three overs. In the second innings, he made 23, and he then took the wicket of Colin McDonald in Australia's second innings before Tayfield polished off the match by taking seven wickets to finish with 13 wickets in the match.
The Third Test proved to be the South Africans' least successful of the entire tour. Ray Lindwall
and Keith Miller
were the main reasons for a first innings total of just 177, to which Murray, promoted to bat at No 7, contributed just 4. When the Australians batted, Neil Harvey
made 190 and Tayfield broke his left thumb which, though not his bowling hand, restricted his effectiveness. In the event, Murray proved the South Africans' leading wicket taker, but his four wickets, including Harvey, cost him 169 runs in 51.2 eight-ball overs. The figures nevertheless remained the best of his Test career. Batting again, the South Africans totalled 232 to lose by an innings, and Murray made 17.
Murray missed the next three weeks of cricket, including the fourth Test match, but resumed his place in the side for fifth Test, which South Africa won to square the series. His own contribution was limited: one wicket and 17 runs in his single innings.
The tour then moved on to New Zealand, where there were two first-class matches before the two Test matches. Murray did not play in the first game, but in the second, batting at No 10, he came to the wicket with the South Africans at 155 for eight, 190 behind Canterbury's score. He then shared a partnership of 121 with Cheetham, who made 64, and an unbroken tenth wicket partnership of 80 with Michael Melle
. The innings was declared with Murray exactly 100 not out.
The first Test against a weak New Zealand
side was dominated by a score of 255 not out by McGlew, the highest individual score for South Africa in Tests to that date. Murray, batting at No 8, joined McGlew with the score at 238 for six and proceeded to hit 109, his first and only Test century, sharing a partnership of 246 which doubled the previous record for the seventh wicket for South Africa in Tests. It was, at the time, the highest seventh wicket partnership in all Test cricket and remains, as of 2009, the fourth highest in all Tests. Murray also proved useful with the ball in this Test, taking three for 30 and two for 19 in a total of 51 overs, as New Zealand lost by an innings.
The second Test of the series on a very slow pitch at Auckland
, was an anticlimax: Murray made six and took one wicket for 29 runs off 31 overs.
In the 1953-54 South African domestic season, New Zealand toured for a full series of five Test matches, and the domestic Currie Cup competition was suspended for the season. Murray played in four of the five Tests, missing the fourth Test, but was not at all successful: in five innings, he scored just 33 runs with a highest of 13 when he was promoted to open the innings in the second Test following an injury to regular opener John Waite. With the emergence of Neil Adcock
as a fast bowler, South Africa relied less on spin, and Murray took only six wickets in the series. The series proved to be the end of his Test career.
to tour England.
In a warm English summer with hard wickets, Murray's slow to medium paced bowling was economical in the county matches, but not penetrative enough to take many wickets. He finished second in the bowling averages on the tour as a whole, with 31 wickets, but his batting also disappointed, with an average of just 16, and he was one of only two players – the other was the reserve wicketkeeper, Christopher Duckworth
– who did not play in any of the Test matches. He was not helped by an injury to his thumb which kept him out of first-class matches for most of July: on his return to the side, he hit exactly 100, opening the innings against the Minor Counties cricket team, but the match was not first-class. His b est score in a first-class match was 51 against Gloucestershire
, when he also opened the innings. At other times on the tour, however, he batted as low as No 10.
Back in South Africa in the 1955-56 season, Murray made just three further appearances for Eastern Province in the Currie Cup, making 241 runs at an average of 40 and taking nine wickets. He retired from first-class cricket at the end of the season.
, and he remained as head there until retirement in 1984.
Grahamstown
Grahamstown is a city in the Eastern Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa and is the seat of the Makana municipality. The population of greater Grahamstown, as of 2003, was 124,758. The population of the surrounding areas, including the actual city was 41,799 of which 77.4% were black,...
, Cape Province
Cape Province
The Province of the Cape of Good Hope was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa...
– 17 April 1995 in Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, Cape Province
Cape Province
The Province of the Cape of Good Hope was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa...
) was a South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er who played in 10 Tests
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
in a little over a year from December 1952 to February 1954, appearing four times against Australia
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
and then six times against New Zealand
New Zealand cricket team
The New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. It took the team until 1955–56 to win a Test, against the...
. He later toured England as a member of the 1955 South African side
South African cricket team in England in 1955
The South African cricket team toured England in the 1955 season to play a five-match Test series against England.England won the series 3-2 with no matches drawn.-South African team:...
but did not appear in any of the Tests there. Outside cricket, he was a schoolmaster who founded a noted school in Pretoria
Pretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
.
Cricket career
Anton Murray was a tall and athletic cricketer: a useful middle or lower order right-handed batsman and a right-arm slow-to-medium-pace bowler who used a lot of variations of pace. He played South African domestic first-class cricketFirst-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
from the 1947-48 season, and had a sensational first season for Eastern Province
Eastern Province cricket team
Eastern Province cricket team is the team representing the Eastern Province in domestic first-class cricket in South Africa.-Honours:* Currie Cup - 1988–89, 1991–92; shared - 1989–90* Standard Bank Cup - 1989–90, 1991–92...
, scoring 133, which proved to be his highest first-class score, in only his second match, the game against Western Province at Cape Town
Newlands Cricket Ground
Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town is a South African cricket ground. It's the home of the Cape Cobras, who play in the SuperSport Series, MTN Domestic Championship and Standard Bank Pro20 competitions. It is also a venue for Test matches. Newlands is regarded as one of the most beautiful cricket...
. Later in the same season, he took seven wickets for 30 runs, his best single-innings haul, in the match against Orange Free State
Orange Free State cricket team
The Free State cricket team is the first-class cricket team representing the province of Free State in South Africa....
at Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein is the capital city of the Free State Province of South Africa; and, as the judicial capital of the nation, one of South Africa's three national capitals – the other two being Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Pretoria, the administrative capital.Bloemfontein is popularly and...
.
The suspension of the Currie Cup
SuperSport Series
The SuperSport Series is the main domestic first class cricket competition in South Africa, first contested in 1889-90. From 1990-91 it became known as the Castle Cup, and from 1996-97 by its current title...
competition over the next two seasons while first England
English cricket team in South Africa in 1948-49
The England national cricket team toured South Africa in the 1948-49 season. The tour was organised by the Marylebone Cricket Club and the side played five Test matches as England and 16 other first-class matches as "MCC". Two of the first-class matches took place in Rhodesia...
and then Australia toured South Africa limited Murray's first-class cricket to just two matches in the first season. In 1950-51, when the domestic competition resumed, Murray had an unspectacular batting season and, except in one innings, a modest bowling season too: the exception was the match against Transvaal
Transvaal cricket team
Gauteng cricket team is the first-class cricket team of the province of Gauteng in South Africa....
, when he took seven for 109, the second seven-wicket haul of his career. These were seven of only eight Transvaal wickets that fell to bowlers in the match, which Eastern Province lost by 10 wickets.
There were more runs and more wickets in the 1951-52 season, but no more centuries or five-wicket innings hauls. But at the end of the South African domestic season he was selected for the match between J. E. Cheetham
Jack Cheetham
John Erskine Cheetham was a South African cricketer who played in 24 Tests from 1949 to 1955...
's XI and D. J. McGlew
Jackie McGlew
Derrick John "Jackie" McGlew, born on 11 March 1929, Pietermaritzburg and died at Pretoria on 8 June 1998 was a cricketer who played for Natal and South Africa...
's XI which was used by the South African Test selectors to pick the team to tour Australia and New Zealand the following winter. The first two days of the match were lost to rain, but Murray then took four wickets for 36 runs, the best bowling figures of the match, to win a place on the tour.
Test cricketer
The 1952-53 South African cricket tour to AustraliaSouth African cricket team in Australia in 1952-53
The South Africa national cricket team toured Australia in the 1952-53 season and played 5 Test matches against Australia. The series was drawn 2-2, the first time a rubber between the two sides had not been won by Australia....
and New Zealand surpassed previous South African Test efforts, with the series against the Australians drawn – all previous series had been lost – and that against New Zealand won. If the outstanding player for South Africa was the spin bowler Hugh Tayfield
Hugh Tayfield
Hugh Joseph Tayfield was a cricketer. He played 37 Test matches for South Africa from 1949 to 1960 and was one of the best off spinners the game has seen. He was the fastest South African to take 100 wickets in Tests until Dale Steyn claimed the record in March 2008...
, then many of the others, Murray included, contributed runs, high-class fielding and occasional wickets.
Murray made his Test debut in the first Test of the tour, and such were the numbers of all-rounders played by South Africa that he batted at No 9, making 18 and an unbeaten 11. In the one match of the series where Australian spin, in the person of Doug Ring
Doug Ring
Douglas Thomas Ring was an Australian cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia in 13 Tests from 1948 to 1953...
, more than matched South African, Murray failed to take a wicket.
Packing the side with batsmen paid off for the South Africans in the second Test: Murray, again batting at No 9, joined Percy Mansell
Percy Mansell
Percy Neville Frank Mansell was a South African cricketer who played in thirteen Tests from 1951 to 1955....
with the score at 126 for seven wickets, and proceeded to make 51, the highest score in the innings. Fibrositis limited his bowling in the first Australian innings to just three overs. In the second innings, he made 23, and he then took the wicket of Colin McDonald in Australia's second innings before Tayfield polished off the match by taking seven wickets to finish with 13 wickets in the match.
The Third Test proved to be the South Africans' least successful of the entire tour. Ray Lindwall
Ray Lindwall
Raymond Russell Lindwall MBE was a cricketer who represented Australia in 61 Tests from 1946 to 1960. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time. He also played top-flight rugby league football with St...
and Keith Miller
Keith Miller
Keith Ross Miller MBE was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. Because of his ability, irreverent manner and good looks he was a crowd favourite...
were the main reasons for a first innings total of just 177, to which Murray, promoted to bat at No 7, contributed just 4. When the Australians batted, Neil Harvey
Neil Harvey
Robert Neil Harvey MBE is a former Australian cricketer who represented the Australian cricket team between 1948 and 1963, playing in 79 Test matches. He was the vice-captain of the team from 1957 until his retirement...
made 190 and Tayfield broke his left thumb which, though not his bowling hand, restricted his effectiveness. In the event, Murray proved the South Africans' leading wicket taker, but his four wickets, including Harvey, cost him 169 runs in 51.2 eight-ball overs. The figures nevertheless remained the best of his Test career. Batting again, the South Africans totalled 232 to lose by an innings, and Murray made 17.
Murray missed the next three weeks of cricket, including the fourth Test match, but resumed his place in the side for fifth Test, which South Africa won to square the series. His own contribution was limited: one wicket and 17 runs in his single innings.
The tour then moved on to New Zealand, where there were two first-class matches before the two Test matches. Murray did not play in the first game, but in the second, batting at No 10, he came to the wicket with the South Africans at 155 for eight, 190 behind Canterbury's score. He then shared a partnership of 121 with Cheetham, who made 64, and an unbroken tenth wicket partnership of 80 with Michael Melle
Michael Melle
Michael George Melle was a South African cricketer who played in seven Tests from 1950 to 1953....
. The innings was declared with Murray exactly 100 not out.
The first Test against a weak New Zealand
New Zealand cricket team
The New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. It took the team until 1955–56 to win a Test, against the...
side was dominated by a score of 255 not out by McGlew, the highest individual score for South Africa in Tests to that date. Murray, batting at No 8, joined McGlew with the score at 238 for six and proceeded to hit 109, his first and only Test century, sharing a partnership of 246 which doubled the previous record for the seventh wicket for South Africa in Tests. It was, at the time, the highest seventh wicket partnership in all Test cricket and remains, as of 2009, the fourth highest in all Tests. Murray also proved useful with the ball in this Test, taking three for 30 and two for 19 in a total of 51 overs, as New Zealand lost by an innings.
The second Test of the series on a very slow pitch at Auckland
Eden Park
Eden Park is the biggest stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. It is used primarily for rugby union in winter and cricket in summer . The ground also occasionally hostts rugby league matches. To accommodate all three sports, the cricket pitch is removable...
, was an anticlimax: Murray made six and took one wicket for 29 runs off 31 overs.
In the 1953-54 South African domestic season, New Zealand toured for a full series of five Test matches, and the domestic Currie Cup competition was suspended for the season. Murray played in four of the five Tests, missing the fourth Test, but was not at all successful: in five innings, he scored just 33 runs with a highest of 13 when he was promoted to open the innings in the second Test following an injury to regular opener John Waite. With the emergence of Neil Adcock
Neil Adcock
Neil Amwin Treharne Adcock is a former South African cricketer who played 26 Tests. A tall aggressive fast bowler, he could lift the ball sharply off a length. He was the first South African player to take 100 Test wickets.Making his Test debut in 1953 at home against New Zealand, he had only 9...
as a fast bowler, South Africa relied less on spin, and Murray took only six wickets in the series. The series proved to be the end of his Test career.
Later cricket career
The Currie Cup competition resumed in 1954-55, and Murray had one of his best seasons, averaging 42 with the bat and taking 37 wickets in just six first-class matches at an average of only 15.10 runs per wicket. It earned him selection for the 1955 South African teamSouth African cricket team in England in 1955
The South African cricket team toured England in the 1955 season to play a five-match Test series against England.England won the series 3-2 with no matches drawn.-South African team:...
to tour England.
In a warm English summer with hard wickets, Murray's slow to medium paced bowling was economical in the county matches, but not penetrative enough to take many wickets. He finished second in the bowling averages on the tour as a whole, with 31 wickets, but his batting also disappointed, with an average of just 16, and he was one of only two players – the other was the reserve wicketkeeper, Christopher Duckworth
Christopher Duckworth
Christopher Anthony Russell Duckworth is a former amateur South African cricketer who played in two Tests in 1957...
– who did not play in any of the Test matches. He was not helped by an injury to his thumb which kept him out of first-class matches for most of July: on his return to the side, he hit exactly 100, opening the innings against the Minor Counties cricket team, but the match was not first-class. His b est score in a first-class match was 51 against Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire. Its limited overs team is called the Gloucestershire Gladiators....
, when he also opened the innings. At other times on the tour, however, he batted as low as No 10.
Back in South Africa in the 1955-56 season, Murray made just three further appearances for Eastern Province in the Currie Cup, making 241 runs at an average of 40 and taking nine wickets. He retired from first-class cricket at the end of the season.
Outside cricket
Murray was a schoolmaster by profession. In 1963, he was the founding headmaster of St Alban's College, a progressive boarding school in PretoriaPretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
, and he remained as head there until retirement in 1984.