Colin Eric Duff was a Rhodesia

Rhodesia

Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...

n sportsman who represented his country in 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...

 and rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

.

Duff, who grew up in the Cape Colony

Cape Colony

The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...

, played his early rugby with Western Province

Western Province (rugby team)

DHL Western Province is a South African rugby union team that participates in the annual Currie Cup tournament. The team has won the Currie Cup on 32 occasions and has the most supporters of any Currie Cup team...

, before transferring to Rhodesia, with the help of former England international and Rhodesian administrator William Henry Milton

William Henry Milton

Sir William Henry Milton was the 3rd Administrator of Mashonaland, played rugby for England and was South Africa's second cricket captain....

. He competed for the Rhodesian rugby team

Zimbabwe national rugby union team

The Zimbabwe national rugby union team is the rugby union team representing Zimbabwe. They are considered to be a third tier rugby union nation...

 in the Currie Cup

Currie Cup

The Currie Cup tournament is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring , featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces...

 and set a competition record four drop goals in a fixture against Border

Border Bulldogs

The Border Bulldogs are a South African rugby union team that participates in the annual Currie Cup tournament. They are governed by the Border Rugby Union and are based in East London....

. The record wasn't beaten until 1992, when Naas Botha booted five drop goals for Northern Transvaal

Blue Bulls

The Blue Bulls, for sponsorship reasons known as the Vodacom Blue Bulls, or more popularly by their Afrikaans name die Blou Bulle, are a South African rugby union team that participates in the annual Currie Cup tournament...

.

His elder brother, Benjamin Duff

Benjamin Duff

Benjamin Robert Duff was a South African rugby union international. He also played a first-class cricket match with Western Province. Duff, born in Swellendam, had a brother Colin who represented Rhodesia at cricket...

, was a rugby union player as well and was awarded the first ever Springbok cap in 1891.

Like his brother, Duff also played first-class cricket

First-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...

. He made his debut in the 1904/05 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...

 cricket season, against Transvaal

Transvaal cricket team

Gauteng cricket team is the first-class cricket team of the province of Gauteng in South Africa....

. A medium pace bowler, he counted Test opener Jimmy Sinclair

Jimmy Sinclair

James Hugh Sinclair was an South African cricketer who played in 25 Tests from 1896 to 1911....

 as one of his two first innings wickets. It was until 1910 that he appeared in another first-class fixture, with Rhodesia hosting the H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI. He took four wickets in the space of four overs in the fourth innings, conceding 11 runs, as the match ended in a draw.