English cricket team in South Africa in 1909-10
Encyclopedia
The tour by the English cricket team in South Africa in 1909-10 was organised by Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...

 (MCC). The team played as MCC in the non-Test fixtures and as England in the five Test matches. They played 14 first-class matches
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...

 including the Tests, winning 7 times with 3 draws and 4 defeats .

England was captained by HDG Leveson Gower. South Africa's captain in the Test series was Tip Snooke
Tip Snooke
Sibley John "Tip" Snooke played Test cricket for South Africa as an all-rounder, captaining the side to victory 3-2 against England in a five-Test series in South Africa in 1909-10...

.

Test series

South Africa won the Test series 3-2:
No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result
106 1-5 January 1910 Tip Snooke
Tip Snooke
Sibley John "Tip" Snooke played Test cricket for South Africa as an all-rounder, captaining the side to victory 3-2 against England in a five-Test series in South Africa in 1909-10...

 
HDG Leveson Gower  Old Wanderers
Old Wanderers
Old Wanderers was a cricket ground in Johannesburg, South Africa. The ground hosted 22 Test matches from 1895 to 1939, before being rebuilt as Johannesburg's Park Station in 1946...

 
South Africa won by 19 runs
107 21-26 January 1910 Tip Snooke
Tip Snooke
Sibley John "Tip" Snooke played Test cricket for South Africa as an all-rounder, captaining the side to victory 3-2 against England in a five-Test series in South Africa in 1909-10...

 
HDG Leveson Gower  Lord's, Durban  South Africa won by 95 runs
108 26 Feb - 3 March 1910 Tip Snooke
Tip Snooke
Sibley John "Tip" Snooke played Test cricket for South Africa as an all-rounder, captaining the side to victory 3-2 against England in a five-Test series in South Africa in 1909-10...

 
HDG Leveson Gower  Old Wanderers
Old Wanderers
Old Wanderers was a cricket ground in Johannesburg, South Africa. The ground hosted 22 Test matches from 1895 to 1939, before being rebuilt as Johannesburg's Park Station in 1946...

 
England won by 3 wkts
109 7-9 March 1910 Tip Snooke
Tip Snooke
Sibley John "Tip" Snooke played Test cricket for South Africa as an all-rounder, captaining the side to victory 3-2 against England in a five-Test series in South Africa in 1909-10...

 
Frederick Fane
Frederick Fane
Frederick Luther Fane was born in Ireland, but played cricket for the England cricket team in 14 Test matches...

 
Newlands
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...

 
South Africa won by 4 wkts
110 11-14 March 1910 Tip Snooke
Tip Snooke
Sibley John "Tip" Snooke played Test cricket for South Africa as an all-rounder, captaining the side to victory 3-2 against England in a five-Test series in South Africa in 1909-10...

 
Frederick Fane
Frederick Fane
Frederick Luther Fane was born in Ireland, but played cricket for the England cricket team in 14 Test matches...

 
Newlands
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...

 
England won by 9 wkts


The scheduled length of each Test was 5 days with no play on Sundays. Six balls were bowled per over.

The Reef v MCC

The tour included The Reef v MCC at Boksburg. It was scheduled as a four-day match but play only took place on two because of bad weather. Although the two teams consisted of recognised players, the South African Board of Control
Cricket South Africa
Cricket South Africa is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in South Africa. The board was originally created as the United Cricket Board of South Africa in 1991.-History:...

 decided as late as 1930 that it had not been a first-class match. Wisden 1931 reproduced a letter from the SABC which outlined its case. Wisden has ignored the ruling and includes the match in the career figures of all the players who took part, including record-breaking players such as Wilfred Rhodes
Wilfred Rhodes
Wilfred Rhodes was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests, Rhodes took 127 wickets in and scored 2,325 runs, becoming the first Englishman to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test matches...

, Jack Hobbs
Jack Hobbs
Sir John Berry "Jack" Hobbs was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey from 1905 to 1934 and for England in 61 Test matches from 1908 to 1930....

 and Frank Woolley
Frank Woolley
Frank Edward Woolley was an English cricketer, one of the finest all-rounders the game has seen. In a career lasting more than thirty years, he scored more first-class runs than anyone but Sir Jack Hobbs, and took over 2,000 wickets at an average of under 20...

.

It is possible that the SABC thought it was a 2 day match, but Wisden 1911 clearly states that "not a ball could be bowled on the first and fourth days" so it was actually planned as a 4 day match .

For more information about this curious affair, see: Variations in First-Class Cricket Statistics
Variations in first-class cricket statistics
Variations in first-class cricket statistics have come about because there is no official view of the status of cricket matches played before 1947. As a result, historians and statisticians have compiled differing lists of matches that they recognise as first-class. The problem is significant where...

.

External sources


Further reading

  • Bill Frindall
    Bill Frindall
    William Howard Frindall, MBE was an English cricket scorer and statistician. He was familiar to cricket followers from his appearances on the BBC Radio 4 programme Test Match Special, nicknamed the Bearded Wonder by Brian Johnston for his ability to research the most obscure cricketing facts in...

    , The Wisden Book of Test Cricket 1877-1978, Wisden, 1979
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