The summer just passed is not the one referred to in the title of the posting but one far back in time and possibly before some of our readers were born but my memories of 1955 have been prompted by a book I have read recently, I Declare by Jack Cheetham, an account by the then South African skipper of his side's tour of England in that summer.
It is a summer remembered for fine weather, an exciting test series and on a personal level as the year when I left my little village school to move on to Darlington Grammar School. This important change in my life had the added bonus of two extra weeks holiday, the last of which was spent at Scarborough watching firstly Gentlemen v Players and to finish the week, TN Pearce's XI v South Africans, a game the tourists won by four wickets with one ball to spare, the winning hit being made on the stroke of time by Cheetham himself off the bowling of Johnny Wardle.
At the end of the match I was one of many who sought the autographs of the men from the Veld and in a small green book, still in my possession, are the signatures of six of the party who had the patience to sign after a tour that had begun when they had flown from Jan Smuts Airport Johannesburg on April 23rd and would finish with a drawn game at Carlisle on Saturday, September 10th the day after they had finished at North Marine Road, a little over 20 weeks since they had left South Africa. In that time they played 28 first class matches, including the five tests, nine of these matches being before the first test which, as was traditional at that time, was played at Trent Bridge.
Cheetham's book gives a very detailed account of his team's five months in England and Wales, they played Glamorgan at Swansea, and whilst he is no Neville Cardus he gives an insight into what was then a very different world and in which he avoids any controversy. One of the most surprising features of the tour to me was the number of receptions the tourists were expected to attend beginning in April with an appointment at South Africa House and ending at Scarborough Town Hall. The tour began in poor weather, a wet pitch at New Road contributing to a heavy defeat in the first match and the following week it was bitterly cold at Derby, plus ca change. The summer redeemed itself from July and for the first time all five tests were played to a definite conclusion: three in favour of England and two for South Africa, the first time they had achieved that feat in England. The tests were generally low scoring affairs with an average of just over 25 runs per wicket. In the decisive test at The Oval forty wickets fell for just 618 runs, 21 of them to spin.
Cheetham himself had a modest tour, a middle order batsman he averaged 24.00 in the three tests he played with a top score of 54. Injury kept him out of the third and fourth tests where under the captaincy of McGlew the South Africans had their two victories. Cheethams describes in the book how he was 'loathe to play' in the final test but was persuaded by McGlew and tour manager Ken Viljoen that he should . Back in South Africa his wife received many anonymous phone calls forcefully suggesting he should not return to the side. The beginnings of social media perhaps? The bespectacled* Paul Winslow, who had scored a century in the third test at Old Trafford, made way for his skipper.
*Percy Mansell, a fine slip fielder also wore glasses
The South Africans were let down by their batting but they had a strong hand of quicks and the off spin of Tayfield who took 143 wickets on the tour. Their strongest suit however was their fielding and I have a clear memory of them practising catching in front of the Scarborough pavilion, a pursuit we take for granted now but which was unusual, possibly unique, at that time.
Cheetham's book describes how after that final first class victory the band at Scarborough played Auld Lang Syne but does not record the names of the schoolboys who queued for his team's autographs. The signatures I have are those of Adcock, McGlew, Mansell, McLean, Smith and Goddard. For many years I believed that I was one of considerable number who wanted wicketkeeper batsman John Waite to sign and that he said he would oblige just twelve of us. I have many times recounted how I was 13th in line and that he took pity on me but as his signature is not in my book I must have imagined the incident.
In the concluding chapter of the book Cheetham gives an appraisal of each of the fifteen players under his captaincy and expresses his faith in the future of South African cricket. Wisden shared his confidence and in the last sentence of its account of the tour visit it predicts that (England) 'will find these talented Springboks even more formidable on their native Veld.' Wise words for two years later in South Africa they again conceded the first two tests to England but after a drawn third test fought back to share the series. When Cheetham left the field at The Oval on August 17th 1955, lbw Laker 9, it was his last appearance in test match cricket. He died in 1980, aged just 60. Two of his sons played first class cricket.
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