Empire Cricket Booklet

W. G. SCHULZE

had much to offer as a cricketer. His slow off-breaks and Cornelius Otto's medium fast deliveries would carry the Boer bowling against the Colts. According to Warner, most likely told so by De Villiers himself after the war, De Villiers 'was very well and courteously treated at Ceylon, the Governor, Sir West Ridgeway, being particularly kind to him'. De Villiers was in fact allowed out on parole and visited many of the tea plantations. He also met members of AC. MacLaren's English team on their way out to Australia in October 1901, 29 and when the visiting All-England team stayed at the Mt Lavinia Hotel he was in the small prisoner of war camp on the hillock above the hotel. 30 During 1901, De Villiers was even asked to play for Colombo Colts against the Combined Colleges. 31

innings was little consolation for being dismissed without scoring in his only innings. 22 After finishing his accountancy studies at the Kim berley Technical College in 1891, De Villiers followed his parents to the Transvaal. In the same year, the Pirates Cricket Club was formed in Johannesburg under the leadership of AB. Tancred, who was 'ably backed' by De Villiers. 23 It was also in 1891 that 'a coterie of Johannesburg cricket luminaries' which included Abe Bailey, P. H. de Villiers, A B. Tancred and George Allsop, called a meeting to consider the formation of a cricket union. 24 Clearly, De Villiers was 'well-in' with the mainly English-speaking cricket establishment, and he would have had little inkling that within a few years he would be at war with many of his fellow cricketers. Working as an accountant, first in Rustenburg and later in Krugersdorp, De Villiers had to wait three years for another opportunity to show his mettle against the English. In January 1892, he was selected to play for a Johannesburg XVIII against W.W. Read's team. He scored 9 and 0, but his five-wicket haul (three in the first innings and two in the second) in the match included the coveted wicket of Read in both innings. Two days later he was again on duty against Read's team, this time for a Transvaal XV. He scored 0 and 19 not out, and took 3 for 61 in 25 overs. 25 When war broke out in 1899, De Villiers joined the Krugersdorp Commando of the Boer forces. He was wounded at both Spion Kop and Pieters Hill in Natal, where he and Gert Kotze were captured on 27 February 1900. 26 Pelham Warner found it curious that J. C. Hartley, a member of Warner's 1905/06 MCC team which played against De Villiers, 27 was a member of the Royal Fusiliers, one of the regiments which took part in the final and successful assault on Pieters Hill; but it was one of the Lancashire regiments that actually took Commandant de Villiers prisoner. Warner recounts that '[at] the time De Villiers happened to be wearing an old cricket sweater and trousers. A Tommy shouted, "Look here, lads, we've copped a cricketer," to which De Villiers replied, "Yes, you have; I've played against Johnny Briggs many a time".' 28 De Villiers was sent to Simonstown and from there to Ceylon. Although past his cricketing prime, he still

Pieter H. de Villiers served as secretary of the Western Province Cricket Union, became a prominent player in South Africa and led the Boer prisoner of war team in Ceylon

After the war, De Villiers returned to Johannesburg before moving to Stellenbosch in 1905 to join the firm of Markotter and Krige. In December 1905, at the age of 38, he took 6 for 76 for the Country Clubs XVIII (Worcester and Districts) against Warner's MCC team. Warner wrote that De Villiers's feat 'proved that he had not quite lost the art of slow bowling. His success was greeted with applause, and the bat presented to him by an enthusiastic local supporter could not,