Empire Cricket Booklet

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W. G. SCHULZE

of 93 on the first innings, extended this to 108 with McHeyzer and Pollocks scoring freely off De Villiers before Otto, who opened with two wides, got his direction working and was virtually unplayable. He clean bowled Pollocks for 7 (15 for 1), while Ludovici was taken in the covers by Kotze off De Villiers for a single (16 for 2). Perera, hero of the Colts' first innings, did not last long second time around. He too became a De Villiers victim, caught in the covers by Kotze without scoring (18 for 3). That brought the captain, Dr Raffel, to the crease. He added only 4 runs to the score before becoming Kotze's third victim, this time off Otto (25 for 4). Bada Kelaart then joined McHeyzer. The score progressed to 36 before De Villiers tempted Kelaart out of his crease. Sennett,

off Scheepers to great applause from the crowd. Thomas's demise with his personal score on 20 also signalled the end of the first day's play. Tennant, the Boer umpire who had a busy day officiating, described in his diary how the team spent their time after the day's play: It was with great difficulty that at the end of the day we uprooted ourselves from the crowd and getting into our rickshaws [and] were taken to the station and back again to Mt Lavinia. It was with greater difficulty still that[when we] arrived at the barracks we could get rid of the friends (Colts and others of the burghers [Ceylonese

A recent photograph of the Nondescripts field in Victoria Park, Colombo, the venue for the historic match played between the Colts from Colombo and the Boer prisoners of war

whose wicketkeeping was described as 'a delight to watch' by the local press, completed the stumping (36 for 5). Thomasz delighted the spectators by batting both left- and right-handed and had some success in showing off his ambidextrous skills, because the score progressed quickly to 71. He played one risky shot too many and Du Plessis, corning in from long on, took a magnificently judged catch low-down

civilians]) who accompanied us inside and [they] were so sympathetic and generous that we had to refuse so many[...] that it seemed we were doing nothing else. At last they were gone and we got away to supper. When we got back we discussed the events of the day round the captain's bed till one by one we slipped off to bed and at last all was quiet.