Published: Oct 06, 2015, 03:34 PM (IST)
Edited: Oct 06, 2015, 03:34 PM (IST)
PA de Villiers was a Boer commandant captured in the Boer War while in his old cricket sweater. Arunabha Sengupta recalls this wild cricket enthusiast who took six wickets against Plum Warner’s visiting MCC side on December 7, 1905.
Barely eight months earlier, Lord Hawke’s team had been entertained to dinner by the Burgomeister of Johannesburg, had drunk to the health of President Paul Kruger, while the Volksleid had been sung. A couple of days later, they had proceeded to play the first Test of the tour at the Old Wanderers.
And now, on October 11, 1899, was declared the War that was to be the longest, bloodiest, and the costliest of showdowns for Britain — across a century leading up to the First World War.
The Boer War was indeed bloody. At least 22,000 British lives were lost, alongside 25,000 Boer and 12,000 African ones. The British public, drunk on their glory days of the Empire, expected it to be over by Christmas. It went on till the month of May of 1902. Christmas of 1899 was celebrated against the ominous backdrop of the siege of Mafeking. The relief to end that early exchange would not arrive until May, 1900.
By January, there was severe fighting around Ladysmith.
At Spion Kop, PA de Villiers, Boer commandant, saw action at close range. It was incredibly close. At one time, the two sides firing shots at each other were not more than thirty yards apart. De Villiers, wildly enthusiastic about cricket, must have felt that it was almost like squaring off at the ends of a cricket pitch. He was wounded, but carried on fighting.
A few days later, he was in the fray yet again, this time at Pieter’s Hill in February 1900, during the Battle of the Tugela Heights. Incidentally, this fierce battle over the siege of Ladysmith commenced on Valentine’s Day, exactly a year after Lord Hawke’s men had played Murray Bisset’s side at the Old Wanderers.
It was at Pieter’s Hill that de Villiers was wounded again, and was taken into custody by the British soldiers. It would have been a splendid cricketing story if de Villiers had been captured by the Royal Fusiliers, the regiment of the future Test cricketer Jock Hartley. Indeed, Hartley’s regiment had also been making raids on Pieter’s Hill. However, it was a handful of soldiers of the Lancashire Regiment to whom de Villiers surrendered. The Boer commandant was captured while wearing an old cricket sweater and trousers. One of the soldiers shouted, “Look here, lads, we’ve copped a cricketer.” To that, de Villiers shot back, “Yes, you have. I’ve played against Johnny Briggs many a time.”
Briggs had played against South Africa during their first Test series, capturing 15 for 28 in the second Test.
De Villiers was kept in custody at Simonstown, after which he was shipped with the other Boer Prisoners of War to Colombo. He was treated with dignity and courtesy, especially by the Governor, Sir West Ridgeway. Soon enough, he was allowed out on parole, and visited many of the tea-plantations. And while in Colombo, he met Archie MacLaren’s team while their ship moored in Ceylon on the way to Australia in October 1901.
On return to Cape Town at the end of the Boer War, de Villiers settled down to a productive life and became a prominent member of the Western Province Cricket Club. When Plum Warner’s Englishmen visited in 1905-06, he met them during the visit to the Cape.
In the pretty Dutch town of Worcester at the base of the Hex River Mountains, 12 members of the visiting MCC side took on XVIII of Country Districts. It was a less than useful local side, although enthusiasm was infectious.
Before and after the match de Villiers regaled the Englishmen with the thrilling tales of the Boer War. He made no secret that he liked Englishmen and hinted that there would soon be no distinction between the Boers and Britons in South Africa, if only ‘the newspapers would stop talking’. He also added, “Next time there’s a war, I shall stay at home and sell horses.”
He had been captured in his cricketing sweater, but his zest for the game had remained the same. When the MCC batted, he bowled his slows with admirable control to capture 6 for 76 from 15.4 overs. Leonard Moon, Ernie Hayes, Albert Relf, Jack Crawford, Fred Fane and Jack Broad was a pretty good haul.
However, even in this showdown his best efforts were outdone by a British Colonel. Jock Hartley, who had just missed de Villiers at Pieter’s Hill, now took 9 for 26 to reduce the local xviii to 107 in their first innings.
The English cricketers, with Shrimp Leveson Gower leading the way with 82, replied with 362 in spite of the six wickets captured by de Villiers. In the second innings, Leveson Gower and Warner decided to have some fun by rolling their arms over, and ended up with 9 wickets between them. The visitors triumphed by an innings and 52 runs.
After the match, the English cricketers were entertained in royal fashion by Dick Miering in his typical Dutch farmhouse. There were Chinese lanterns decorating the place with a band playing under the tree. All the while De Villiers continued to regale the cricketers with tales of the Boer War.
He himself had reasons to be pleased. His success with the ball had been well received and a local supporter had presented him with a bat. After all the trials and tribulations of war, the game had again made it a life worth living.
Brief Scores:
Worcester XVIII 107 (Jock Hartley 9 for 26) and 203 (Shrimp Leveson Gower 5 for 14, Plum Warner 4 for 56) lost to MCC 362 (Leonard Moon 49, Shrimp Leveson Gower 82, David Denton 68; PA de Villiers 6 for 76) by an innings and 52 runs.
(Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history of cricket, with occasional statistical pieces and reflections on the modern game. He is also the author of four novels, the most recent being Sherlock Holmes and the Birth of The Ashes. He tweets here.)
