'Timeless' Test - England and South Africa played for 10 days without result

by A. C. de Silva

CRICKET: Ever heard of a "timeless" Test? Well it did take place and went on for 10 days between England and South Africa in Durban in March 1939. England were touring South Africa and the match was undecided when the tourists, England, had to begin their two-day rail journey back to their ship at Cape Town.

It turned out to be a high-scoring affair with an aggregate of 1,981 runs being scored.

South Africa batted first and ran up the sizeable score of 530 runs with Alan Melville (78) and P.G.V. van der Bijl (125) being associated in a marathon partnership of runs. Melville was arguably the most elegant batsman of his generation. Those who were lucky enough to see it and are still among the living will remember the superb batting where he paid scant respect to the bowlers. Before coming to this match, Melville has been noted for his elegant batting and one of his finest knocks earlier was his knock of 114 runs playing for the English country Sussex against the West Indies at Hove in 1933. It was summer after the bodyline tour and the fast bowlers Griffith and Martingale directed vicious bouncers at Melville, who had no difficulty in coping with them.

Standing 6 feet 2 inches tall and slightly built, Melville turned out to be a fine timer of the ball and his methods were a model for the young cricketers and reduced every risk to the minimum. The drive, the hook and the cut - all seemed to come equally easily to him, and he was, besides a good player off his legs.

Moreover, he was a fine fielder anywhere and in his younger days, a serviceable change bowler, first with leg-breaks and later with off-breaks and swingers.

Melville - ideal cricketer

Alan Melville was the ideal cricketer any captain would have liked to have had and he captained Transvaal side and then went on to lead South Africa in 1938-39 against England, the time was right for the South Africans to attack the opponents with all the armoury at their disposal.

He did little for himself in the first two Tests, but in the third, he promoted himself to number one in the batting order and had instant success and shared stands of 108 and 131 for the first wicket, and then in the notorious `timeless' Test - that's the fifth, which concluded the tour, he scored 78 and 103, though he was handicapped though there were three matches. His bad leg which finally forced him to move himself down the order.

To give him support there was Arthur Dudley Nourse, who made with his father - "A.W.", popularly known as "Dave" - a father and son cricketing combination that produced many runs. "Dave" played for South Africa 45 times between 1902 and 1924 and Dudley played for South Africa 34 times between 1935 and 1951.

Dudley Nourse first played for Natal in 1931 and quickly established himself as a batsman of outstanding promise.

Came the `timeless' Test at Durban in the 1938-39 period and he took 6 hours to make 103. When the second world war came, Dudley Nourse never toured Australia.

Against W. R. Hammond's M.C.C. team in South Africa in 1938-39, he scored 422 runs for an average of 60.28.

Nourse' last Test series was when he took the South African side to England in 1951 and, within a few months of his 41st birthday, enjoyed perhaps his finest hour, scoring 208 in the first innings of the first Test against an attack comprising Bedser (then in his prime), Bailey, Brown, Wardle and Tatersell.

The great effort of Nourse led South Africa to gain the first Test victory since 1935. Although England won three of the next four Tests, Nourse, retired soon afterwards and could easily look back upon a playing career of outstanding distinction.

South Africa made 530 and 481. Besides Melville and Nourse, Mitchell made 89, van der Bijl 97 and Viljoen 74 bolstered the batting. For England, there was Paynter 62, L. E. G. Ames 84 got runs in the first innings total of 316.

In the second innings, Len Hutton (55), P. A. Gibb (120), Wally Hammond (140) and W. J. Edrich 219 got in plenty of runs to enable them to get to 654 for 5 wickets.

The 'timeless' Test

SOUTH AFRICA: 530 (A. Meville 78, P. G. V. van Bijl 125, A. D. Nourse 103, E. Dalton 57, R. E. Grieveson 75; R. T. D. Parks 5 for 100) and 481 (A. Melville 103, van der Bijl 97, B. Mitchell 89, K. G. Viljoen 74; K. Farnes 4 for 74) drew with ENGLAND 316 (E. Paynter 62, L. E. G. Ames 84; Langton 3 for 71, Dalton 4 for 59) and 654 for 5 wickets (L. Hutton 55, P. A. Gibb 120, W. R. Hammod 140, W. J. Edrich 219).