From project red to a swampy beginning

THERE have been almost as many "rowing regattas" staged at Centurion Park since the picturesque ground made its controversial dew-laden entry on November 15, 1986, as at Roodeplaat Dam, the conventional regatta venue some miles east of Pretoria.

Ironically most of these games have involved Eastern Province, whose home ground, St George's Park, is the site of South Africa first test against England, starting on March 12. 1889, and before the proverbial 30 spectators, three dogs and a couple of horse-drawn buggies lined up at the euphemistically named Duck Pond end.

So much rain fell when Centurion Park hosted the 1987-88 Nissan Shield final between Northern Transvaal and Eastern Province that paddles and a canoe were considered optional extras for those making their way to the ground during nine stormy days: the oval was flooded twice and two weekends were needed before Kepler Wessels, the Eastern Province captain, grappled to hold the shield; a large, over-weight bronze trophy that almost required a fork-lift truck for the sponsor to hand it over to the winning captain.

In those days Northern Transvaal and Eastern Province were the unfashionable provincial twins of the game in South Africa. But Wessels has since changed the image of Eastern Province and St George`s Park has had a facelift to measure up to the province`s remarkable success under the tough-minded lefthander who led South Africa out of a 22 year Test wilderness.

Centurion Park, about 12 kilometres south of Pretoria, and snugly fitting into the now renamed municipality of Centurion, was built during the winter of 1986 to satisfy the growing demands of the summer game in the area. Berea Park, for 48 summers the home of Northern Transvaal, was by early 1984 dowdy and out of step with the modem image of how a sports venue should be dressed for a major match. Northerns needed a new venue, and none was more aware of this than their ernstwhile president, Dr Willie Basson, a chemical scientist who by applying business management with uncluttered logic to complex problems decided on a plan of action.

Project Red was born out of frustration and a reluctance by the Pretoria City fathers of the era to aid the cricket administrators in their quest for a location that would one day host a Test. The then Verwoerdburg municipality listened sympathetically to Dr Basson and saw the advantage of having an international sports stadium within their boundaries. Pretoria`s smug view was that they had Lofts Versfeld so why bother to help cricket? It is a snub which has worked against Pretoria since the end of isolation touring teams and supporters prefer cosmopolitan Johannesburg to the Jacaranda city.

Two large plots of land in south-east Lyttelton Manor were made available to the Northern Transvaal Cricket Union, and a competition was launched to find a suitable, tangible name for the new ground. Nine years later the residents of the municipality voted to change the name from the odious Verwoerdburg to Centurion, which in itself is unique. Normally a sports venue gets its title from the area. Thus, the voice of the new South Africa (save a few rightist cranks) sensibly opted to have their widespread assorted urban sprawl united under a banner which brought honour and a decisive identity to the region. It brought an immediate smile to Dr Basion`s face as he had to battle to get the name Centurion Park past the councillors 10 years ago after a "name the ground" competition had been held.

"It was quite revolutionary," he recalled. `We needed a neutral name with a cricket connotation: forceful, displaying competitiveness, such as players engaged in combat."

"There was a ring about it that depicted a batsman scoring a century a bowler his 100th wicket . . . That sort of thing. And it has worked," he confided.

But Test grounds take time to develop a reputation (some never do), while those one-day international slogging events are hardly a genuine reflection of the venue which is to be the 76th to host a Test. Next to the Wanderers, Centurion Park is the second largest ground in the country, yet Dave Callaghan`s undefeated 169 in the sixth match of the limited-overs` treadmill series last summer earned more space, in terms of print, than Gary Kirsten`s magnificent first-class innings of 192 for Western Province

The mystery of how he failed to earn selection in the original squad to tour India (another one-day treadmill) and Australia was soon put right when he joined an injury-hit side a month later.

Yet memories of some of Fanie de Villiers` finest bowling spells of his career linger longer than most inspired batting performances among the habitus at Centurion Park, De Villiers` home ground and where he is a legend.

Down the Ben Schoeman Highway (or N1 if you want to ignore the political undertone), and about a 30 minutes (safe) drive from Centurion Park is the Wanderers, where last season De Villiers established a record for a South African of taking 10 wickets and scoring a half-century in a Test. That it was against a Pakistan side whose bowling was embarrassingly mediocre as were Ken Rutherford`s New Zealanders is not reason to deprive the Northern Transvaal fast-medium bowler of his hour or two of justified glory.

There have been any number of fiery bowling spells, and batting fireworks, at the Wanderers, since its debut as a Test venue the 41 st) on December 24, 1956 when South Africa met Peter May`s England side. No matter how they have tried to change the face of the ground the old "bull ring" tag remains intact. There is now the Edwardian style Centenary Stand at the south, and the more fashionable Unity Stand bordering Corlett Drive.

The Wanderers replaced Ellis Park (the 30th test venue) which in turn took over from the dismantled old Wanderers (the ninth Test venue) now the site of the Johannesburg railway station for those who like their trains.

It was a pity that progress was allowed to disturb the hallowed halls of tradition which led to the old Wanderers being sold: Dudley Nourse played one of the finest innings of his career (231 against Vic Richardson`s Australian tourists) and Syd (S F) Barnes ripped through the South African batting (on matting) in the 1913- 14 series to take a remarkable 17 wickets in the second test of the series; (eight for 56 and nine for 103).

At the time Barnes was 40 and Herbie Taylor apart, few South Africans were able to master this genius of pace, guile and spin, who adjusted his skills to matting for the first time. George Lohmann (his grave can be found just south of the tiny Kazoo drop of Matjesfontein) also took nine wickets (for 28) in an innings at the old Wanderers: again on matting. South Africa`s batting was rarely up to much in 1895-96, with Lohmann taking eight for seven, including a hattrick, at St George`s Park a few days before his nine wicket spell on the reef.

Ellis Park became Johannesburg`s second Test venue with Len Hutton and Cyril Washbrook making the most of remarkable batting conditions and a South African bowling attack led by Cuan McCarthy, whose suspect action often forced batsmen to lift more eyebrows than he could deliver bouncers. Between them they pillaged the bowling with an England first wicket record of 359 that still stands. Ellis Park was also the battlefield of a proud, if bloodied chapter in New Zealand Test history: the left-handed warrior Bert Sutcliffe, head swathed in bandage, greeting heartbroken Bob Blair (now Pretoria University`s coach) who had lost his fiancee in the Tangiwai disaster. The pair helped themselves to 33 runs in 10 minutes of frenetic hitting for the last wicket in a match South Africa eventually won.

The first Test at the new Wanderers set a South African record of 100,000 spectators when the 1956/57 series against Peter May`s side was held over Christmas. Needing 204 to win, South Africa slipped to 44 for eight as Barnacle (Tremor) Bailed picked up five for 20 and only a 27-run partnership for the ninth wicket between Clive van Ryneveld and Peter Heine rescued the side from complete embarrassment.

There have been some spectacular innings and bowling spells at the Wanderers down the years, one of the more remarkable being Denis Lindsay`s 182 against Bobby Simpson`s Australians in 1966- 67. It was an innings which overshadowed Graeme Pollock`s superlative 90 before a packed bull ring on Boxing Day, 1966.

Since the end of isolation there have been four Tests at the Wanderers with the most exceptional innings of them all failing to even reach double figures. Hansie Crone, in only his second test, may have scored eight runs, but in terms of skill for a young batsman against such class swing bowling as that produced on the first morning by Manoj Prabhakar and Kapil Dev. South Africa, 26 for four on a misty highveld morning, after Wessels had won the toss, battled to overcome the devastating Indian duo.

Brian McMillan has a particular fondness for the Wanderers. While the series against India may have produced many tedious performances, Big Mac did much to rebuild South Atrica`s first innings of that Test with an solid 98. His big paws have turned him into the country`s top slip catcher; and while not always genial when it comes to criticism, there is no doubting his ability as an all-rounder.

Durban means Kingsmead and the timeless Test; the peerless batting of Barry Richards and Graeme Pollock in 1970; Mike Procter`s Test debut in 1966-67 and a host of other memories stretching from January 18, 1923 when South Africa played England. But ask one of those modern acolytes of the summer game in Durban to name the first Test venue of their city and they will suggest Kingsmead: not thinking that the fabled winter holiday resort on the Indian Ocean once had a venue known as Lord`s. Okay, Durban was little more than a large, sprawling town when England played the first of four Tests at a ground that like the Old Wanderers had to make way for progress.

Lords? Intriguing, don`t you think? It had a puzzled Clive Rice remarking that it was incredible there were two Tests grounds called Lord`s, and one had been in Durban. It was the 14th Test venue.

For those who enjoy their trivia, the first Test at Lord`s saw South Africa win by 95 runs with Colonel Neville Tufnell the first substitute to stump a batsman (the SA captain. Sibley Snooke) in a Test. England`s wicketkeeper- Harboured Strudwick had been injured after being hit in the face by a ball. England off-spinner George Simpson-Hayward, had a match analysis of seven wickets for 108 runs: nothing remarkable about that excepting he was a lob (under-arm) bowler who spun the ball like a top and was particularly good on the South African matting pitches of that era. One last item of trivia was that (Sir) lack Hobbs shared the new ball Claude Buckenham.

Lord`s (Durban) was also the ground where opposing captains scored Test centuries for first time (Herbie Taylor 109 and Johnny Douglas 119 in the 1913-14 series.) But South Africa lost by an innings and 157 with the great Syd Barnes taking 10 wickets. Two months later, in the second Test of the series to be played at Lord`s, Barnes set a Durban record of 14 wickets for 144 runs in what was his last Test. His 49 wickets that series is a record.

Taylor was a superb batsman on matting (the late Bruce Mitchell, in a private conversation, once claimed the tall upright opener was South African`s finest batsman of any era; and when you think of Dudley Nourse, Barry Richards and Graeme Pollock, you wonder how great he really was. He was a classical artist who earned respect from the top England and Australian Test bowlers.

More than enough has been written about the timeless Test of 1938-39 to fill a book of some 500 pages, yet what about that exciting test of 1948-49? Light rain was falling when Cliff Gladwin, amid high tension, ran a leg bye off the last ball to win the match, with Lindsay Tuckett the bowler.

The third match of the 1949-50 series against Australia will always be known as Nourse`s folly. Hugh Tayfield bowled out the tourists for 75 on a sticky, but the South African captain failed to enforce the follow on and Neil Harvey scored 151 to steer the tourist to a handsome five-wicket victory.

Port Elizabeth was little more than a village in 1859 when the town council ceded the Port Elizabeth Cricket Club with "two acres or more for a cricket ground with the liberty to enclose it". The club had played at Trinder Reserve since 1843 and the new site was atop a steep escarpment ("a rough piece of veld"). But they were a hardy lot and the ground was developed until a gate charge of 6d was allowed by the council in order to help PECC to provide for the upkeep and improvement of St George`s Park.

The year was 1864, over-arm bowling had been legalised in England by the MCC and St George`s Park, South Africa`s first Test venue was "fenced in". By the time the first Test (at the seventh venue) was played on March 12 and 13 1889 the entrance fee had been increased to one shilling. One interesting fact was that the Yorkshire all-rounder, George Ulyett, who played that historic first Test between England an Australia in Melbourne 12 years before, played in the St George`s Park match, which was over by 3.30 on the second afternoon.

And so to Newlands, Cape Town where the second Test of that 1888-89 season was played with Major Warton`s team (England, winning by an innings and 202 runs. Bobby Abel scored the first Test century between the two countries and Bernard (or A) Tancred, the eldest member of the famous brotherhood, was the first in Test history to carry his bat through a completed innings. South Africa failed to reach 50 in either innings.

The eighth test venue, Newlands was at the time rented out to the Western Province Cricket Club when that first Test was played. As it is the name Newlands is derived from Willem Adriaan van der Stel, Governor of the Cape, who in 1700 proclaimed an area known as Nieuwe Landen (or new lands). Originally a logging area and farm on the upper reaches of the Liesbeek River, Van der Stel built a house in the vicinity.

The corruption of the name to Newlands occurred between 1811 and 1827, during the second British occupation of the Cape Colony when the Anglicization of names by successive governors Sir John Craddock and Lord Charles Somerset, took place. Lydia Correna, Vicomtesse Montmort, owned the farm Mariendal which had been given to her as a wedding present by her father, a brewer named Jacob Letterstedt. She made large tract of land, adjacent to Newlands Station, available for renting or purchase. A subcommittee of the Western Province Cricket Club (WPCC) rented the ground in 1887 for o15. The area was initially a marshland, but the levelling was completed by August 1887. On January 2, 1888 Newlands was opened with a two-day match between Mother Country and Colonial Born. The Test followed some 14 months later. Newlands was bought by the WPCC on March 4. 1896 for o3 000.