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Of Dave Brickett, et al

About 10 years ago I was at a Cricket South Africa Awards function when someone (who will remain anonymous) at my table thought it would be a good idea to write ‘signatures’ in the day’s brochure of ‘arbitrary’ cricketers of the past. We started listing names of cricketers who played for a while without really doing much. Given the age profile of those of us at the table, the names were inevitably South African provincial players from about the mid-1970s to the end of the 1980s. Shamefully, I participated in this exercise with wholly unnecessary enthusiasm. Perhaps ‘arbitrary’ was not quite the right word. ‘Nondescript’ might be more accurate; but not ‘Nondescripts’ as in the Cricket Club in Colombo whose rivalry with neighbours Sinhalese Sports Club is anything but nondescript or arbitrary. Anyway, we joyously reeled off names while not paying much attention to whoever was proudly going up to receive the ‘CSA Rural League Under-19 Most Improved Player’ award or whatever. The likes of Dave Pearse, Karl Bauermeister, Craig Norris, Richie Morris, Keith Barlow, Vernon Creswell, Stuart Robertson and Dave Brickett, etc, etc. The list went on and on.

Dave Brickett was the epitome of the type of cricketer we were looking for. He played for Eastern Province from 1971 to 1985. Eastern Province is an appropriate team in this discussion. They were generally behind the big provinces: Transvaal, Western Province and Natal (as they were called in those days) but also ahead of the likes of Free State, Griqualand West and Boland. Perhaps not surprisingly, Eastern Province seemed to provide a disproportionate contribution to our list, although a certain RG Pollock played for them during the first half of Brickett’s career. Brickett was a number seven or eight batter of the type who would go in at three occasionally as needs must. He bowled medium-fast, usually first or second change. His 2 836 runs in 106 first-class matches came at 19.42; 77 being the best of his 10 fifties. His 223 wickets cost 30.17 each, and he collected five five-fors along the way. He also played 48 List A matches, scoring 603 runs at 20.79 and taking 58 wickets at 25.46. His one-day economy rate of 3.69 might seem extraordinary today, but was fairly standard back then. It is unlikely that kids watching him told their moms that they wanted to be Dave Brickett when they grew up, and he wouldn’t have excited the statisticians of the day. He just played cricket for 15 years and did so quite well. He would presumably have done this while having a proper job, as cricket was far from being professional in South Africa in those days. Good on him. Cricket matches, usually, need 22 players. Not all can be superstars, and perhaps we don’t have enough love for those who aren’t. There wouldn’t be a game without them.

The one ‘blemish’ to Brickett’s arbitrariness is that he did once get an eight-for. It came on Boxing Day 1973 against Western Province in Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha today), and would have lit up certain corners of a notional 1973 Twitter. His 8-49 included the likes of Eddie Barlow, Hylton Ackerman and a young Peter Kirsten. The aforementioned Richie Morris managed to resist and end not out on eight.

The most famous blemishing of an ‘arbitrary’ career must surely be Ted Alletson’s 189 in 90 minutes for Nottinghamshire v Sussex at Hove in 1911. It included 142 off 51 balls during the last wicket partnership of 152 after lunch on the final day, and is one of the most famous innings of all-time. Counter-intuitively, it was a great match-saving innings. Nottinghamshire were 84 ahead with 9 down at lunch, and the match ended up as a draw. See scorecard here: https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/8/8384.html or here: http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1910S/1911/ENG_LOCAL/CC/SUSSEX_NOTTS_CC_18-20MAY1911.html Alletson did nothing else of note in his eight-year first-class career, scoring 3 217 runs at 18.59 and taking 33 wickets in 119 matches. His next best score was 88.

As a bonus, here is the most arbitrary hundred I have watched: