“England ought to win in South Africa.”
Maurice Tate
ENGLAND WERE SIMPLY not good enough to beat a good Australian team boosted to the heights of brilliance by Bradman. A winter outfoxing the second-oldest enemy, South Africa, was an appealing idea. Percy Chapman was again in charge, having been appointed as captain for the trip before his sacking for the final Test of the 1930 Ashes. Tate happily accepted the invitation to join him.
MCC set sail on the 13,000-ton Union-Castle Line ship Edinburgh Castle and Tate enjoyed sharing a ‘Maurice-only’ cabin with his Yorkshire namesake Maurice Leyland once again. They arrived in South Africa and the first serious games of the tour, against Western Province at Cape Town and Natal at Durban, saw hauls of five for 18 and five for 64 for Tate.
One player not on the tour was Nottinghamshire’s popular batsman William “Dodger” Whysall. He had appeared in England’s loss at the Oval which ceded the Ashes to Australia, scoring just 13 and ten. It was his first Test in almost six years, and his last.
One evening in early November, Whysall went to a dance in Mansfield with his wife. While changing partners during a mixer routine called the Paul Jones, he fell heavily and hurt his elbow. It did not seem a major incident and he kept on dancing. A few days later Whysall started feeling pain. A small cut he had suffered became infected. This spread until he was suffering from full-blown septicaemia. Whysall died on 6th November, two days before the Western Province game. Tate and his colleagues were told of the “sad news” but play went on. He remembered Whysall as “our comrade on many a trip”.
Tate continued to pick up wickets until the first Test, scheduled for four days, started, unfestively, on Christmas Eve. It was a game to forget for MCC, played at the Old Wanderers ground in Johannesburg, on matting, that most un-English of wickets. Such pitches, the coir stretched across the earth, offered extravagant spin and bounce, handing the home team a considerable advantage.
England won the toss and decided to field. Chapman’s decision was vindicated when the home side was dismissed for 126. Tate took two wickets – getting opener Syd Curnow lbw for 13 and bowling number 11 Bob Newson – for 20. But Nottinghamshire paceman Bill Voce and Middlesex leg-spinner Ian Peebles shared the honours with four each. England made 193 – a lead of 67 – Tate getting eight.
In their second innings, South Africa did far better, making 306, Tate managing just one for 47 off 18 overs. This gave them a lead of 239, more than handy on matting.
Bob Wyatt was first out for five and only Wally Hammond and Glamorgan’s Maurice Turnbull – the third Maurice playing in the game, after Tate and Leyland – posted fifties. Tate came in with the team on 154 for six, but Jack White and then Hammond soon went. Tate and Duckworth put on 26 before the Sussex man was caught off Buster Nupen, an off-cutting medium-pacer regarded by Tate as the best bowler in the world on matting. England were all out for 211 to lose by 28 runs. There were complaints of barracking of the England players, George Duckworth in particular coming in for some stick. It was a bit of an ambush in conditions favouring the home side, but news of a far more serious event overshadowed the game.
On 19th December Johnny Douglas, the England and Essex all-rounder who had complained to MCC about Tate’s absconding from his coaching assignment in South Africa in 1922/23, died. Typically for one of such derring-do, he drowned trying to save his father after he fell overboard when the ship they were on, the SS Oberoon, collided with another vessel as it travelled through fog off the coast of Denmark. The England team wore black armbands to commemorate the man who had led them as long ago as 1911 and as recently as 1924.
“He was a great cricketer, and for all his funny ways, he was both a splendid man and a lovable captain,” Tate wrote in a warm tribute to an adversary who was never less than forthright. “He needed understanding, and I flatter myself that I did understand him.”
The next Test, at Cape Town, was played on turf, rather than matting, and ended in a draw. Tate’s three for 79 off 43 overs was a typically Herculean effort as South Africa amassed 513 for eight declared. He described the conditions as “perfect” for batting. However, England faltered, making 350, meaning they had to follow on.
At least Tate, who scored 15, had the satisfaction of reaching his 1,000th Test run when he got to two. It put him in a very exclusive club of players who had done the ‘double’ of 100 wickets and 1,000 runs in international cricket. Only Wilfred Rhodes had achieved this for England, along with Australia’s Monty Noble and George Giffen. When England went in a second time, they were all out for 252. Tate made three. There was no time for South Africa to bat again and the game ended in a draw.
On to Durban and another draw, this time forced by rain. Tate took two wickets for 33 as he strangled South Africa with 27 miserly overs. The hosts made 177 and then England declared on 223 for one, to try to make a game of it. They nearly did, too, as South Africa ended on 145 for eight. Tate got one for 12.
Tate was angry about events nearer home, with Pelham Warner, who was to be chairman of selectors for the 1931 season, again blurring his roles as journalist and administrator. Tate fumed that “without waiting the result, Warner had written in his paper – duly cabled to a happy band of England cricketers – ‘Tate and White are finished’.” They were inappropriate words, but at Test level, at least, they were to prove more or less true.
The fourth game of the series, at Johannesburg, started well. England made 442, Tate contributing 26, then dismissed South Africa for 295 – a lead of 147. Tate got two for 46, having Mitchell lbw and Catterall caught by Hammond.
The visitors had to go for it with the bat. Tate was especially aggressive as he hit 38 off 23 balls. In the innings he made two fours and four sixes. It must have been quite a spectacle for a crowd bored by South Africa’s attritional batting. He recalled that Chapman’s orders had been “to get on or get out”.
England, who declared on 169 for nine, had to dismiss the home team for fewer than 316 to win. They made quite a match of it, South Africa eventually ending on 280 for seven, as time once more ran out. One down with one to play, the best England could now do was draw the series. It was not to be.
The sides returned to Durban for the next Test, the weather just as rainy as before. England, looking to get on with things, won the toss and fielded. Once more the Springboks were hard to remove. Tate took one for 35 off 22 overs as they crept to 252 all out off 130.4 overs.
England were little more adventurous, getting to 230 off 101.2 overs. Tate was top scorer, saving his team’s blushes with 50 off an unusually pedestrian 97 balls.
South Africa made 219 for seven and declared, Tate going wicketless. Patsy Hendren, who had done plenty to cut short Tate’s benefit the previous summer, missed Jack Siedle off his bowling, when he dropped a sharp chance at short leg. Siedle made 30 off 88 balls, setting the tone for the rest of the team.
England needed 242 to win, with hardly any play left. Chapman was in a desperate situation when the team subsided to 40 for three. With little hope of a win, he sent Tate in at number five. Quite the all-rounder on this trip, he blasted an unbeaten 24 from 19 balls. But when Turnbull went with the team score on 72, that was it. Time had run out and England had lost 1-0.
It was Tate’s last complete Test series and a pretty disheartening one at that. Yet he had taken 14 wickets at 24.35 and made 192 runs at 27.42. It was to be the final time Chapman played for England and Tate was keen to defend the man whom, along with Arthur Gilligan, he rated as his favourite skipper. “England ought to win in South Africa,” he wrote, “but there were reasonable excuses for our side that season, and our defeat was a fine stimulant to their cricket.”
It had by no means been a boring series, with weather the overwhelming reason for the predominance of draws. A crowd assembled outside the pavilion, but none of the England players – seemingly unhappy at the variable pitches provided and some abuse from the home fans over the past few weeks – emerged to give a speech and it soon dispersed.
Chapman had been a popular captain, winning the Ashes home and away, but his era, the end of which was hastened by the advent of Don Bradman, was now truly over. The skipper was not to enjoy a happy later life, drifting into alcoholism. However, he could be proud of his work in galvanising a richly talented England team. Like Tate, he did it with a smile.
Tate maintained his batting form into a final match of the tour, against Western Province, at Cape Town. He scored 115 not out in a draw, time being the enemy right until the end of the tour.