The first clash came early into New Zealand’s Test cricket journey. Unlike the England team that had visited in 1929-30, a full strength South African touring party was invited to New Zealand for two Tests in the summer of 1931-32, during a short break during their tour of Australia, a break that was seized upon by the New Zealand Cricket Council. While a strong West Indies team had stopped briefly in New Zealand before travelling to Australia in late 1930, that team only played against a Wellington representative side, not the national team. In that regard, the South African tour of 1931-32 was the first full strength visiting squad sent to our shores for Test cricket. There was much excitement for their visit, at the chance to test New Zealand’s cricketing skills against a team in the process of being thrashed by Australia. However, despite Giff Vivian’s century in the second Test at the Basin Reserve in 1932, followed by 73 in the second innings, South Africa delivered two crushing blows to New Zealand’s inexperienced Test side. The New Zealand bowlers were generally ineffective across the series, taking few wickets at expensive averages. New Zealand’s overall performance was regarded as a disappointment in the newspapers of the time, and our place at the bottom of the Test pecking order was reinforced.
This pattern of South African dominance would hold for many years, but not without brave showings from the New Zealand players. The South Africans would not return until the summer of 1952-53, with a reciprocal trip by the New Zealanders at the end of 1953. The 1952-53 series saw two Tests played over four days each, an upgrade on the three-day fixtures played in the early 1930s. The first Test was another drubbing, while the second was drawn and although the tour of South Africa in the 1953-54 season was also a failure for the New Zealanders, it proved far more dramatic. In Dick Brittenden’s estimation, the New Zealand team of 1953-54 were not a good team, but they were decent enough to put on a show and win the respect of the South African public, especially during the second Test, at Johannesburg. The recently inaugurated Tangiwai Shield commemorates this famous Test, which was overshadowed by the Tangiwai Rail Disaster. It was on the second day of the Test that New Zealand cricket ‘won its outstanding reputation for courage’. That morning before play began, Bob Blair, one of the New Zealand bowlers, had learned that his fiancée, Nerissa Love, had died in the train crash. For that reason, he remained at the hotel while the New Zealand team battled on with Bert Sutcliffe and Lawrie Miller felled by Neil Adcock’s bowling resulting in hospital visits. The wounded New Zealanders returned to bat while the South African crowd cheered the courageous display. Miller was given a wonderful ovation, and both the crowd and the South African players applauded Sutcliffe as he walked out with a heavily bandaged head, his resolve stiffened by whiskey. The most unexpected man to appear on the pitch was Bob Blair. The crowd stood in silence while the players wept for him, and as he took guard at the crease, he had to wipe the tears from his eyes. This stoicism was praised in the South African press as evidence of the New Zealand players’ dauntless spirit. The New Zealanders failed to win a Test but left South Africa as arguably the public’s favourite visiting side, often a defining trait of New Zealand cricket teams to this day.
The pattern of stubborn draws and large losses both home and away was not broken until January 1962 at Cape Town. Anchored by a Zinzan Harris century and with the outstanding bowling of Jack Alabaster and Frank Cameron, finally New Zealand had their first win over South Africa. The second win came in the same series, at Port Elizabeth, with another one-century wonder, Paul Barton, propelling New Zealand to a forty-run win. The series finished drawn two-all. John Richard Reid served as captain and scored 546 runs at an average just a touch over 60 in the five Tests in that series, as well as taking 11 wickets at just under 20 apiece, with this series being regarded as the pinnacle of his career. Reid was an early superstar for New Zealand, and John Mehaffey notes that Reid’s career was defined by the contest with the South Africans. Not only did Reid achieve great personal success against them, but his leadership, especially during the1962-63 series, took New Zealand cricket to new heights of respect. Reid loved his time in South Africa and spent a coaching stint there, during the years of the international sporting boycott.
Following the conventional pattern of the day, South Africa made a visit to New Zealand in the 1963-64 season, to play three Tests, all of which were drawn, mostly due to bad weather and slow pitches. The second Test, at Carisbrook, saw South Africa chasing 65 runs in the final half hour on day four, falling short by thirteen runs but with seven wickets in hand. South Africa almost won the third Test, but New Zealand’s tailenders were saved by rain at Eden Park. This was the final encounter between the New Zealand men’s team and the South Africans until after South Africa was readmitted to international cricket. However, the New Zealand women’s team would draw the curtain over international cricket in South Africa with their first (and only) Test tour of South Africa in 1972. More dramatically, this was the final tour by an official representative side, from any nation, of either men’s or women’s cricket to South Africa, excluding ‘private’ and ‘rebel’ tours during South Africa’s sporting isolation.
Captained by Trish McKelvey, the New Zealanders played three Tests and won the series 1-0. That summer was also a coming of age of sorts for the New Zealand women’s team. The victory in South Africa was their second ever Test win, coming shortly after their first win against Australia earlier that summer. With the ball, Jill Saulbrey and Jackie Lord dominated events for the tourists. Trish McKelvey was the only centurion on the New Zealand side, scoring 117* at Cape Town, while opening batter Judi Doull was consistent across the series, averaging 45.60 with two fifties. Similarly to the men’s team, the New Zealand’s women’s team would need to wait another two decades to square off against the South Africans again. For both the men’s and women’s teams, they would share famous moments in World Cup matches after South Africa’s readmission to international cricket. The great irony of the second chapter of New Zealand cricket’s South African romance is how many of those great moments would come at the hands of men and women born in Africa but wearing the silver fern of their new home.
