Bond Gerald Image 1 Western Province 1938

Description

Cape Town, Cape Province born all rounder Gerald Bond was a right-handed middle or upper order batsman and a right-arm medium pace bowler. He played irregularly for Western Province making his first class debut in the 1929-30 season. His best season was 1936-37 when he scored his only first class century, a score of 170 for Western Province against Natal which was insufficient to prevent his side losing the match by an innings. In the following game, opening the Western Province bowling against Border, he took 4-17 with his medium-pace, the best bowling performance of his career.

Bond’s Test career for South Africa was fleeting. He took two wickets (including Wally Hammond) in Western Province’s match against the England team in 1938-39 and scored 13 in each innings. He was then picked for the First Test of a five-match series at Johannesburg in December 1938. When England batted, he was the sixth bowler used and was given only two overs, in which he failed to take a wicket and conceded 16 runs; in the South African innings, the unsuccessful promotion of a nightwatchman meant that he batted at No 9 instead of No 3 or No 4 as he generally did for Western Province, and he was dismissed first ball, one of three first ball dismissals in the innings. He was not selected for South Africa again and in fact did not play any further first class cricket either.

In 28 first class matches he scored 1,604 runs at an average of 41.12, with 11 half centuries in addition to his single hundred. With his bowling he took 20 wickets at an average of 35.35.

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