by Arunabha Sengupta

1951.

On board the Arundel Castle, the 15 South African cricketers, the baggage master Bill Ferguson, and the five-member press contingent had decided on forming a Club.

Athol Rowan had suggested they call it the Noursemen, after their skipper Dudley Nourse. Rules had been drafted and a tie had been designed, with the head of a Viking on a green background.

The Noursemen greeted each other with a raised left thumb, a tribute to their captain. After having broken his thumb while stopping a Tom Graveney drive at Bristol early in the tour, the great Dudley Nourse batted over nine painful hours to compile a magnificent 208 at Trent Bridge. The knock put South Africa 1-0 up in the series. England came back to clinch a hard-fought rubber 3-1, but with a bit of luck the result could have been reversed.

Noursemen in England became the name of the tour-book penned by accompanying journalist CO Medeworth.

Nourse was 40, and it was his final series.

As a 25-year-old he had hit 231 against McCormock, O’Reilly, Grimmett and Fleetwood-Smith at Cape Town. He had ended the pre-War stint of his career with 422 runs at 60.28 against England, including 103 in that famous incomplete Timeless Durban Test.

1097 runs in 14 Tests at 49.86, at 28 years of age, when the World War started.

During the war he hit 9 sixes off nine balls for South African XI against the Military Police in Cairo.

He was 36 when he played Test cricket again. The atrocities had scooped out what is considered to be the prime of a batsman’s career.

But he made up some of the lost time. 621 runs at 69.00 in the 1947 Tests in England, 536 at 76.57 when England returned the visit. When the 38-year-old greeted the Australians at Durban on board the Nestor and Lindsay Hassett greeted him, “How are you, Dudley? I hope you’re not feeling too well.”

Perhaps he did not feel that good. Against Lindwall, Miller and the rest of them, he managed just one hundred as he piled up 405 at 45.00.

2960 runs in 34 Tests at 53.81, having missed the best years of his cricketing life. Another man most don’t know about as they go about choosing their top five, top ten, top 20 etc.

Dudley Nourse was born on 12 Nov 1910. Yes, back in time. Hence no colour photograph.