Jacobus Duminy
Vice-Chancellor of University of Cape Town
In office
1958–1967
ChancellorThe Hon. Mr Justice Albert van der Sandt Centlivres
Preceded byRW James
Succeeded byRichard Luyt
Personal details
Born(1897-12-16)16 December 1897
Bellville, Cape Town, Cape Colony
Died31 January 1980(1980-01-31) (aged 82)
Cape Town, South Africa
Alma materUniversity College
Cricket information
BattingLeft-handed
BowlingSlow left-arm orthodox
International information
National side
Test debut24 December 1927 v England
Last Test13 July 1929 v England
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class
Matches 3 13
Runs scored 30 557
Batting average 5.00 29.31
100s/50s 0/0 1/3
Top score 12 168*
Balls bowled 60 915
Wickets 1 12
Bowling average 39.00 30.66
5 wickets in innings 0 1
10 wickets in match 0 0
Best bowling 1/17 6/40
Catches/stumpings 2/– 11/–
Source: Cricinfo, 10 September 2022

Jacobus Petrus Duminy (16 December 1897 – 31 January 1980) was a South African academic who became principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town.[1][2] As a young man, he was also a cricketer who played in 3 Tests from 1927 to 1929.[3] He was born at Bellville, a suburb of Cape Town and died at Groote Schuur Hospital, also in Cape Town. In his obituary in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack he is called "Johannes Petrus Duminy".[4][5][6]

Life and academic career

Duminy grew up on a farm in the Tygerberg Hills. He published a memoir, Twilight over the Tygerberg, in 1979.[7][8] He went to study at University College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar at the age of 23.[9] Duminy served as chairman of various academic commissions.[10][11][12]

During his tenure as vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town he resolutely opposed apartheid, sometimes at personal risk. He also helped established multi-racial cricket weeks for boys and girls.[13]

Cricket career

As a cricketer, Duminy was a left-handed opening or middle-order batsman and a slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler. His cricket career was episodic: two matches in 1919–20, one in 1921, and then a few more in 1927–28 and 1928–29, followed by three further games under unusual circumstances in 1929.[14] He was not successful in his two appearances for Western Province against the Australian Forces team in 1919–20, and made 0 and 2 in his only first-class game for Oxford University in 1921, when he was a Rhodes scholar; he did, however, win a "Harlequin" cap as a member of the university second cricket team.[1]

Duminy reappeared in first-class cricket in the 1927–28 South African season, playing for Transvaal in two matches against the MCC touring team. In the first, he made an unbeaten 95, and in the second he scored 55 and was then not out for 74 when the match was left drawn.[15][16] That led to his selection for the first Test of a five-match series: he was not successful in the match at Johannesburg with the bat, scoring 0 and 4, but his left-arm spin, used as the sixth bowler in the South African attack, broke up a second-wicket partnership of 230 between Herbert Sutcliffe and Ernest Tyldesley which took England's first-innings total past South Africa's with only one wicket down.[17] Duminy did not play in the second or third Tests, but when the tour returned to Johannesburg in late January, he was picked for the fourth Test, although he had played no first-class cricket in the meantime: the move was again unsuccessful, and he scored just 7 and 5.[18]

In 1928–29, the Currie Cup was not contested, but Duminy appeared in three first-class matches for Transvaal. In the third of these, against Border, he made the only century of his first-class career, an unbeaten 168, and took six wickets in a single innings for 40 runs, half his career total of wickets.[19] That was his final first-class game in South Africa. The codicil to his career was an odd one. He was not picked for the 1929 tour of England, but in the summer of 1929 was in Europe. The contemporary Wisden Cricketers' Almanack report states that he "happened to be on a business or professional visit to Europe"; Wisden's obituary of Duminy in 1981 is more specific and says "he was holidaying in Switzerland when he was sent for to join a team beset with injuries".[1][20] He was conscripted straight into the Test team for the third match of a five-game series at Leeds, and once again, he was not a success, scoring 2 and 12.[21] He stayed with the South African team for the next two first-class matches after the Test, but then departed, and did not play first-class cricket again.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Obituaries". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1981 ed.). Wisden. p. 1141.
  2. ↑ East Africa and Rhodesia Volumes 42–43 – Page 857 1966 "... and Dr. Jacobus Duminy, principal of Cape Town University, the guest of honour."
  3. ↑ "Jacobus Duminy". CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 January 2012.
  4. ↑ Keith A. P. Sandiford & Brian Stoddart, The Imperial Game: Cricket, Culture and Society 1998 Page 58 "While it is unwise to assign community on the basis of language, it would appear that after 1907 no Afrikaner appeared in a test for South Africa until Iacobus Petrus Duminy in 1927–28."
  5. ↑ Ray Knowles South Africa versus England: a test cricket history Page 95 1995 "John Nicolson (Natat) and Jacobus Duminy (Transvaal), both left-handed batsmen, made their Test debuts in the 1927/28 series."
  6. ↑ Jonty Winch, Bella Forsyth Wits sport: an illustrated history of sport at the University of ... 1989 Page 95 "The visiting team was captained by the 1927 Springbok lefthander, Jacobus Duminy, who was a professor at the university. He made top score of 47 in Pretoria's total of 106 and did well to fend off the fiery opening attack of Neville Rankin and ..."
  7. ↑ The Tygerberg: the story of the Tygerberg Hills 1998 Page 49 "A 1905 snapshot of farming on parts of "Lobenstein" is contained in J. P. Duminy's reminiscences, Twilight over the Tygerberg. His family was still concentrating on grain-farming and vines, but the grain was mainly oats, possibly for feeding the ..."
  8. ↑ South Africa's yesterdays Reader's Digest Association South Africa 1981 Page 87 "In his book, Twilight over the Tygerberg, J.P. Duminy recalled the splendid parties and 'delicious old-time delicacies' which graced the long family dining table: 'Among the meats I remember were a whole roast sucking-pig with the traditional roast potato in its mouth,.. "
  9. ↑ J.P. Duminy The call for reappraisal 1961 "... The first occasion on which I met any Non-White who was not a farm-labourer , or a dock-worker or a semi-skilled artisan was when I went to Oxford at the age of 23"
  10. ↑ Baruch Hirson, Year of fire, year of ash: the Soweto revolt, roots of a revolution?, 1979, p.58: "1935, contains in summary form some of the recommendations of the Commission under Professor J.P. Duminy"
  11. ↑ Paul Dobson. Doc: the life of Danie Craven, 1994, p.77: "First of all dances at the university were stopped because J P Duminy, in accordance with government decree, forbade racially mixed dances"
  12. ↑ D. McKenzie, Medical education U.C.T., 1938–1978 1978, p.6: "He was followed by Dr J. P. Duminy in 1959 who had to contend with the student unrest of the postwar period."
  13. ↑ The Cricketer, May 1980, p. 60.
  14. ↑ "First-class Matches played by Jacobus Duminy". CricketArchive. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
  15. ↑ "Scorecard: Transvaal v MCC". CricketArchive. 9 December 1927. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
  16. ↑ "Scorecard: Transvaal v MCC". CricketArchive. 16 December 1927. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
  17. ↑ "Scorecard: South Africa v England". CricketArchive. 24 December 1927. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
  18. ↑ "Scorecard: South Africa v England". CricketArchive. 28 January 1928. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
  19. ↑ "Scorecard: Border v Transvaal". CricketArchive. 22 December 1928. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
  20. ↑ "South Africans in England". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. Vol. Part II (1930 ed.). Wisden. p. 2.
  21. ↑ "Scorecard: England v South Africa". CricketArchive. 13 July 1929. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
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