RIP Neil Adcock

[morgieb]

South Africa Cricket News: Former South Africa fast bowler Neil Adcock dies aged 81 | ESPN Cricinfo

At least he was a fair bit older than CMJ and Greig, but still bad news.

btw, was that comment made by CW's Lillian Thomson?

[SeamUp]

One of South Africa's greatest fast bowlers, Neil Adcock, died early on Sunday morning in Howick, Natal, aged 81.

“Adcock emerged in the early fifties and became South Africa's first world-class, genuine fast bowler,” former cricketer and friend Ali Bacher said.

“It was also around that time the Springbok cricket team became recognised as a force in international cricket for the first time and one of the reasons was because of the opening pair of fast bowlers in Adcock and Peter Heine.”

Adcock attended Jeppe High School in Johannesburg and was one of the last of a long line of famous South African cricketers – Eric and Athol Rowan, Jock Cameron and centenarian Norman Gordon to name but a few – produced by the school.

South Africa played test cricket for the first time in 1889 and it took nearly 60 years to produce its first real quick.

He played 99 first-class games, taking 405 wickets at 17.25 apiece

Adcock played 26 tests for South Africa, taking 104 wickets at an average of 21.10. He took five five-wicket hauls with an innings best return of 6/43 against Australia, in January 1958 in Durban.

His best bowling was in England in 1960 where, despite South Africa losing the series 3-0, he took 26 wickets in five tests at an average of 22.57 – with a best of 6/65 at the Oval.

As a result of that tour, he was named as one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year in 1961. However, to tour England, Adcock had to take unpaid leave for almost four months and, as a result, lost his job.

He moved from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg where he eventually ran a very successful travel agency.

“I first played against him in 1960/61 when he was playing for Natal and Eddie Barlow and I were just starting out with Transvaal,” said Bacher.

“I can honestly say he was the quickest bowler I ever faced throughout my career, locally or internationally, until I stopped playing in 1974.” In 1957/58, Australia, led by Ian Craig, beat South Africa 3-0, despite the hosts being the favourites to win the five-test tour.

The final test was played in Port Elizabeth and Australia only needed 68 runs to win. Opening batsmen Colin McDonald and Jim Burke were reputed to have said they had never faced such fast, hostile bowling ever before as they did from both Adcock and Heine in that second innings.

“When I met Colin in Melbourne in 1993, we had a chat about that test and he confirmed it,” Bacher said.

“Whether or not it was out of sheer frustration at the batsmen or at the way the series had gone, he said he had never been subjected to such extraordinarily hostile and quick bowling before – the likes of which had not been seen from a South African before.”

Post retirement, Adcock did a lengthy period as a radio commentator with Charles Fortune and also became an articulate and amusing after-dinner speaker.

“He could tell a cricket story better than anyone. He had a real flair for it,” Bacher said.

“There was nothing better, after a hard day's play, than to sit down with a beer and hear Neil's legendary cricket stories which got better and better each time he told them.”

Adcock, who is survived by his wife Maureen, died from bowel cancer after suffering with the illness for a long period of time.

"Neil was one of the great fast bowlers during what was truly a golden era of fast bowling," Cricket South Africa's acting chief executive Jacques Faul said. "At that time England had Trueman, Statham and Tyson; Australia had Lindwall, Miller and Davidson; and the West Indies had Hall and Gilchrist. Neil was right up with the best of them.

[Teja.]

One of the greats and truly underrated. Will take this as a chance to read up more about him.

RIP.




(Threads merged btw)

[fredfertang]

Sad news that he is reunited with his famous partner in crime - here is a link to a piece I wrote about them in the summer

RIP

[BoyBrumby]

RIP.

Obviously sad news but there's a nice circularity to him passing during a home series versus NZ, having made his test debut against the same country in the Republic, if fred's article is to be believed and they invariably are.

[Zinzan]

Had heard of him but didn't realise his record was quite that good. RIP

[Himannv]

Very sad news. RIP.

[Jager]

Just found out, very sad news. Great bowler, often overlooked.

[stumpski]

Norman Gordon outlives them all, it seems ...

[AndyZaltzHair]

Heard and read about Neil Adcock, unfortunate that never got to see him bowling. Sad news, RIP

[watson]

One of my favourite bowlers because he elevated his team from out of the ordinary and made them competitive against England and Australia.

His partnership with Heine is also the stuff of myth and legend. Brilliant.

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Played by Iain O'Brien in a made-for-TV-drama about the Tangiwai Disaster. What more can a man hope for than be played by Iain O'Brien?

[Quaggas]

Solid spell.

RIP

[archie mac]

One of the meanest fast bowlers of them all, a fair innings

[weldone]

Always rated him very very highly...

RIP