Denys Laurence Hobson (born 3 September 1951) is a former South African

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

er. Hobson played as a right-handed batsman and legbreak bowler for Eastern Province and

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: *Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provinc ...

. His career lasted from 1970–71 to 1984–85. He was born at

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...

in 1951. Educated at Kingswood College, Hobson played for Eastern Province in the Nuffield week from 1970 to 1971. He represented South African schools in 1971. He furthered his studies at

Rhodes University Rhodes University is a public university, public research university located in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, ...

and played for South African Universities in 1972 and 1973. Regarded by many as South Africa's best legbreak bowler, before, during and after the years of isolation, he was invited to play in

World Series Cricket World Series Cricket (WSC) was a commercial professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 which was organised by Kerry Packer and his Australian television network, Nine Network. WSC ran in commercial competition to establishe ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 1977. Because he was an amateur player, for political reasons he was not allowed to play.

Graeme Pollock Robert Graeme Pollock (born 27 February 1944) is a former cricketer for South Africa, Transvaal and Eastern Province. A member of a famous cricketing family, Pollock is widely regarded as one of South Africa's greatest ever cricketers, and as o ...

who joined Hobson on this trip, suffered the same fate. Hobson played in a 105 first class matches, taking 374 wickets at an average of 27.52. He maintained a strike rate of 59.1 balls per wicket. In 90 Currie Cup matches he took 319 wickets. He played for South Africa in four unofficial "Tests" during the

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

years and was South African Cricketer of the Year in 1975.

External links

* 1951 births Living people South African cricketers Eastern Province cricketers Western Province cricketers South African Universities cricketers Cricketers from Port Elizabeth White South African people Rhodes University alumni Alumni of Kingswood College (South Africa) {{SouthAfrica-cricket-bio-1950s-stub