George Derek Varnals (24 July 1935 – 9 September 2019) was a South African
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
er who played in three
Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to:
* Test cricket
* Test match (indoor cricket)
* Test match (rugby union)
* Test match (rugby league)
* Test match (association football)
...
in the 1964–65 season.
Varnals was a right-handed batsman. The South African cricket commentator
Charles Fortune described him as "a compact and correct player with a good range of shots that came more of timing than of power".
[ He played South African domestic ]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 ...
, for Eastern Province, Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal.
* South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...
and Natal
NATAL or Natal may refer to:
Places
* Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil
* Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa
** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843)
** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...
, between 1955 and 1965.[Derek Varnals]
CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 April 2021. Apart from the 1957–58 season, when he averaged more than 50 runs per innings and made his highest score – 151 not out
In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress.
Occurrence
At least one batter is not out at t ...
in Eastern Province's total of 267, when he opened the innings against Border
Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...
and carried his bat
In cricket, the term carry the bat (or carry one's bat) refers to an opening batsman (no. 1 and 2) who is not dismissed ("not out") when the team innings is closed.
The term is mainly used when the innings closes after all 10 wickets have fall ...
– his record was relatively modest until 1964–65.[
Three centuries in the first half of the 1964–65 season, including one for Natal against the touring MCC side, propelled Varnals into the ]South African cricket team
The South Africa national cricket team, also known as the Proteas, represents South Africa in men's international cricket and is administered by Cricket South Africa (CSA). South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council (I ...
for the first three Tests against England.[Derek Varnals]
CricInfo
ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...
. Retrieved 26 April 2021. He batted a long way down the order and, although he showed useful adhesion in helping to avert defeat in the second match, his highest score in six innings was only 23.['']Wisden
''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
'' 2022, pp. 263–64. His only first-class bowling was in the final overs of his final Test match.[
Varnals later moved to Australia to be closer to his children. He died in ]Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
in September 2019.[
]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Varnals, Derek
1935 births
2019 deaths
South Africa Test cricketers
South African cricketers
Eastern Province cricketers
South African Universities cricketers
Gauteng cricketers
KwaZulu-Natal cricketers
Sportspeople from Durban