Harmony Gold Mine Cricket Club A Ground is a cricket ground in

Virginia, Free State Virginia is a gold mining town located in the Lejweleputswa District Municipality and on goldfields of the Free State province in South Africa about 140 km (90 mi) northeast of Bloemfontein the provincial capital. History In 1890, tw ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, near to the Harmony Gold mines. The ground hosted four first-class matches, 19

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

matches and two other matches between 1966 and 1996; the ground has been the home venue for

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...

(later Free State) and

Impalas The impala or rooibok (''Aepyceros melampus'') is a medium-sized antelope found in East Africa, eastern and southern Africa. The monotypic taxon, only Extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Aepyceros'' and tribe Aepycerotini, it was first ...

History

The first recorded match at the Harmony Gold Mine Cricket Club A Ground was a one day match in December 1966 between Orange Free State Country Districts and

Australians Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizens, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Australians, several (or all) ...

. Australians won by 7 wickets, but carried on batting after winning the match, with

Grahame Thomas Grahame Thomas (born 21 March 1938, in Croydon Park, New South Wales) is a former Australian cricketer who played in eight Tests in 1965 and 1966. After several seasons in which he established a reputation as a hard-hitting batsman for New Sout ...

scoring 95 runs. In the 1967/68 season, the ground hosted another one day match, this time between Orange Free State and South Africa Country Districts; the match ended in a draw. In November 1986, the Harmony Gold Mine Cricket Club A Ground hosted its first first-class and

matches. On 19 November,

played

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 ...

in a List A fixture as part of the 1986/87 Benson & Hedges Series; Western Province won the match by 134 runs. Eight days later, the ground hosted a 3-day first-class match between

South African Board President's XI South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

and an Australian XI;

Brian Whitfield Brian Jonathan Whitfield (born 14 March 1959) is a former South African First-class cricketer. He played with Natal and Northern Transvaal and was one of the South African Cricket Annual's Cricketers of the Year in 1987. References 195 ...

scored 129 * in the South African Board President's XI first innings, and they the match by 3 wickets. The last recorded first-class match at the ground was between Orange Free State and Transvaal in 1991/92, which Orange Free State won by 101 runs, and the last recorded List A match at the ground was between Free State and Easterns in the 1996/97 Standard Bank League, and was won by Easterns by 89 runs. The ground holds the record for lowest scores for (Orange) Free State in all matches against

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, ...

(now Gauteng), Impalas and

Sri Lankans This is a demography of the population of Sri Lanka including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Sri Lanka is an island in the ...

, with totals of 121, 187, and 221 respectively. In 2014, a rockfall in an illegal gold mine behind the cricket ground almost trapped 200 miners.

References

External links

Cricinfo

Cricket grounds in South Africa Multi-purpose stadiums in South Africa Sports venues in the Free State (province) Matjhabeng Local Municipality {{cricket-ground-stub