Jennifer Anne Gove (born 28 August 1940) is a South African former

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 as an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

. She appeared in seven

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) ...

for

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 ...

between 1960 and 1972, and is the side's leading run-scorer in Test cricket, with 256 runs. She played domestic cricket for

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 ...

Cricket career

Gove made her debut for South Africa in their maiden Test match. Facing the touring

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at St George's Park in

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 ...

, Gove batted at number eight in the first innings and number nine in the second, scoring 4 and 40 runs respectively. Her bowling was also used in the match, and she claimed two wickets in the second innings, dismissing Kathleen Smith

caught Caught is a method of dismissing a batsman in cricket. A batsman is out caught if the batsman hits the ball, from a legitimate delivery, with the bat, and the ball is caught by the bowler or a fielder before it hits the ground. If the ball h ...

and

bowled In cricket, the term bowled has several meanings. First, is the act of propelling the ball towards the wicket defended by a batsman. Second, it is a method of dismissing a batsman, by hitting the wicket with a ball delivered by the bowler. (Th ...

, and trapping

Ruth Westbrook Ruth Emily Prideaux (; 12 July 1930 – 7 April 2016) was an English former cricketer who played as a wicket-keeper. She appeared in 11 Test matches for England between 1957 and 1963. She was also England's first full-time head coach, and was in ...

leg before wicket Leg before wicket (lbw) is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed in the sport of cricket. Following an appeal by the fielding side, the umpire may rule a batter out lbw if the ball would have struck the wicket but was instead in ...

. She scored 13 runs in the second match of the series, and did not take a wicket. She took wickets in both of the final two matches, collecting three at Durban and four in Cape Town, and though she did not surpass her innings of 40 runs from the first match, she did accumulate 90 runs across the two games. At the end of the series, she was South Africa's joint-leading wicket-taker, with nine wickets, though

Lorna Ward Lorna Grace Ward (born 3 June 1939) is a South African former cricketer who played as a right-arm pace bowler. She appeared in seven Test matches for South Africa between 1960 and 1972, taking 27 wickets including three five-wicket hauls. She ...

had a superior average, taking her nine at 25.33, in contrast to Gove's 30.55. Over eleven years later, Gove participated in South Africa's next officially sanctioned women's Test series, played against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. In the first Test, Gove scored 13 runs in the first innings, and 36 * in the second, but in the following match, she failed to reach double figures in either innings. In the third and final Test of the series, after a first innings score of 3, Gove remained unbeaten on 51 when South Africa declared their second innings closed. It was the final match of Gove's international career, and the score of 51 * remained her highest total in Test cricket. Her seven women's Test appearances for South Africa is the most for the country, level with Ward. Although Gove's total of 256 runs in women's Test cricket is the highest by a South African, her career average of 25.60 is ranked eighteenth amongst her compatriots.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gove, Jennifer 1940 births Living people Cricketers from Durban South African women cricketers South Africa women Test cricketers KwaZulu-Natal Coastal women cricketers