Ronald Eustace Grieveson (24 August 1909 – 24 July 1998) 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 str ...

er who played in two Tests in 1938–39. He was born and died in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

, South Africa. He attended

Parktown Boys' High School Parktown Boys' High School is a public English medium high school for boys situated in Parktown, a suburb of Johannesburg in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is one of the oldest schools in Johannesburg. Parktown Boys' sister school is ...

in 1922 and thereafter attended

St John's College, Johannesburg --> , religion = Anglican , administrator = , rector = , campus_director = , headmaster = Stuart West , head_name = Exam board , head = IEB , chaplain = The Revd Dr Jeremy ...

from 1923 until 1926 where he

matriculated Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term "matriculation" is seldom used now. ...

Career

As a cricketer, Grieveson was a right-handed middle-order batsman and a wicketkeeper, though he did not always keep wicket for

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, ...

, which had the services of Test wicketkeeper

Jock Cameron Jock Cameron (born Horace Brakenridge Cameron and often known as "Herbie" Cameron; 5 July 1905 – 2 November 1935) was a South African cricketer of the 1920s and 1930s. A tragic figure owing to his premature death when probably the best wick ...

until his death in 1935. Grieveson made his

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 officia ...

debut in 1929–30 and played for Transvaal intermittently over the next dozen seasons. He hit just one century: an unbeaten 107 against

Griqualand West Griqualand West is an area of central South Africa with an area of 40,000 km2 that now forms part of the Northern Cape Province. It was inhabited by the Griqua people – a semi-nomadic, Afrikaans-speaking nation of mixed-race origin, wh ...

in 1933–34. In the 1938–39 season, the England touring team won a crushing victory in the third Test, after two drawn games, partly through misfielding by the

South Africans The population of South Africa is about 58.8 million people of diverse origins, cultures, languages, and religions. The South African National Census of 2022 was the most recent census held; the next will be in 2032. In 2011, Statistics South ...

; wicketkeeper Billy Wade was singled out for errors that were "particularly expensive". Wade was dropped for the fourth Test and Grieveson was his replacement as wicketkeeper. In a better performance by the South Africans in a rain-affected drawn match, he did not bat, but he took five catches and kept wicket "capably". Grieveson retained his place for the fifth and final Test of the series which, as neither side had a decisive lead in the rubber, was scheduled to be played out to a finish: a so-called "

Timeless Test A timeless Test is a match of Test cricket played under no limitation of time, which means the match is played until one side wins or the match is tied, with theoretically no possibility of a draw. The format means that it is not possible to play ...

". In the event, the match was the longest ever played and was still left drawn, after the England team had to leave to catch their ship home at the end of the 10th day of play (one day of the 10 had been entirely lost to rain). Grieveson batted in both South African innings, scoring 75 and 39. The 75 was the highest debut score by a wicketkeeper from any Test-playing nation in a Test match to that time. He also took two catches and made three stumpings, and he conceded only eight byes in England's second innings of 654 for five wickets. The two Test matches represented virtually the end of Grieveson's cricket career: he played one further first-class match in 1939–40, but did not return to first-class cricket after the Second World War. He served in the War, reaching the rank of major and being awarded the OBE.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grieveson, Ronnie 1909 births 1998 deaths South Africa Test cricketers South African cricketers Gauteng cricketers South African military personnel of World War II Officers of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Parktown Boys' High School Wicket-keepers