Dave Nourse

Who was Dave Nourse?

Arthur William "Dave" Nourse, born at Croydon, England on 26 January 1878 and died at Port Elizabeth, South Africa on 8 July 1948, was a cricketer who played for Natal, Transvaal, Western Province and South Africa.

A left-handed batsman and left-arm medium-pace swing bowler, Nourse was the mainstay of the South African Test team for more than 20 years and had a first-class cricket career of almost 40 years. He played 45 consecutive Tests from 1902 to 1924 and while his batting was dogged rather than dynamic, career figures that show only one Test century and a batting average under 30 do scant justice to his value to his team.

Nourse went to South Africa as a drummer with the West Riding Regiment in 1895 and stayed there, making his first-class cricket debut for Natal two years later. In his first Test, against Australia at Johannesburg in October 1902, he scored 72, and his first Test wicket followed in the next match. Perhaps his greatest Test match was the first game of the England tour in 1905-06, when South Africa gained its first-ever victory against England. Batting at No 8 and arriving with the score at 105 for six wickets, Nourse hit an unbeaten 93 and, with a last-wicket partnership of 48 with Percy Sherwell, took South Africa to an unlikely target of 284.