Jonathan Fellows-Smith

Who was Jonathan Fellows-Smith?

Jonathan Payn Fellows-Smith was a South African cricketer who played in four Tests in 1960.

Fellows-Smith, nicknamed "Pom Pom", was an aggressive right-handed middle order batsman and a useful right-arm medium pace bowler who played the bulk of his cricket in England. Appearing first as a student for Oxford University in 1953, he won his Blue that season and in the following two years as an all-rounder. He stayed in England after his university days and played fairly regularly for Northamptonshire in 1957, when the team equalled its highest-ever placing by coming second in the County Championship.

He finally played his first first-class cricket in his native country in 1958-59, turning out regularly for Transvaal that season, and the following season he scored 512 runs with two centuries at an average of 73.14, and was picked for the 1960 South African tour to England.

The tour was not a success, hampered by bad weather and overshadowed by controversy over the bowling action of the fast bowler Geoff Griffin. For much of the tour, Fellows-Smith batted very low in the batting order.