Fritz Bing (22 September 1934 – 24 September 2023) was a South African

cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and businessman who became a leading cricket administrator.

Life and career

Bing was born in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

and attended Wynberg Boys' High School, where he was

head prefect The two Senior Prefects, individually called Head Boy (for the male), and Head Girl (for the female) are students who carry leadership roles and are responsible for representing the school's entire student body. Although mostly out of use, in some ...

in 1952. He was a right-handed batsman who played eight matches of

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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

for

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 ...

, spread over seven seasons. His most successful matches were his last two. Batting at number three against

Border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

in the 1960–61

Currie Cup The Currie Cup () is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier domestic competition, four South African franc ...

, he scored 20 and 85 (the highest score on either side) in a 237-run victory. A week later, he scored 62 and 12 against

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( ; ) was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Em ...

, this time in a 28-run loss. In 1957, Bing married Jenny Jones, whose father, A. P. Jones, owned a department store under his name in

Fish Hoek Fish Hoek (, meaning either Fish Corner or Fish Glen) is a coastal suburb of Cape Town at the eastern end of the Fish Hoek Valley on the False Bay side of the Cape Peninsula in the Western Cape, South Africa. Previously a separate municipality, Fi ...

, a coastal suburb of

. Bing joined the store, managing the men's department. He established a sporting goods department in the store, and also established South Africa's first cricket ball making factory. Bing bought the A. P. Jones store in 1984; it is now run by later generations of his family. Fritz and Jenny had four children, all boys. Bing served as president of the Western Province Cricket Union between 1981 and 1989. He played an active role during the unification process between the (white) WPCU and the (non-white) Western Province Cricket Board during 1991. In 1994 he served as manager of the first post-apartheid South African team to tour England. Bing lived in Noordhoek, Cape Town, for more than 60 years. He died in September 2023, two days after his 89th birthday.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bing, Fritz 1934 births 2023 deaths Alumni of Wynberg Boys' High School South African cricketers Western Province cricketers Cricketers from Cape Town South African cricket administrators 20th-century South African businesspeople White South African people