Louis George Duffus (13 May 1904 in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

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– 24 July 1984 in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

) was a South African

cricket 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 ...

er who became the country's most respected writer on the game.

Life and career

Duffus was educated in Johannesburg, where he gained a Bachelor of Commerce degree at

Witwatersrand University The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The university has its roots in ...

by part-time study. He was a fine athlete and baseballer, as well as a cricketer. A right-handed batsman and occasional

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

, he played in five first-class matches 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; ...

between 1923/24 and 1934/35. He played in a trial match to select the South African tour of England in 1929, but was not chosen. Duffus quit his junior accountancy position with the Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Company in Johannesburg in 1929 to accompany the South African cricket team on their tour of England in the hope of earning enough money from freelance reporting to pay for the trip. He was so successful that by the time he returned to South Africa he was employed as a full-time sports journalist. Thereafter, until South Africa were barred from Test cricket some forty years later as a result of

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

, he hardly missed a Test match in which they were involved. He covered more than one hundred in all. His ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'' obituary described him as "conscientious, generous and very fair, with a delightful manner and a nice turn of phrase"."Obituaries in 1984"
''

'' 1985, p. 1192. During the 1935 South African tour of England he was summoned from the press box to field as a substitute against

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. He caught

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at slip, which helped in ensuring the tourists' victory in front of a large

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crowd. He was proud that ''Wisden'' mentioned this in its match report. He served as a war correspondent in the Mediterranean for the duration of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

.Michael Melford, "Louis Duffus", ''

The Cricketer ''The Cricketer'' is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county, club and schools cricket. Overview The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cric ...

'', Winter Annual 1984, pp. 56–57. He compiled and edited Volume 3 of the official history of South African cricket, covering the years from 1927 to 1947. He also wrote on

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, tennis, golf and women's

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, among other sports. He was the sports editor of the ''Johannesburg Star''. He was married in

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, England, in 1932.Duffus, ''Cricketers of the Veld'', p. 98. He achieved a degree of fame in the medical world in 1970 when, though a

haemophilia Haemophilia (British English), or hemophilia (American English) (), is a mostly inherited genetic disorder that impairs the body's ability to make blood clots, a process needed to stop bleeding. This results in people bleeding for a long ...

c, he had a hip operation in

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Bibliography

*''Cricketers of the Veld'', Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1946 *''Beyond the Laager'', Hurst & Blackett, 1947 (on South Africans' experiences during the war) *''South African Cricket 1927–1947, Volume 3'', The South African Cricket Association, 1948. *''Springbok Glory'', Longmans, 1955 *''Champagne Cricket'' (on the Australian tour of South Africa, 1966–67) *''When Springboks Leap the Net: The Dramatic History of South Africa in Davis Cup Tennis'', privately published, 1968 *''Play Abandoned: An Autobiography'', Timmins, 1969,

References

External links

Cricinfo profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duffus, Louis 1904 births 1984 deaths University of the Witwatersrand alumni Cricket writers South African cricketers Gauteng cricketers South African people of Australian descent South African war correspondents 20th-century South African journalists People with haemophilia War correspondents of World War II Australian emigrants to South Africa