Roelof Oosthuizen (1894 –1947) was a

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 ...

who played one match 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

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 1913. While aged 19 and a boarder at

Selborne College Selborne College is a semi-private English medium male-only school situated in the suburb of Selborne and Belgravia (the suburb was named after the school) of East London in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa; it is one of the few colle ...

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

, Oosthuizen made his first-class debut for Border, alongside another Selbornian,

Lawrence Miles Lawrence Miles (born 15 March 1972 in Middlesex) is a science fiction author known for his work on original ''Doctor Who'' novels (for both the Virgin New Adventures and BBC Books series) and the subsequent spin-off Faction Paradox. He is also ...

, against the touring MCC in November 1913. He top-scored in Border's second innings with a hard-hitting 23. The MCC players rated him as one of the best young players in South Africa and presented him with an MCC cap. Despite this initial success, Oosthuizen never played major cricket again. After he left school he returned to the family sheep farm in the

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...

. He fought with South African forces in the

South West Africa campaign The South West Africa campaign was the conquest and occupation of German South West Africa by forces from the Union of South Africa acting on behalf of the British imperial government at the beginning of the First World War. The South Afric ...

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Oosthuizen died of heart failure at the family farm in 1947, leaving a widow, Elizabeth, and a son, Ochert.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oosthuizen, Roelof 1894 births 1947 deaths South African cricketers Border cricketers Alumni of Selborne College