Sidney Kiel (18 July 1916 – 19 July 2007) was a South African doctor better known for his sporting career. Both a

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete and a

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, he represented South Africa as a

hurdler Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today ...

at the

1938 British Empire Games The 1938 British Empire Games were the third British Empire Games, the event that evolved to become the Commonwealth Games. Held in Sydney, Australia from 5–12 February 1938, they were timed to coincide with Sydney's sesqui-centenary (150 yea ...

(now the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

), having earlier boycotted the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

. His cricket career as an

opening batsman In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batters play through their team's innings, there always being two batters taking part at any one time. All eleven players in a team are required to bat if the innings is completed (i.e., if ...

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 ...

spanned from 1939 to his retirement in 1947.

Early life and athletics career

Kiel was born to a Jewish family in Vrede,

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 ...

, but moved to

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 ...

at the age of seven following his father's death. He was educated at

South African College Schools The South African College Schools (colloquially often known as “SACS”) is a public English medium primary and high education institution situated in Newlands – part of the Southern Suburbs region of Cape Town in the Western Cape provinc ...

(SACS) in

Newlands Newlands may refer to: Places Australia * Newlands, Queensland, a locality in the Whitsunday Region * Newlands, Western Australia, a town in the Shire of Donnybrook–Balingup Ireland * Newlands Cross, Dublin, named after the former Newlands ...

, where he was head boy, captain of the cricket and athletics teams, and vice-captain of the rugby team. Kiel first ran for his country at the age of 16, while still at school. Following a 1935 race where he set a South African record for the 110 metres (or 120 yards) hurdles (and was timed within 0.5 seconds of the world record), he was included in the South African delegation for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, but withdrew in opposition to the German regime's antisemitism.Maurice Silbert (October 2007
"Sid Kiel (18/ 07/1916 – 19/07/2007): The South African who boycotted Hitler's Games"
– '' South African Medical Journal'', vol. 97, no. 10. Retrieved 1 May 2015. At an October 1937 meet in Cape Town, Kiel recorded a personal best, 14.4 seconds, for the 110 metre hurdles. In that event at the 1938 Empire Games in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, he placed fifth with a time of 14.7 seconds, with the gold medallist being another South African, Tom Lavery.

Cricket career

Finishing his athletics career, Kiel made his first-class cricket debut for Western Province during the 1939–40 season.First-class matches played by Sidney Kiel
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 May 2015. With the

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 ...

suspended at the time, Western Province's season consisted of two sets of three games, played at home in December 1939 and in the coastal cities of

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

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 ...

, and

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

in March 1940. Opening with Pieter van der Bijl on debut against

Griqualand West Griqualand West is an area of central South Africa with an area of 40,000 km2 that now forms part of the Northern Cape Province. It was inhabited by the Griqua people – a semi-nomadic, Afrikaans-speaking nation of mixed-race origin, w ...

, Kiel recorded a golden duck, bowled by Alfred Waddington. This however was followed by 36 in the second innings, with his next match, against North Eastern Transvaal, yielding a maiden first-class century, 139

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

. Kiel finished his inaugural season for Western Province with 524 runs from six matches,First-class batting and fielding in each season by Sidney Kiel
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 May 2015. with a second century, 120, coming against Eastern Province in the last game of the season. A graduate of the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

's medical school, Kiel joined the South African Medical Corps (a

South African Army The South African Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of South Africa, a part of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), along with the South African Air Force, South African Navy and South African Military Health Servi ...

unit) during World War II, serving in the North African and Italian theatres. His cricket career was thus interrupted, with a game against

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; ...

during the 1941–42 season being his only first-class match until the war's end. In that match, he came close to carrying his bat in Western Province's second innings, with his captain, Andrew Ralph, declaring at 236/8 when Kiel was undefeated on 128. Kiel managed two games during the 1945–46 season, which include a score of 77 against

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

,Natal v Western Province
First-Class matches in South Africa 1945/46 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 May 2015. and played in five out of six Currie Cup games during the 1946–47 season (the first edition of the tournament since the 1937–38 season). In what was to be his only Currie Cup season he scored 311 runs from 10 innings, including three half-centuries.

Later life

Kiel retired from cricket at the age of 30 to further his medical career, interning at Somerset Hospital before establishing a family practice in

Sea Point Sea Point (Afrikaans: ''Seepunt'') is an affluent and densely populated suburb of Cape Town, situated in the Western Cape, between Signal Hill and the Atlantic Ocean, a few kilometres to the west of Cape Town's Central Business District (CBD). M ...

. He died in the suburb in July 2007, aged 91, having had a heart attack earlier in the year (and been confined to a wheelchair for several years). He had married Jean Kramer in 1949, and had a son and a daughter.

References

External links

Player profile and statistics
a
Cricket Archive
a
ESPNcricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiel, Sid 1916 births 2007 deaths Athletes (track and field) at the 1938 British Empire Games Commonwealth Games athletes for South Africa Jewish cricketers South African cricketers South African male hurdlers Jewish South African sportspeople South African general practitioners University of Cape Town alumni Western Province cricketers Jewish track and field athletes People from Phumelela Local Municipality South African military personnel of World War II South African people of German-Jewish descent 20th-century South African sportsmen Alumni of South African College Schools