Ivor Markman
Pikkie and Pooch's Cricket Pitch
BURTON ROAD GANG: The young left-handed cricketer, Graeme Pollock, left, with his brother Peter, back, and neighbour, Peter Joseph, right, posed for this picture at the Mill Park house in the 1950s. The photo was taken before the pitch was built.
ORIGINAL BAT: Henry Goldin holds the original bat used by Peter and Graeme Pollock and the Burton Road kids when he was resident in Burton Road, Mill Park. He is crouching on what remains of the original concrete pitch which was built by Peter Joseph's father, Reg, in 1952. PHOTO: IVOR MARKMAN.
The pitch where two of SA's most famous cricketers learned their game!
By Ivor Markman
Little did they know some 66 years ago that their neighbourhood cricket games with two young brothers would see the emergence of a pair of Port Elizabeth’s most iconic sports sons.
When Dr Henry Goldin, 79, who currently resides in London, England, was in Cape Town two years ago, he hired a tour guide to drive him and his wife, Liz, to Port Elizabeth.
No way did he ever expect the tour guide to be his childhood neighbour, Peter Joseph, 72.
“I went to the President Hotel and saw this gentleman walking towards me and I said ‘I know you, I don’t remember your name, but I definitely know you – I think you might have been living in Burton Road at some time,” said Joseph.
Somewhat surprised, Goldin replied, “Yes, I did!”
During the course of their conversation, Goldin recalled that he had lived there in the 1950s after his family moved to Port Elizabeth.
Foremost in their memories was that of playing cricket on a concrete cricket pitch with the neighbourhood kids.
“We had many reminiscences of times playing cricket together with Peter and Graeme Pollock,” said Goldin.
“Graeme and Peter Pollock were (our) neighbours – we were at number 14, the Pollock family was at 18 and the Josephs were at 3 Burton Road,” he said.
After the 1st Test against England in Trent Bridge in June 1951, there was a tremendous surge in cricket’s popularity.
The super-hero of the day was South African captain, Dudley Nourse, who scored 208 before he was run out - after nine hours and 15 minutes at the crease - with a pin in his broken right thumb.
The injured finger, nicknamed the “Graveney thumb”, was caused during an earlier match when Nourse fielded an aggressive clout from Tom Graveney.
This heroic action was a great inspiration to the neighbourhood kids and the game caught their imagination – so much so that in 1952 Reg Joseph, Peter’s father, took the initiative to cast a concrete pitch on his property so the kids had a safe place to play.
In 1952 Goldin was 13 years old, Peter Pollock was 11, Graeme eight and Peter Joseph was six.
Before Reg cleared his yard, trees grew there, but they were removed and grass planted.
The pitch was 15 metres long and a meter and a half wide, and was located in such a way that it favoured left-handed batsmen.
“You had to bowl accurately and if you weren’t on the pitch, it was a wide,” said Joseph.
The youngsters only able to bat in one direction.
“Before (my father) built the pitch we played in (another) corner and we broke too many windows,” he said.
In those days Fairford Road and Linkside did not exist so the field was wide open and continued right into the Baakens Valley.
“My father saw the Pollocks had a cricketing ability,” said Joseph.
The whole neighbourhood was roped into the cricketing project and the fence separating Joseph’s plot from the next door neighbours was, with their permission, removed and the plot levelled to allow
the fast bowlers to have the long run-up they needed to build up some speed.
The garage wall, situated behind the wicket, served as the wicketkeeper.
“If you edged the ball and it carried to the garage wall you were out – caught behind,” said Joseph.
The neighbourhood children sat on the stone boundary wall as they watched the ‘International Tests’ which were played, starring Henry Goldin, Peter Pollock, Ian Barclay, Graeme Pollock and Peter Joseph.
“Graeme and Joseph normally represented Australia and the others represented South Africa,” said Joseph.
In 1949, when Neil Harvey, Australia's young left-handed batting prodigy was thrashing South Africa on the fields, Graeme Pollock said: "One day, when I am old enough to play for South Africa, I am going to show those Aussies what it is like to play against a Neil Harvey".
Graeme hero-worshipped the man and although his admiration was moderated by a good bit of patriotism, he loved watching Neil Harvey delivering a thrashing.
Consequently, the tiny bat the youngsters used was always a Neil Harvey cricket bat.
For Graeme, the offensive and exhilarating batting of Harvey was the epitome of the spirit of cricket.
A few years later Peter Pollock was chosen to become a Springbok fast bowler while Graeme rose to become one of the most famous batsmen in the world.
“At that time Graeme was not even a teenager,” said Goldin.
“He was the smallest of the lot and we used to call him “Pikkie” Pollock while brother Peter was known as ‘Pooch’.
“The bigger boys were always trying to get the ball past Graeme because he was so good at hitting.
“It was not often that we could get the ball past him even though we used to run up hard and bowl as fiercely as we could,” he said.
After hitting the concrete pitch the ball would fly off at high speed.
“It proved impossible to get the ball past Graeme - even at that young age.
“This went on for a number of years and Graeme obviously honed his skills on this pitch,” said Goldin.
The pitch lay there until 1972 when Joseph, who inherited the property after his father’s death, built a house on top of it.
He did, however, leave a small three-metre section of it on the side of the house for visitors to see.
“I called the house ‘Trent Bridge’ after the famous cricket grounds in Nottingham where Graeme Pollock excelled in August 1965,” said Joseph.
Legendary former England and Middlesex batsman, Denis Compton, said: "I have seen many great Test hundreds including some masterly knocks by Don Bradman, but I have never seen a century to equal Graeme Pollock against England at Nottingham".
Peter Pollock subsequently became a Springbok fast bowler while Graeme rose to become one of the most famous batsmen in the world.
Text and Photos, Copyright, Ivor Markman, 2018.
TRENT BRIDGE: Peter Joseph holds the original bat used by Peter and Graeme Pollock and the Burton Road kids. He named his house 'Trent Bridge' in honour of Graeme's historic Test innings at the famous Nottingham field in 1965. PHOTO: IVOR MARKMAN.
