Another Compton boy
IT’S gratifying that former Durban boy Nick Compton is back in the England cricket side, who begin their tour next month.
Nick is the son of the erratic “Compton Boy” – Richard – who skippered the Durban Press XI some years ago and nephew of our cricket writer, Patrick, who also turned out for the Press XI.
Young Nick had a future beckoning with the Press XI, except that a bursary took him to England to complete his schooling and I suppose, all in all, that his cricketing career has turned out the better for it.
Not that there was anything wrong with the Durban Press XI. We used to take on the Breweries – day-night games at Kingsmead – the attorney-general’s office, various large business organisations, Otto’s Bluff and other country sides and hot outfits like the Kloof Crickets and the Maritzburg Grasshoppers. We also went on tour once to Harrismith, in the Free State.
mercidler@inl.co.za
There was the stirring occasion when we defeated the RAF Red Arrows, where I took 4-36 (as I think I’ve mentioned before) with my unplayable leg breaks.
But the Durban Press XI came to an end when the scatterbrained Compton Boy (the dad, that is) had to deliver our bag of cricket kit to the office of Scottish laird The Maclaine of Lochbuie – known as Drambuie – who played wicketkeeper for the Press XI and doubled as a member of management on this newspaper.
Instead of leaving the bag of kit at Drambuie’s office, the Compton Boy left it at the office of Argus Community Projects, who raise money for charity. Result: the bag of kit owned by the Durban Press XI was sold on a jumble sale.
Sigh! I suppose young Nick is better off with England.
Water wheels
STILL more on the water mills/water wheels of yesteryear. Barry James, of Howick, asked about the water mill built by Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorus in Pietermaritzburg about 200 years ago. It’s for a book to which he is contributing on the indigenous woods of southern Africa.
A lady, who wishes to keep her name out of it, has identified for Barry four more 19th century water mills in this province and has identified the current site of the Andries Pretorius mill as being on the banks of the Tugela at Weenen, to which it was moved during Pretorius’s time.
Now Roger Sawyer, of Durban North, says that many years ago he taught young lads the art of TV repairs at a place called “The Old Mill” (under the auspices of Rotary and the Inyanga Trust), on the road between Chatsworth and Pinetown. A very old church was on the same site.