Game on at Matjiesfontein

Over a recent weekend cricket returned to Matjiesfontein when a team of Englishmen captained by one of our own Tony Romer-Lee, took on a team of eager South Africans.

"Playing on the hallowed wicket made famous during the days of James Logan [the original ‘Laird of Matjiesfontein’], said Dr Dean Allen, author of 'Empire, War & Cricket in South Africa'.

"The players re-enacted the good sportsmanship and fair play so evident during those heady late-Victorian days in the Karoo. The cricket ground at Matjiesfontein dates back to 1894 when James Logan had a first-class pitch built so that the stars of world cricket could play at this most unlikely of venues."

An era brought to life in the book Empire, War and Cricket in South Africa by Dean Allen, read how successive England teams played at Matjiesfontein during the 1890s and how James Logan gained a reputation for being South Africa’s greatest benefactor of international cricket.