Gerald Bond

Gerald Edward Bond (5 April 1909 – 27 August 1965) was a South African cricketer who played in one Test in 1938.^[1] He was born and died at Cape Town.

Bond was a right-handed middle- or upper-order batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. He played irregularly for Western Province from 1929-30. His best season was 1936-37 when he scored his only first-class century, a score of 170 for Western Province against Natal which was insufficient to prevent his side losing the match by an innings.^[2] In the following game, opening the Western Province bowling against Border, he took four wickets for 17 runs with his medium-pace, the best bowling performance of his career.^[3]

Bond's Test career was fleeting. He took two wickets (including Walter Hammond) in Western Province's match against the England team in 1938-39 and scored 13 in each innings.^[4] He was then picked for the first Test of a five-match series. When England batted, he was the sixth bowler used and was given only two overs, in which he failed to take a wicket and conceded 16 runs; in the South African innings, the unsuccessful promotion of a nightwatchman meant that he batted at No 9 instead of No 3 or No 4 as he generally did for Western Province, and he was dismissed first ball, one of three first-ball dismissals in the innings.^[5] He was not selected for South Africa again and in fact did not play any further first-class cricket either.

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