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.

Gerald Bond

Personal information
Born	(1909-04-05)5 April 1909 Cape Town, Cape Colony
Died	27 August 1965(1965-08-27) (aged 56) Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm medium
International information
National side	South Africa
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1929/30–1938/39	Western Province
Career statistics
Competition Tests First-class Matches 1 28 Runs scored 0 1604 Batting average 0 41.12 100s/50s 0/0 1/11 Top score 0 170 Balls bowled 16 1462 Wickets 0 20 Bowling average – 35.35 5 wickets in innings 0 0 10 wickets in match 0 0 Best bowling – 4/17 Catches/stumpings 0/– 11/–
Source: CricketArchive

Career

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 Wally 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.