Played from 3 to 14 March 1939, the Durban 'Timeless Test' between South Africa and England ran for ten days and an aggregate of 43 hours and 16 minutes before being abandoned as a draw because the England team had to catch the boat home. With 1981 runs scored across four innings, it remains the longest Test ever played and effectively ended the timeless-Test format.
Pre-war Tests in South Africa were timeless to ensure a result; in England and Australia, four- and five-day matches were the norm. The Durban experiment in 1939 followed a series of drawn matches at home.
The match was scheduled to be played to a finish so that the series — South Africa led 1-0 — could not end inconclusively. South Africa scored 530 and England 316, the home side then making 481 to leave England 696 to win. By the eighth day's stumps England had reached 654 for 5, with Bill Edrich making 219 and Wally Hammond 140.
Rain fell on the ninth day. The teams resumed on the tenth, but England's only scheduled boat from Cape Town would sail before another full day's play could be added. With the train journey back and a two-day buffer factored in, play was halted at tea on 14 March with England 42 short of victory and five wickets in hand. The match was declared a draw.
The ball had been changed many times; the pitch, repeatedly rolled, had become a polished, lifeless strip; spectators had thinned to a few hundred. South African Cricket Association officials, who had pushed for timeless conditions, conceded the format was unworkable.
Day 1: South Africa 35-0 in 75 mins of bowling.
Day 5: South Africa set England 696 to win.
Day 8: England 654-5; Edrich 219, Hammond 140.
Day 9: rain washes out play.
Day 10: England agree to halt at tea to catch boat.
Match drawn after 43 hours 16 minutes — the longest Test ever played.
3 Mar 1939
Match begins; SA win toss and bat.
8 Mar
South Africa set England 696.
13 Mar
Rain washes out day 9.
14 Mar, tea
Play halted; match drawn.
14 Mar, evening
England team boards train for Cape Town.
“We had a boat to catch.”
The teams travelled overnight to Cape Town and sailed for England on the Athlone Castle the next afternoon. Within months war was declared; international cricket would not resume for seven years. Timeless Tests were abandoned as a format; from 1948 onwards Tests were limited to five days everywhere.
The longest Test in history and the moment timeless cricket was quietly buried.
The Durban Test is the canonical argument against timeless cricket. Its statistical lines — 1981 runs, 5447 balls, 43 hr 16 min — appear in every long-form record list. Edrich's 219 and Hammond's 140 are remembered chiefly because they happened in a match nobody could finish.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.