#donald currie

2 incidents tagged

The Currie Cup — South Africa's First-Class Foundation, 1889

South African colonies

1889-04-05

Sir Donald Currie, the Scottish-born shipping magnate who funded England's 1888-89 tour of South Africa, donated a trophy at the end of the trip for an inter-colonial cricket competition. The first Currie Cup was contested in 1889-90 — a single-match competition won by Kimberley over Transvaal. It became the foundational competition of South African first-class cricket.

#currie-cup#south-africa#1889

⭐Moderate

Major Warton's Tour — How the First English Side Got to South Africa, 1888-89

R.G. Warton's XI (England) v South African sides

1888-12-01

The first English cricket tour of South Africa was organised not by MCC or any official body but by a retired British army officer, Major Robert Gardner Warton, working with two Cape Town agents (Billy Simkins and William Milton) and underwritten by the shipping magnate Sir Donald Currie. Warton went to England in 1888 to recruit professionals; the resulting team — captained by the amateur C. Aubrey Smith — sailed in November and played the matches that were later, in 1903, given retrospective Test status as South Africa's first Tests.

#major-warton#south-africa#1888-89