| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Norman Gordon | |||
| Born | 6 August 1911 Boksburg, Transvaal, South Africa |
|||
| Batting style | Right-handed batsman | |||
| Bowling style | Right-arm fast | |||
| Role | Bowler | |||
| International information | ||||
| National side | South Africa | |||
| Test debut (cap 151) | 24 December 1938 v England | |||
| Last Test | 14 March 1939 v England | |||
| Domestic team information | ||||
| Years | Team | |||
| 1933–48 | Transvaal | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| Competition | Test | First-class | ||
| Matches | 5 | 29 | ||
| Runs scored | 8 | 109 | ||
| Batting average | 2.00 | 5.19 | ||
| 100s/50s | –/– | –/– | ||
| Top score | 7* | 20 | ||
| Balls bowled | 1966 | 7173 | ||
| Wickets | 20 | 126 | ||
| Bowling average | 40.35 | 22.24 | ||
| 5 wickets in innings | 2 | 8 | ||
| 10 wickets in match | – | – | ||
| Best bowling | 5/103 | 6/61 | ||
| Catches/stumpings | 1/– | 8/– | ||
| Source: CricketArchive, 22 August 2009 | ||||
Norman Gordon (born 6 August 1911) is a former South African cricketer who played in five Tests in the 1938–39 South African cricket season. He was born in Boksburg, Transvaal. He is the oldest living Test cricketer, and the first to reach 100 years. Gordon became the oldest-ever Test Cricketer on 23 March 2011, when he surpassed New Zealander Eric Tindill, who died on 1 August 2010, approximately four months before his 100th birthday.[1]
Gordon played first-class cricket for Transvaal from 1933–34 as a right-handed fast bowler and a tail-end right-handed batsman.
He made his Test debut against England in December 1938, playing every Test of the five-match series. In the first Test, he took his best Test match figures of 7–162, including 5–103 in the first innings.[2] He was stumped by Les Ames off the bowling of Tom Goddard for a first-ball duck in the drawn match. In the second match he took 5–157 in England's only innings, but was again stumped by Ames off the bowling of Goddard for 0 in another drawn match.
In the third match, Gordon took 2–127 in England's only innings and was out for 1 and 0, falling to Ken Farnes and Hedley Verity as England won by an innings and 13 runs. In the fourth match, he took 2–47 and 3–58 but did not bat in the drawn Test. In the final Test Gordon took match figures of 1–256 and was not out in each innings, scoring 0 and 7. This match was the famous Timeless Test, which took 10 days and was eventually drawn by agreement. This was Gordon's final Test match. He is the only survivor of the Timeless Test, and the last living person to have played Test cricket before World War II.
He turned 100 in August 2011 and lives in Central Johannesburg.[3]
| Preceded by Eric Tindill |
Oldest Living Test Cricketer 1 August 2010 – present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |