Gus Kempis

Gustav Adolph Kempis (4 August 1865 – 19 May 1890) was a South African bowler. A left-arm medium pacer, he delivered the ball with great control of length and could break it either way off the pitch.

Kempis was born in Port Elizabeth, Cape Province, South Africa. After taking 13 wickets in just three non first-class bowling innings against R.G. Warton’s touring English side in 1888-89, he was selected for what became the very first Test match between the two countries, played at Port Elizabeth. He failed with the bat but took 3 for 53 and 1 for 23 as England won comfortably by 8 wickets. The following season, playing for Natal, Kempis took 41 wickets at an average of 12.42 apiece. These figures came from just five matches and included four hauls of more than 5 wickets in an innings and two of 10 wickets in a match: 7 for 35 (and 4 for 29) against Port Elizabeth, 7 for 44 against Kimberley, 7 for 33 (and 3 for 76) against Western Province and 5 for 20 against Cape Town Clubs. He died, aged 24, in Chiloane Island, Mozambique. His death went unrecorded at the time and therefore no obituary appeared for him in Wisden Cricketer's Almanack.

References

1. World Cricketers - A Biographical Dictionary by Christopher Martin-Jenkins published by Oxford University Press (1996)
2. The Wisden Book of Test Cricket, Volume 1 (1877-1977) compiled and edited by Bill Frindall published by Headline Book Publishing (1995)
3. Who's Who of Cricketers by Philip Bailey, Philip Thorn & Peter Wynne-Thomas published by Hamlyn (1993)
4. www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players