Rolland Beaumont

Rolland Beaumont (4 February 1884 – 25 May 1958) was a South African cricketer. He was born at Newcastle, Natal, and died in Berea, Durban, aged 74. He attended Hilton College.

Beaumont was a hard hitting middle-order batsman, and a good fielder, his first-class career spanned the years 1908 to 1914 and consisted of 32 matches, most of which were for South Africa during their tour of England in the wet summer of 1912. His first match of importance was for Wanderers when the Johannesburg club drew with a Rest of South Africa team containing S.J. Snooke and A.W. Nourse. He also turned out six times for Transvaal and represented South Africa at Test level in five matches against both England and Australia. His natural game would show Beaumont as a free-flowing batsman but too often he let an over-cautious nature restrict his talent. He scored his only first-class century, 121, whilst captaining Transvaal in a two-day match at Johannesburg against P.W. Sherwell’s XI in November 1913. But in all first-class matches he only built six scores of 50 or more. His highest Test score was 31, compiled against the Australians at Old Trafford during the Triangular Series of 1912. No obituary appeared in Wisden for Beaumont after his death.

He managed an oil company in Trinidad in the 1920s and donated the Beaumont Cup, which was contested by North Trinidad and South Trinidad beginning in the 1925-26 cricket season.^[1]

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