In brief
- The Durban Test of 1939 was meant to be played to a finish, however long it took.
- Matches in this format had no day limit, and this one still lasted ten days of play.
- England were chasing a huge target and finished a few dozen runs short when the match ended.
- The match stopped because the English team had to catch a boat home, not because the cricket was done.
Imagine a Test match that does not end. Not because of rain or bad light, but because both captains have agreed that the game will go on until someone wins. That was the idea behind Timeless Tests, and in March 1939 in Durban it reached its natural and absurd conclusion. The match went on for so long that it was finally abandoned for a reason that had nothing to do with cricket. The players had a ship to catch.
What was a Timeless Test?
In the early decades of Test cricket, five-day limits were not universal. Some series were played to a finish, with matches continuing for as many days as needed. The thinking was that a Test should produce a proper winner, and that a result was worth the time. Games in Australia and South Africa sometimes lasted a week or more, with rest days included.
The final Test of England's 1938-39 tour of South Africa was played under such conditions. It was the last chance for the sides to settle the series, and it offered the possibility of a genuine decider, however long it took.
South Africa pile up the runs
South Africa batted first on a good pitch and built a large first innings. Dudley Nourse, one of their finest batsmen, and captain Alan Melville were among the major contributors. The total, over 500, put the hosts in a commanding position, and England had to respond in kind.
England's first innings was a solid effort but fell short of the South African total. In the second innings, South Africa batted again, and their middle order, aided by Pieter van der Bijl, took the lead beyond reach on all but a perfect pitch. England were left with a target of 696, an astonishing number that was far beyond anything chased successfully in a Test at that time.
England take up the challenge
Faced with a huge target and no time limit, England settled in for a long haul. Paul Gibb, who had made his debut in the series, played patiently and made a century. Bill Edrich then scored 219 in a marathon innings, and captain Wally Hammond, one of the finest batsmen of the age, contributed 140 of his own. Partnerships grew steadily and the total crept upward.
Rain interrupted play on more than one occasion. The pitch, which was low and slow, did not break up as the days passed, which meant that batting remained feasible. A few wickets fell, but England were never really in danger of collapse. It became a question of arithmetic and time, rather than skill.
| Stage | Detail |
|---|---|
| South Africa first innings | Over 500, Nourse and Melville among the scorers |
| England first innings | Short of the hosts' total |
| Target set | 696 runs to win |
| England at close | 654 for 5, a few dozen runs short |
| Days of play | Ten, with the match unfinished |
The ship that ended it
By the tenth day of play, England had reached 654 for 5, needing about 40 more runs to win. They had five wickets in hand, and a result looked possible. But the team was due to leave Durban on a train to Cape Town to meet its ship back to England. If the players missed the boat, they would be stranded. The match could not continue.
A draw was agreed, and the players left to catch the train. A game that had been designed to have no end had been ended by a timetable. In all, almost two thousand runs had been scored, a record for any first-class match at that stage of cricket history, and the match had lasted for around forty-three hours of playing time.
Life inside a ten-day match
For the players, the match must have felt like a season in itself. The days blended together, with rest days and rain delays breaking up the rhythm. Bowlers had to keep their strength over long spells, and fielders spent hour after hour in the sun. The quantity of runs showed how patient batsmen had become, as the pitch did little to trouble them and the bowlers struggled to find any life.
Spectators faced their own challenge. Few could attend every day, and those who did saw a game that became less a contest than a long story. Yet the final day carried real tension, because England, with wickets in hand, were closing on a fantastic victory when time, in the form of a ship, finally ran out.
Historians have pointed out that the sheer length of the contest also reflected the conditions of the time. Travel was slow, tours lasted months, and the idea of squeezing a Test into a fixed number of days was less pressing than it is in a modern, tightly scheduled calendar.
The end of the timeless idea
The Durban Test is often remembered as the moment when the idea of timeless Tests lost its credibility. It showed that without any time limit, matches could become impractical. Players, administrators and spectators all faced logistics that cricket could not ignore. The format was not used again in Tests after the war, and the five-day match became the standard.
Yet the match remains a favourite among historians. It captured a different era of cricket, one in which a Test could stretch across two weeks and the final decision was left to the railway. It is a reminder that even a game without a clock cannot escape the demands of real life.
Frequently asked questions
What was a Timeless Test?
A Test match played to a finish with no limit on the number of days, so that it would end only when one side had won.
Why did the 1939 Durban Test end in a draw?
After ten days of play England were 654 for 5 chasing 696, but the team had to leave to catch their ship home, so the match was abandoned as a draw.
