Batting style Right-hand bat Role Cricket Player Name Jimmy Blanckenberg | National side South African Bowling style Right-arm medium Died 1955, West Berlin | |
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James Manuel Blanckenberg (December 31, 1892 in Claremont, Cape Town, South Africa – c. 1955 in West Berlin, West Germany) was a South African cricketer.
A middle-order batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler, Blanckenberg’s first-class career spanned the years 1912 to 1924. In a period interrupted by the First World War, he played with Western Province except for his final domestic season, which was spent with Natal. For several years he was considered the best bowler in South Africa, a player that could bowl for hours on matting wickets if asked to do so. Twenty-one times during his career he took five wickets in an innings, his best being 9 for 78 gained at Johannesburg in the Currie Cup match between Transvaal and Western Province, January 1921. And three times he surpassed 10 wickets in a match - 11 for 161 in that same match at Johannesburg in January 1921, Transvaal v Western Province; 10 for 102 at Newlands, Cape Town in March 1921, Western Province v Natal; and 10 for 74 at Northampton on the South African tour of England in July 1924, Northants v South Africa. Two other bowling feats are worthy of note. In December 1923, in a Currie Cup match at Johannesburg between Griqualand West and Natal, Blanckenberg took 9 for 75. And in August 1924, in a tour match at Cardiff against Glamorgan, he took 8 for 97 in South Africa’s only innings on the field, all his victims being bowled.
Rather ironically, his highest first-class score was 171 for Natal against his former team, Western Province, in December 1923. In this drawn match, he and A.W. Nourse (186) hit a partnership worth 291 runs.
Eighteen times Blanckenberg represented South Africa at Test level, his debut coming in December 1913 when J.W.H.T. Douglas led England to the first of their four victories on the tour. After failing in that game Blanckenberg then played in every South African Test match from the 1913/14 series against England to their own visit to England in 1924. Although he was generally successfully on this last tour, taking 119 wickets in all matches at an average of 22.40, he failed against the better English batsmen and admitted that "he could not bowl well on turf wickets".
The exact date of Blanckenberg’s death remains unconfirmed and no obituary appeared in Wisden for him.