David Ironside

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack obituary

IRONSIDE, DAVID ERNEST JAMES, died in Birmingham on August 21, 2005, aged 80. Ironside was the first - and so far only - Test cricketer from Mozambique, having been born in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo). A tearaway fast bowler in his youth, Ironside settled down, after suffering knee trouble, to become a handy swing bowler. "He could swing it like a boomerang," recalled Neil Adcock, a team-mate for Transvaal and South Africa. Ironside won three Test caps against the touring New Zealanders in 1953-54, seizing eight for 88 in the match on his debut at Johannesburg. Different balls were used in the subsequent matches, and Ironside found them more difficult to move off the straight, but he had taken 15 wickets at 18.33 before the Fifth Test, which he missed after ricking his back on the plane. That was the end of his Test career, although he played on for two more seasons with Transvaal. He was an accountant in Johannesburg before moving to live with his daughter in England.