Colin Rushmere

Rushmere made his first-class debut for Eastern Province against Orange Free State in a friendly match in 1956–57, scoring 46 and 55 batting at number five, and taking 3 for 49 and 3 for 27 with his medium-pace bowling.[2] In a friendly match the next season against Griqualand West he scored 147 in an innings victory for Eastern Province.[3] He also played several matches for South African Universities between 1955 and 1959, taking 6 for 32 in a two-day match against Orange Free State in 1956–57.[4]

He toured England in 1961 with the South African Fezela XI of promising young players, taking 4 for 29 and 3 for 16 in the victory over Essex.[5] After the tour, however, he played purely as a batsman, usually opening the innings. Against Western Province in 1962–63 he scored 153, putting on 312 for the first wicket with Geoff Dakin.[6] He captained Eastern Province in two matches in the Currie Cup in 1963–64. After scoring only 48 runs in the first three matches in 1965–66 he retired from first-class cricket.

Rushmere worked with the family law firm Rushmere Noach that his father Colin had founded in 1933 in Port Elizabeth.[7] He also held administrative positions in the Eastern Province Cricket Union, serving as president in the 1980s.[8]

In 1989 he bought 660 hectares of land on the Kariega River and began developing it into a game reserve and resort. In subsequent years Kariega Game Reserve expanded to 10,000 hectares, including land on the Bushman's River.[9] The reserve now has several important conservation species, including lion, elephant, giraffe, black and white rhinoceros, hippopotamus and cape leopard.[10]

Rushmere's brother John played first-class cricket in South Africa in the 1960s.[11] Colin's son Mark played Test cricket for South Africa in the 1990s and now helps to run Kariega Game Reserve.[12]