Sid Pegler
Sidney James Pegler (28 July 1888 – 10 September 1972) was a South African cricketer who rose to prominence in the early 1910s after the decline of South Africa’s famous googly bowlers. He played only a few first-class matches before being selected for South Africa’s first Test tour in 1910/11 and quickly became a regular Test bowler, even though Australian wickets were very hard.
On the 1912 Triangular Tournament tour he starred. In first-class cricket on that tour he was the leading wicket-taker with 189 wickets, and he took 29 wickets in six Tests. He also batted well for a tail-end batsman, scoring 643 runs on the tour with best scores of 79 against South Wales and 52 against Northamptonshire. He even set a record for the fastest first-class fifty on that tour, reaching 50 in 14 minutes against Tasmania.
Pegler’s bowling was a medium-paced leg-cutter with several variations. It seemed he would become South Africa’s main bowler for years to come, but he became a colonial District Commissioner in Nyasaland around 1913 and could not return to South Africa regularly. He played only one more Test for South Africa, in 1924, during a tour where he performed better than some other bowlers on matting pitches.
During World War I he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and was wounded three times, once in his bowling arm. He retired from first-class cricket in 1930 and stayed in cricket administration, later managing South Africa’s 1951 tour to England.
Key stats: Tests 16 matches, 356 runs, 47 wickets; First-class 103 matches, 1,677 runs, 425 wickets.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 11:44 (CET).