1947 — Sheila Summers scores a double victory at the invitation lawn tennis tournament in Lausanne as she captures the women’s singles and mixed doubles crowns. She beat the more fancied American Doris Hart, the runner-up at Wimbledon who went on to win a career grand slam of singles titles, 6-3 2-6 6-2. Then she teamed up with countryman Eric Sturgess to beat Nancy Bolton of Australia and Italian Gianni Cucelli 4-6 6-4 7-5 in the doubles. Sturgess had lost in the men’s final to Cucelli, 6-4 4-6 7-5 6-4.
1952 — Boxer Theunis van Schalkwyk settles for Olympic light-middleweight silver after losing on points in the final to Hungarian legend Laszlo Papp. With losing semifinalists all being awarded bronze medals for the first time at the Olympics, South Africa picked up three more gongs through Willie Toweel (flyweight), Leonard Leisching (featherweight) and Andries Nieman (heavyweight), giving South Africa a total of 10 medals for the Games.
1970 — Eddie Barlow finishes with 5/78 as the World XI dismiss England for 376 in the second innings of the fourth five-day match at Headingley, for a match haul of 12/142. The five matches of the series were initially going to enjoy Test status, but that never materialised. The international team won the match the following day for an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the series.
1996 — Joel Stransky scores all of South Africa’s points as the Springboks beat a dominant Australian team 25-19 in a Tri-Nations match in Bloemfontein. Stransky scored his side’s only try, converted it and added six penalties.
2003 — Makhaya Ntini takes five wickets — for a match haul of 10 — as the Proteas bowl out England for 417 to win the second Test at Lord’s by an innings and 92 runs.
2012 — Chad le Clos, last with 25m to go, produces his trademark kick to steal a share of the 100m butterfly silver medal behind Michael Phelps. The American won in 51.21sec, with Le Clos and Russian Yevgeny Korotyshkin touching in 51.44.
2012 — Alviro Petersen, resuming on 124, scores 182 as the Proteas make 419 in their first innings of the second Test against England in Leeds.
2013 — Chad le Clos scoops a rare feat as he wins the 100m butterfly crown at the world championships in Barcelona to add to the 200m ’fly title he’d won a few days earlier. Only one man had achieved the 100m-200m butterfly double at a world championships before ― legendary Michael Phelps, who was in retirement at the time.
2015 — Cameron van der Burgh takes silver in the 100m breaststroke at the world championships in Kazan, finishing in 58.59sec behind Britain’s new star Adam Peaty in 58.52. In the semifinals the previous evening Van der Burgh had clocked a 58.49 championship record, which Peaty had eclipsed in the next heat, going 58.18.
2015 — The Proteas’ two-Test series in Bangladesh ends in a 0-0 draw after weather ravages the second five-dayer in Mirpur into a draw, making play impossible over the last four days.
2016 — Trisha Chetty scores 27 as the South African women are dismissed for 95 to lose the second and final T20 against Ireland in Dublin by 20 runs and share the series 1-1.
2022 — Reeza Hendricks scores 74 and Aiden Markram 56 as the Proteas, on 211/5, beat Ireland by 21 runs in the first T20 in Bristol.
2023 — The Proteas survive poor third and fourth quarters as they edge Uganda 52-50 in their final Netball World Cup group G match in Cape Town.
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