Lance Duldig

A right-handed middle-order batsman, Lance Duldig captained the South Australian schoolboys team in 1937.^[1] He made his first-class debut for South Australia on his nineteenth birthday in 1941.^[2] He enlisted later that year and served with the 2/3 Machine Gun Battalion in New Guinea.^[3] His recovery after the war was hampered by malaria,^[2] and his second first-class match did not come until 1948–49, when he began five seasons as a regular member of the South Australian team.

He scored consistently, making nearly 2000 runs in the five seasons, but with only one century, 121 not out against Victoria in 1949–50.^[2] He was selected in the Australian team that toured New Zealand in 1949–50 under Bill Brown, but made only 80 runs in four first-class matches in the damp conditions.^[4]

His attractive unbeaten 70 against MCC in 1950–51 was described punningly in one British paper as "far from a dull dig".^[5] The next season, he top-scored in South Australia's second innings against the West Indians, making 66 out of a total of 155 on a turning pitch.^[6] South Australia won the Sheffield Shield in his last season, 1952–53, but he lost form and missed the last match in which South Australia clinched the title.^[7]