| Colin Rushmere | |
| Country: | South Africa |
| Fullname: | Colin George Rushmere |
| Birth Date: | 16 April 1937 |
| Birth Place: | Port Elizabeth, Cape Province, South Africa |
| Death Place: | Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa |
| Batting: | Right-handed |
| Bowling: | Right-arm medium |
| Family: | Mark Rushmere (son) |
| Club1: | Eastern Province |
| Club2: | Western Province |
| Year2: | 1960/61 |
| Club3: | Eastern Province |
| Year3: | 1962/63–1965/66 |
| Columns: | 1 |
| Column1: | First-class |
| Matches1: | 33 |
| Runs1: | 1,245 |
| Bat Avg1: | 23.05 |
| 100S/50S1: | 2/4 |
| Top Score1: | 153 |
| Deliveries1: | 1,686 |
| Wickets1: | 20 |
| Bowl Avg1: | 28.80 |
| Fivefor1: | 0 |
| Tenfor1: | 0 |
| Best Bowling1: | 4/29 |
| Catches/Stumpings1: | 19/– |
| Date: | 10 August |
| Year: | 2014 |
| Source: | https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/14/14486/14486.html Cricket Archive |
Colin George Rushmere (16 April 1937 – 20 January 2017)[1] was a South African conservationist and cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1957 to 1965.
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]