A Rondebosch woman has donated a cricket-themed mosaic to the Western Province Cricket Club.
The Batsman was made out of thousands of pieces of broken crockery that Mel Walton collected on the club’s grounds, which was previously a municipal dump.
Ms Walton, who presented her mosaic to the club five months ago, is originally from George and now stays with her daughter, Louise Walton, in Rondebosch.
Ms Walton said she had been walking her dog, Sparky, through Keurboom Park and the cricket club grounds around 10 years ago when she had noticed lots of pieces of broken crockery, and every time she visited the area, she collected some.
“After collecting it, I was thinking what will I do with it now?”
Realising that she had plenty of white pieces, she decided to make a “nice big cricketer”.
She spent about two years on the project, and it kept her busy during a good part of the Covid pandemic.
“I thought with the epidemic, life is precious and I must do something, and what if we have another epidemic? Let me start a big project that will keep me busy.”
After completing the mosaic, she decided to give it to the cricket club.
“I noticed that they do not have too much artwork. They should be inspiring people to play cricket, and I know other parts of the world use artwork to attract people to their sport.”
Ms Walton trained as an art teacher at the Cape Town Teachers’ College in Mowbray, which is now part of CPUT, and she also taught for several years during the 1960s at the Frank Joubert Art Centre (now the Peter Clarke Art Centre) in Claremont.
The Batsman is on the outside wall of the clubhouse overlooking the Wally Wilson cricket oval, facing the mountains.
The cricket club’s chairman, former Protea Steve Palframan, said they were thrilled with the mosaic.
“We’re very appreciative of this wonderful gift from Mel, and we’re very happy that it will adorn our wall for many years to come.”
According to Jenny Calder, the heritage and environment committee member of the Greater Lynfrae Civic Association, aerial images from 1945 show signs of what is now the cricket club site being used as a municipal dump, and by 1953, dumping was still happening close to what is now the cricket pitch. Aerial pictures from 1986 show the site being used as a football field. The cricket club bought the land in 2002.