Personnel | |
---|---|
Owner | Cricket Whanganui |
Team information | |
Founded | 1896 |
Home ground | Victoria Park, Whanganui |
History | |
Hawke Cup wins | 6 |
Official website | Cricket Whanganui |
The Whanganui cricket team (previously spelt Wanganui) represents the Whanganui District on the south-west coast of New Zealand's North Island. It also covers the adjoining areas of Rangitikei, Ruapehu and Waverley. [1]
The team's governing body, Cricket Whanganui (formerly the Wanganui Cricket Association), has its headquarters at Victoria Park in the town of Whanganui. [1] It is one of the 21 teams from around New Zealand that compete in the Hawke Cup. Since its first match in the competition in the 1912–13 season, Whanganui has won the title six times.
The first cricket match in Wanganui was played on 31 December 1847 between two teams of soldiers. [2] The Wanganui Cricket Club was formed in the 1850s. [3] The Wanganui and Rangitikei cricket clubs played each other regularly in the 1860s. [4]
Wanganui achieved a notable success when their team of 22 defeated the touring Australian XI in February 1881 at the Racecourse Ground. [5] The pitch was hard and bumpy, and the Wanganui selectors had made sure they selected the district's best fieldsmen. With all 22 of them on the field at once, "their numbers and agility were too much for the Australians". [6] Wanganui also had William Barton, who was working in the Bank of New Zealand in Wanganui, and was considered the best batsman in New Zealand at the time; he scored 44 of the 85 runs Wanganui required to win. [7] Australia did not lose another match in New Zealand until 1967. [8]
After abortive attempts in the 1880s and early 1890s, the Wanganui Cricket Association was formed in 1896. At first it had only five competing teams: Wanganui A and B, United, and Collegiate School I and II. [9] [10] It affiliated with NZCC in 1898, C. R. Clark of Christchurch representing the Association as delegate. [11]
Wanganui first competed in the Hawke Cup in 1912–13. Captained by Hugh Butterworth, they won their elimination match against South Taranaki by an innings and 394 runs. [12] They first won the title in 1913–14, when they beat South Auckland, thanks to the all-rounders Chester Holland, Bill Bernau and James Hussey. [13] On the basis of his form for Wanganui, Holland was selected to represent New Zealand against the touring Australians later that season. Wanganui held the Hawke Cup against several challenges and kept it through the hiatus caused by World War I before losing narrowly to Poverty Bay in March 1919. [14]
Wanganui were the strongest team in the Hawke Cup in the 1920s. [15] Playing until 1928, Chester Holland established a record for Hawke Cup challenge matches of 189 wickets which has never been equalled. He also took 10 for 35 against South Taranaki in 1922–23, which is still the only instance of ten wickets in an innings in Hawke Cup challenge matches. [16] Bill Bernau also continued playing for Wanganui, showing such good all-round form that he was included in the New Zealand team to England in 1927 based purely on his matches for Wanganui. [17]
The captain for much of the 1920s was George Orr, of whom the New Zealand cricket historian Tom Reese wrote that he "not only proved himself a very sound batsman but seemed by his successes to inspire the others". [18] Also a fine slips fieldsman, Orr later coached Wanganui to the Hawke Cup title in the 1940s. [15]
Wanganui was one of the original constituent associations that made up the Central Districts team, which began competing in the Plunket Shield in the 1950–51 season. The two Wanganui players in the inaugural team were Harry Cave and Don Beard. [19] While still occasionally playing for Wanganui, Cave captained the New Zealand Test team in the mid-1950s. [20] Captained by Ron Thomas, Wanganui held the Hawke Cup between January 1953 and December 1955. [21]
As of the 2023–24 season, there are nine senior clubs in the association: Combined Whanganui, Kaitoke, Marist, Marton Saracens, Renegades, Taihape, Tech, Whanganui United and Wicket Warriors. [22]
The Whanganui Rugby Football Union (WRFU) is the governing body for rugby union in the Whanganui region of New Zealand. The Whanganui Rugby Football Union was formed in 1888.
The Central Hinds are the women's representative cricket team of Central Districts Cricket Association, based in central New Zealand. They play their home games at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, Fitzherbert Park, Palmerston North, Saxton Oval, Nelson and McLean Park, Napier. They compete in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield one-day competition and the Women's Super Smash Twenty20 competition and were formerly known as Central Districts Women.
The Hawke's Bay cricket team, representing the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand, played first-class cricket between 1883–84 and 1920–21, and competed in the Plunket Shield in the 1914–15 and 1920–21 seasons. The side has continued to appear in minor cricket and is one of the 21 teams from around New Zealand that compete in the Hawke Cup, where it has been the dominant team from 2020 to 2024.
The Hawke Cup is a non-first-class cricket competition for New Zealand's district associations. Apart from 1910–11, 1912–13 and 2000–01 the competition has always been on a challenge basis. To win the Hawke Cup, the challengers must beat the holders, either outright or on the first innings in a drawn match, on the holders' home ground.
The Northland cricket team represents the Northland region of New Zealand. It is one of the 21 teams from around New Zealand that compete in the Hawke Cup.
Ernest Henry Lovell "Bill" Bernau was a New Zealand cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1914–15 to 1927–28, and accompanied the New Zealand national cricket team on their tour of England in 1927.
The Minor Associations cricket team, representing the Minor Associations in New Zealand, appeared once at first-class level, playing against the touring Australians at the Basin Reserve in March 1921. The Australians batted first and made 271, then the Minor Associations made 124 and 141, losing by an innings and six runs.
The Australia national cricket team toured New Zealand from February to April 1914 and played eight first-class matches including two against the New Zealand national team. New Zealand at this time had not been elevated to Test status. The tour was organized and captained by Arthur Sims, who had previously represented New Zealand. The tour is notable for the fact that it featured Victor Trumper's final appearance in a first-class match before his death at age 37 in 1915.
The Australia national cricket team toured New Zealand from February to April 1928 and played six first-class matches including two against the New Zealand national cricket team. This was before New Zealand began playing Test cricket.
The Taranaki cricket team represents the Taranaki Region of New Zealand. It is one of the 21 teams from around New Zealand that compete in the Hawke Cup.
Lord Hawke selected a cricket team of ten amateurs and two professional players to tour Australia and New Zealand from November 1902 until March 1903. After an opening game in San Francisco, the tour began of eighteen matches - seven of them considered first-class - in New Zealand followed by three further first-class games in Australia. Hawke's team was the first to tour Australasia with New Zealand as the primary destination and, as was the norm at the time, was privately run and funded. The Australian leg of the tour was a "profit making venture", however the games in New Zealand were scheduled at the behest of the New Zealand Cricket Board in order to raise the profile of cricket in the country. Two of them were against a New Zealand cricket team, before its international Test status. The inclusion of such games on the tour were considered "a sign that cricket in New Zealand was starting to be taken more seriously, and a move towards official international status was possible."
Francis Leonard McMahon was a cricketer who played two first-class matches, one of them for New Zealand in 1914.
Chester Arthur Holland was a New Zealand cricketer who played one match for New Zealand in the days before the country played Test cricket.
Thomas Richard Southall was an English-born New Zealand cricketer who played first-class cricket for Wellington from 1913 to 1915.
George Orr was an Australian-born New Zealand first-class cricketer who played for Wellington in the 1920s.
Herbert Norman Lambert was a cricketer who played first-class cricket for Wellington from 1917 to 1933. He played twice for New Zealand in the days before New Zealand played Test cricket.
The Poverty Bay cricket team represents the Poverty Bay region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is one of the 21 teams from around New Zealand that compete in the Hawke Cup. Its base is in Gisborne.
The Hutt Valley cricket team represented the Hutt Valley in the Wellington region of New Zealand between 1928 and 1999. It competed in the Hawke Cup, which it won four times. Cricket in the area is now part of Cricket Wellington.
The Waikato Valley cricket team is a New Zealand cricket team run by the Waikato Valley Cricket Association. It is one of the 21 teams from around New Zealand that compete in the Hawke Cup. Waikato Valley's administrative base is at Seddon Park in Hamilton. The team's main home ground is Victoria Square, Cambridge.
The Rangitikei cricket team represented the Rangitikei region of New Zealand's North Island. It competed in the Hawke Cup from 1910–11 to 1988–89, winning the title twice. The Rangitikei Cricket Association continues to exist, but for inter-provincial purposes Rangitikei is now part of the Whanganui team. Rangitikei's headquarters were in Marton, where its main home ground was Marton Park at first, then Centennial Park, which was established after World War II.