Although the first recorded women's cricket match was played in Nelson Province in 1886, the sport did not become firmly established until the late 1920s and early 1930s, when competitions were arranged in the four main centres as well as at Wanganui and Invercargill. Since then, for short periods, it has been played at Napier, Matamata, on the West Coast, and, regularly, at Hamilton, Nelson, and Timaru.

Plunket Shield

Hawke Cup

Winsor Cup

Redpath Cup

by Richard Trevor Brittenden, Journalist and Author, Christchurch.

For a small country with a small cricketing population New Zealand has been most fortunate in the number of tours in which it has engaged and, particularly, in the number and quality of the teams which have toured the Dominion. The arrangement of such tours reflects much credit on the administration, for nearly always grave financial risks have had to be taken.

The following table shows the extent of New Zealand tours by overseas teams and indicates, in the last few years, the quality of the great cricketers and teams who have played on New Zealand grounds.

For convenience the visiting teams are shown under decades.

Canterbury Province on Tour

New Zealand tours overseas have been far less frequent than those from visiting teams to this country, but the list is still of considerable length. It begins, rather strangely, with a provincial team going to Australia. Canterbury, flushed by its success against the Australians in 1878, sent a team to Victoria in 1878–79. It played six games against strong clubs, winning three and losing three. Unfortunately, public interest in the tour was not all that was expected, so that the Canterbury players were stranded in Australia and came home only when funds had been sent to them from Christchurch.

New Zealand's overseas tours have been:

Although New Zealand has engaged in international competition since 1896 it was not given official test status until the 1929–30 season, when four matches against a team sent by the M.C.C. were regarded as full-scale test matches.

In official tests New Zealand has had only three victories in 60 matches. The full record (to 1963) is:

In 1963–64 a South African team toured New Zealand and played three tests, all drawn. In 1965 a Pakistan team toured New Zealand. All three tests were drawn.

In matches other than tests, and in matches against counties and provinces, New Zealand's record is far better. A full list of New Zealand matches, other than tests, is as follows:

*Tie.

An Amusing Incident

There are few games so full of humour as cricket, though this usually depends on the personality of the individuals concerned. But there have been occasions when extraordinary situations have developed. One only may be cited here. T. Reese, in the first volume of his New Zealand Cricket, referred to a game in South Taranaki between rangers and troopers in Colonel McDonnell's Bushranger Corps, which at that time was engaged in the pursuit of the Hauhau Maoris. The players all wore revolvers, carbines were at the feet of the fieldsmen, and the umpires – even in those days weighed down with impedimenta – held the batsmen's guns. Some of the Hauhaus emerged from the bush to watch the performance, and their reaction made the Hill at Sydney Cricket Ground seem like a kindergarten. When the last pair of rangers' batsmen was together, intent on scoring the 11 runs needed to pass the troopers' score, the Hauhaus swept the field with rifle fire and, in a matter of seconds, both cricket teams, as well as the spectators, were busy driving off the intruders. The game was continued mainly, it seems, because every trooper and every ranger had wagered his rum ration on the result, but the Hauhaus persisted, from a safer range, with light rifle fire. It is little wonder, then, that the rangers failed by seven runs to catch their opponents' score.

Cricket Publications

The main source of information on New Zealand cricket, apart from the council's own records, is the work of T. W. Reese, who produced New Zealand Cricket in two volumes. The first covered the period from 1841 to 1914, the second from 1914 to 1935–36. From the 1947–48 season New Zealand cricket is adequately covered in the Cricket Almanac, edited by A. H. Carman. For the period between Reese's publication and the beginnings of the Almanac, the council's annual reports provide results of major matches.

The following give other aspects of New Zealand cricket:

• New Zealand Cricketers' Annual 1897
• New Zealand Cricket Annual 1931, Garbutt, E. G.
• Silver Fern on the Veldt, Brittenden, R. T. (1954)
• Statistics of New Zealand Cricket, Peake, J. F. (1924)
• Great Days in New Zealand Cricket, Brittenden, R. T. (1958)
• Cricket Companions, Mitchell, A. W. (1950)
• New Zealanders in England, Hintz, O. S. (1931)
• The All Blacks at Cricket, Caple, S. C. (1958)
• New Zealand Cricketers, Brittenden, R. T. (1961).

Technos Trophy

(Awarded by the Technos Watch Co. for the provincial team playing the most positive cricket)

It is perhaps significant that many of those who have given cricket in New Zealand outstanding service as administrators have also been, in their younger days, players of much stature. One of the earliest was F. Wilding, a well known Christchurch personality and a great all-rounder in his playing days. A life member of the council, he was president for 1896–97, 1911–12, and 1918–19.

One of New Zealand's finest all-rounders, D. Reese the first man to score a century for New Zealand in a major match, also played a distinguished part in the administration of the game. He, too, was a life member of the council, after being its president from 1929 to 1931, and in 1935–36. He had also served on the management committee. Sir Arthur Donnelly, a prominent Christchurch barrister and a Crown Prosecutor, did not distinguish himself as a player, but New Zealand cricket owed him much. He was chairman of the management committee in 1936–37, president in 1947–48, and a life member; but his influence for the betterment of cricket in New Zealand was exerted far beyond the Dominion. In England and Australia his diplomacy was invaluable.

Another noted figure in New Zealand cricket is Sir Arthur Sims. He, too, is a life member of the council. He was president from 1936 to 1938, and he has been one of New Zealand's representatives on the Imperial Cricket Conference in England since 1937–38; this duty he has shared for a quarter of a century or more with A. H. H. Gilligan, a member of the famous English cricketing family. Sir Arthur Sims was a fine Canterbury player and New Zealand captain, but his greatest feat was against Canterbury. This was in 1913–14, when he brought an Australian team to New Zealand. At Lancaster Park he scored 184 not out and, with Victor Trumper, one of the greatest batsmen of all time, he shared an eighth-wicket partnership of 433.

Between the wars one of New Zealand's most accomplished batsmen was J. L. Kerr, and since his retirement he has given the game yeoman service, too. He came on to the management committee of the council in 1937 and stayed there until 1947–48. From 1948–49 until the present time he has been the treasurer. Since the major change in the constitution in 1956 he has done even more. He is the first and present chairman of the board and chairman of the executive committee.

Others with outstanding service include F. C. Raphael (secretary from 1901–02 until 1913–14); T. D. Harman (treasurer from 1894–95 to 1904–05); W. H. Winsor (treasurer, 1916–17 to 1927–28, secretary from 1928–29 to 1935–36, in all, an officer for 25 years); E. E. Luttrell (secretary from 1935–36 to 1958–59): D. E. Wanklyn (treasurer, 1928–29 to 1936–37, chairman of the management committee from 1937–38 to 1948–49; a management committee member in 1949–50; and a life member); D. A. Colville (management committee, 1945–46 to 1948–49, chairman of the committee, 1949–50 to 1955–56 and, since then, a member of the executive committee); H. M. Taylor (management committee, to 1948–49); E. R. Caygill (treasurer, 1937–38 to 1947–48); and W. A. Hadlee (management committee since 1949–50). Of these, Hadlee was the best known as a player. He led New Zealand teams for several seasons and won the highest regard for his captaincy.

A former president of the council who was one of New Zealand's most colourful players was T. C. Lowry, of Hawke's Bay. He played good, aggressive cricket for Wellington and New Zealand and for Cambridge University and Somerset. But New Zealand, notwithstanding its modest record in international cricket, has produced some very fine players. C. C. Dacre, who set a world record by playing first-class cricket for Auckland when he was but 14 years and five months old, was an outstanding hitter. He played many spectacular innings in New Zealand, and also for Gloucestershire during his seven years in England.

C. S. Dempster was another noted New Zealander who had a briefer but no less successful county career, as captain of Leicestershire. For New Zealand he played many fine innings and his test batting average of 65 is the best by a New Zealand player. Dempster was regarded by competent overseas judges as one of the best batsmen in the world in the 1930s.

In more recent times New Zealand has been fortunate in having two especially gifted left-hand batsmen, B. Sutcliffe and M. P. Donnelly. Sutcliffe holds nearly every New Zealand batting record and his 385 for Otago in a Plunket Shield match in 1952–53 is a world record for a left hander, and the sixth highest score in first-class cricket.

Donnelly, who went to England with the 1937 team as a colt, was lost to New Zealand with the outbreak of war, for he stayed in England in 1945 to study. But he played for New Zealand during the 1949 tour and produced many outstanding displays. Donnelly has the distinction of centuries at Lords in a test (206 in 1949), in the universities match, and in a gentlemen-players match. This feat had been accomplished by only one other player, the famous England captain A. P. F. Chapman.

A bowler of particular achievements was J. Cowie, who played for New Zealand just before and after the Second World War. He was fast-medium and was rated as probably the world's best of his type.

Reid, after his South African tour, was widely regarded as perhaps the finest all-rounder in the world. His vigorous batting has set many records, one of the most recent being the hitting of 15 sixes in an innings of 296 for Wellington against Northern Districts in 1962–63. He has led New Zealand in all three of its test victories.

From a playing point of view, one of the outstanding features in the early years was Canterbury's defeat of Australia in 1878. Until 1899 all visiting teams to New Zealand played against odds. The Canterbury team consisted of 15 players and, largely because of brilliant fielding, dismissed the Australians – a strong side including such great players as C. Bannerman, F. R. Spofforth, W. L. Murdoch, D. Gregory, J. Blackham, and H. F. Boyle – for 46. With A. M. Ollivier making 36, Canterbury reached 135, although Spofforth took nine for 17. A Canterbury fast bowler, E. Fuller, took eight for 35 when Australia scored 143, and Canterbury scored the 55 runs needed for the loss of eight wickets. Canterbury enjoyed another notable success in the 1893–94 season when it beat a New South Wales team by an innings and seven runs. The hero on that occasion was H. Demaus, who scored a century for Canterbury.

The first New Zealand team went into the field at Christchurch in February 1894, but only two seasons later, again at Lancaster Park, Christchurch, a New Zealand team beat New South Wales by the handsome margin of 142 runs. The great Otago left-arm bowler, A. H. Fisher, took five for 20 in the Australians' second innings, after top scoring in New Zealand's second innings with 52 not out.

When the M.C.C. sent a team to New Zealand in 1906–07 it was beaten twice. Canterbury was again successful, by five wickets, and at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, New Zealand won a very hard-fought game by 56 runs. Fisher had a large share of the credit for this win also, although the New Zealander A. Williams, batting with an injured elbow, played a gallant innings of 72 not out.

In the 1924–25 season a strong Victorian team toured New Zealand and Wellington won much praise for defeating the visitors by 19 runs. The victory was due in the main to splendid bowling by F. T. Badcock and W. S. Brice, each of whom took nine wickets in the match. In 1935–36 Wellington had another win, this time over E. R. T. Holmes's M.C.C. team. Wellington's win was by only 14 runs. The M.C.C. needed 145 runs to win, but E. D. Blundell took five for 50. In the 1960–61 season New Zealand beat a strong M.C.C. team in one of the unofficial tests and drew the other two, the first time New Zealand has won a series against an overseas team.

But the most notable victory New Zealand has won was its first in an official test. This was against the West Indies, in the last test of the series in 1956. Fine bowling by H. B. Cave and a resolute innings by the captain, J. R. Reid, were mainly responsible for the victory.

But New Zealand has had other triumphs. In 1927 a team was sent to England for the first time, and it was a daring venture from every point of view. No tests were played; a good many of the games were second-class fixtures, but New Zealand came out of the tour with a fine record and a splendid reputation for aggressive batting. The team often scored huge totals at incredible speed.

Then, in 1931, New Zealand played in a test match in England for the first time, at Lord's. New Zealand was dismissed for 224 and the England team, which included such great stars as Hammond, Duleepsinhji, Jardine, Woolley, Ames, and Allen, made 454. New Zealand, from that depressing position, fought back splendidly. C. S. Dempster made 120; M. L. Page, 104; R. C. Blunt, 96; and New Zealand was able to declare at 469 for nine wickets. England needed 240 runs and had lost five for 146 at the end of the match – a great recovery by New Zealand.

In 1948 an Australian team under D. G. Bradman went through England without defeat, the first team to do so. And in 1949 the New Zealanders, under W. A. Hadlee, very nearly repeated the feat. The team's only loss was on a rain-affected wicket, to Oxford University. Moreover, the New Zealanders scored on their tour a record number of runs, even more than the Australians in the previous summer. The batting of B. Sutcliffe, M. P. Donnelly, and W. M. Wallace, in particular, delighted English spectators. All four tests were drawn and a profit of over £15,000 was made. This was in every way a triumph for New Zealand.

The most recent overseas tour by New Zealand was also its most successful. Reid led a team in South Africa in 1961–62, and the first test was lost by only 30 runs. After drawing the second, New Zealand won the third. The fourth was lost, but a splendid all-round performance by Reid was primarily responsible for New Zealand winning the final test and squaring the rubber. These were the first overseas test victories. Reid's total of 1,915 runs in South Africa was the highest ever accomplished by a touring batsman.

In tracing the control of the sport it may be best to start at the beginning of a player's career. When he is a small boy at primary school there is almost certain to be a cricket team for him to join. The control of primary-school cricket is in the hands of the teachers, who have their own organisation controlling all school sport. At secondary schools in most parts of the country there is a separate association for boys' cricket, again conducted by teachers, and again with assistance from other sources. In most instances boys' associations have representation on the provincial associations, as do the many minor and sub-associations throughout the country. The senior secondary-school teams may also have their own competitions or take part in the open grades conducted by the provincial association or minor or subassociation. Cricket clubs affiliated to the associations have representation on them, sending delegates from their own annual meetings to the annual meeting of the association. The association in turn nominates its representative for the annual meetings of the New Zealand Cricket Council. Thus there is a firm link all the way from the Board of Control to the primary-school player, and the experience of recent years indicates that the system is a good one.

The basis of New Zealand cricket is in interclub competitions played in grades of varying skill. In most centres the matches in the senior grades are of two days, with play lasting about four and a half hours a day. There are some centres where the matches begin in the morning, giving a six-hour day.

The Plunket Shield matches and the usually brief visits of overseas teams give New Zealand a limited first-class programme each summer. There are also the Hawke Cup matches; this competition is on a challenge basis, but there are elimination matches each season to determine the right to challenge. These are usually three-day games. Many other matches are arranged among minor associations, and major associations often send their second elevens on short tours among minor associations. Interschool cricket on the first-eleven level takes young players into other districts. In addition New Zealand, in common with all the cricketing countries, indulges in much non-competitive cricket – friendly matches arranged by schools or clubs, and games between business firms. But by and large, New Zealand has remained a weekend cricketing country, with only the Plunket Shield programme at Christmas and in January giving a period of intensive first-class competition.

At the annual meeting of the council there is now an election for the Board of Control, which consists of representatives of the six major associations, a representative of the North Island minor associations, a representative of the South Island minor associations, the treasurer, the three other members of the executive, and a working committee of men resident in Christchurch. The board meets four times a year, the executive much more frequently.

The present constitution is truly representative of the cricketers of New Zealand.

The new council had its headquarters in Christchurch, where they have stayed ever since. It was not long before the council was required to control first-class cricket on a growing scale. It was barely 10 years old before the then Governor-General, Lord Plunket, awarded a shield for interprovincial competition. At first this was played on a challenge basis, but in the 1921–22 season a regular competition, with Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago taking part, was instituted. After a few years the matches were set at a four-day limit. When a fifth team, Central Districts, was admitted to the contest in 1950–51, it played three-day games, while other matches still had a duration of four days. In the following season all five teams had four-day games, but in 1954–55 the shield matches became three-day fixtures. In the 1956–57 season a sixth team, Northern Districts, joined the competition.

Another of the council's major tasks, in a country with an increasing cricketing population, was the administration of the Hawke Cup contest. The cup was given by Lord Hawke in 1910–11 for minor associations' competition. It is a keenly contested competition still.

In the 1898–99 season New Zealand made its first overseas tour, to Australia – a tremendous task for the new and untried council. But from that point New Zealand teams have gone overseas fairly often. Finance, until very recent times, has always been a high hurdle. The council's finances have prospered in the post-war years, with some successful tours from overseas teams and, particularly, with the £15,000 profit shown by the New Zealand team in England in 1949.

For many years the council held its meetings twice a year, with delegates present from affiliated associations, major (first class) and minor. At the annual meeting a management committee of five was elected, consisting of five men, all resident in Christchurch. The first major change in the council's constitution took place in July 1956, when a special general meeting of the council was held. The new constitution adopted at that meeting provided for the control and management of cricket by a council, a board of control, and an executive committee; the direct representation of all affiliated associations at the annual and other general meetings of the council; Dominion-wide representation on the council and Board of Control; and notification to all associations of nominations for officers of the council and all elective members of the Board of Control before the annual meeting.

A survey in recent years shows that there are about 1,500 adult teams playing in the organised competitions of the affiliated associations. As well as these, there are of course large numbers of secondary school teams which, in the main, play in their own competitions.

It was this match which, in all probability, was the strongest single fact that led to the formation of the New Zealand Cricket Council. Administrators felt that, if similar matches were to be played in later years, their arrangement and management could best be accomplished by a body which spoke for all New Zealand cricketers. On 27 December 1894, therefore, a meeting of delegates from the various associations was held in Christchurch, and the New Zealand Cricket Council was formed.

The objects of the council, as adopted, were:

the advancement of the game of cricket throughout New Zealand;

the arrangement of intercolonial and foreign matches;

the making of all arrangements incidental to the visits of all teams to New Zealand, and the management and control of all New Zealand representative teams playing within or without New Zealand;

the control and management of all interprovincial matches;

the settlement of all disputes and differences between associations affiliated to the council; and

the adoption of all rules and amendments from time to time passed by the Marylebone Cricket Club.

Cricket can almost certainly claim to be the first organised game played regularly in New Zealand. That is not surprising, for cricket was tremendously popular in England early in the nineteenth century. The naturalist Charles Darwin writes of having seen a cricket match in progress near a mission station in North Auckland in 1835, and there are records which suggest the game began a year or two before that. Even before the founding of Wellington in 1840 missionaries were active in New Zealand, and they brought with them the clergyman's traditional love of the summer game. In the early 1830s orders for cricket equipment were being sent to England.

So cricket began with New Zealand's beginnings. In Wellington there was a newspaper account of a holiday match at the end of 1842, but the first fully recorded match was played at Nelson in March 1844. This game was between a Nelson team and the surveyors of the New Zealand Land Company. Nelson won handsomely. At that stage runs were still notches – the earliest scorers in England made cuts in sticks to record the score. Tall hats, cravats, trousers tight at the ankle were the fashion, and it was the custom for matches to end with both teams sitting down to gargantuan meals. A little later, when teams began to play outside their own immediate district, such celebrations frequently took place before, as well as after, matches. Often the dinners were paid for by the losers, for cricket had not quite emerged from the gambling fever which possessed it in its very early days.

Cricket in New Zealand was given an impetus by the arrival of troops from England in the 1860s, but interprovincial matches had started before the Maori Wars. The first of them was between Auckland and Wellington in 1860. There were many weeks of earnest negotiation before the match, and this was not entirely satisfactory, for when the Auckland players arrived at Wellington by steamer they found their hosts were unprepared. This psychological advantage may account in part for Auckland's victory by four wickets. It was two more years before a second interprovincial match took place, this time between Wellington and Nelson, at Nelson. The Wellington team then went on to Auckland by steamer and played Nelson again on its return.

In the South Island cricket also started early. In December 1848, only nine months after Otago had been founded, the cricketers of Dunedin issued a challenge to Wellington, but the game was never played. The first recorded match at Dunedin, on 1 January 1849, was between married and single teams. It was played on the site of the Octagon, with bats from local wood and balls made by a local shoemaker. In Christchurch the first match was at Hagley Park on 16 December 1851, the first anniversary of the founding of the province.

The first interprovincial match in the south, however, was not played until January 1864. This was on the occasion of the extremely ambitious Dunedin cricket carnival. Four teams took part in it – Otago, Southland, Canterbury, and George Parr's All-England Eleven, the first from overseas to visit New Zealand. It came from Australia on the City of Dunedin and berthed at the little Port Chalmers pier. There was a luncheon for the visitors and then a procession to Dunedin, which was en féte for the occasion. There were mounted troopers at the head of the procession, a coach for the Englishmen drawn by six white horses, several other coaches, and, at the rear, horsemen three abreast. The tour had been arranged and sponsored by a Dunedin publican, Shadrach Jones, the carnival by J. Kissling, and it was a tremendous success. The Canterbury and Southland teams also arrived by sea. After such a sound start cricket progressed rather slowly. Canterbury and Otago began their long series of annual matches in 1864, but in the north transport difficulties kept Auckland out of touch with its southern rivals for some years. When the second overseas team visited New Zealand in 1876–77 – Lillywhite's All-England side – hair-raising stories were told of its coach passage to the West Coast.

Cricket, however, became firmly established in the main centres, clubs were formed, and interclub games played. By the time Lillywhite's team toured, interest in the game was intense, and when an Australian side played Canterbury in 1877–78 the attendance for the three days totalled 25,000. Cricket was, of course, the national game at that time. Other summer sports were hardly known, and organised rugby football had barely begun.

After Parr's team in 1864 there was a remarkable succession of visits from overseas sides – three from England, three Australian elevens, a team from Tasmania, one from New South Wales – all by 1890.

For all these tours, individual cricket associations made their own arrangements, but when a second New South Wales team was due to arrive in 1893–94, the leading administrators in the various provinces felt a New Zealand team should be pitted against the visitors. A. M. Ollivier, of Christchurch, was given the task of selecting the first New Zealand team, which met New South Wales at Lancaster Park on 15 February 1894. New Zealand, although beaten by 160 runs, gave a good performance.

(1812–79).

Pioneer missionary.

Charles Creed was born in Somerset in 1812. Entering the Wesleyan Ministry in 1837 he was accepted for the mission field and, in the following year, sailed for New Zealand, reaching Hokianga in February 1839. After two years at Hokianga and Kaipara he then proceeded with a mission party to Taranaki, where he spent three years in charge of the Maori population between Cook Strait and the Waikato. They were the first resident missionaries in Taranaki, and Mrs Creed was the first European woman to settle there. Transferred to Otago in 1844 to succeed Watkin at Waikouaiti, Creed found that his new circuit was even more extensive, for it stretched from Stewart Island in the south to the Kaikoura Mountains. A tireless traveller, physically strong, and with great missionary zeal, Creed regarded the mission station at Waikouaiti as a base, and from there he visited Maori settlements in all parts of his district. In September 1845 he visited Banks Peninsula, preached there both to Maoris and to Europeans, explored the site afterwards occupied by Christ-church, and returned to Waikouaiti by way of Lake Ellesmere and Temuka. The extent of his circuit hampered his missionary work and, eventually, the privations endured on pastoral journeys took their toll. In 1852, when he was transferred from Waikouaiti to the Hutt, Creed looked on his departure from the south as a deliverance.

Physical hardship was not his only trial. Although the Waikouaiti whaling station was past its heyday, when its reputation for wickedness and infamy was widespread, Creed still believed that the influence of the European community threatened to destroy any good the mission might achieve, especially among the Maoris. He realised too that the arrival of the main body of Scottish settlers in 1848 for the Otago settlement was a new threat to Maori welfare. After the arrival of the Scottish Free Church settlers, Creed held services in Dunedin for the Anglicans among the immigrants, which offended Burns and antagonised Cargill, who resented Creed's influence and argued that his action would create division and disturb discipline. These differences became a minor sensation throughout New Zealand, but Creed continued his work until the arrival of the first Anglican minister (Rev. J. A. Fenton) early in 1852.

After a term at the Hutt Creed moved to Glebe, New South Wales, where he died on 19 February 1879.

by Timothy Holmes Beaglehole, M.A.(N.Z.), PH.D. (CAMB.), Senior Lecturer, Department of History, Victoria University of Wellington.

• The History of Otago, McLintock, A. H. (1949)
• History of Methodism in New Zealand, Morley, W. (1900).