Product Code Database
Rupert Vivian de Renzy Worker (15 April 1896 – 23 April 1989) played first-class cricket in New Zealand between 1914 and 1929. He represented New Zealand in the years before New Zealand played Test cricket. He worked as a schoolteacher.
He became a regular player in the Canterbury side, but his achievements to the end of the 1922–23 season were modest: in 12 first-class matches he had made 510 runs at 22.17, Rupert Worker batting by season with a top score of 65 (in an opening partnership of 208 with Roger Blunt) against MCC in 1922–23. Canterbury v MCC 1922–23
In the final match, against Wellington at Carisbrook, 1905 runs were scored over five days – which is still the seventh-highest aggregate in the history of first-class cricket New Zealand Cricket Museum Summer-Autumn 2010–11 newsletter Retrieved 20 April 2014. – and Worker set the record for most runs in a Plunket Shield season. Wellington batted first and made 560, and Otago replied with 385, Worker scoring 106 and making an opening partnership of 154 in 76 minutes with James Shepherd.Dick Brittenden, Great Days in New Zealand Cricket, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1958, p. 49. When Wellington made 465 in their second innings their opening batsman Syd Hiddleston scored 150 to set a new Plunket Shield record of 505 runs in a season. The next day Worker made 94, putting on 155 with Shepherd in 85 minutes,Brittenden, Great Days in New Zealand Cricket, p. 51. and beating Hiddleston's record by 10 runs,Brittenden, New Zealand Cricketers, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1961, p. 86. but Otago, needing 641 to win, were dismissed for 495. Otago v Wellington 1923–24 Hiddleston reclaimed the record in the 1925–26 season, when he made 537 runs.Brittenden, New Zealand Cricketers, p. 86.
After the Plunket Shield season ended, a New South Wales team played two matches against New Zealand. Worker made 8 and 37 for New Zealand in the first match, and a pair in the second.
In July 1924 Worker was awarded a Master of Arts degree from Otago University, with honours in history.
He toured Australia with a New Zealand side in 1925–26, playing all four first-class matches, but finished seventh in both aggregates and averages, with 195 runs at 27.85. New Zealanders in Australia 1925–26 batting averages
He transferred to Wellington in 1926, playing three matches in 1926–27, two in 1927–28, and one each in 1928–29 and 1929–30. His success was modest, apart from his one match in 1928–29, when he made 151 and 73, top-scoring in each innings, and Wellington beat Auckland by 37 runs. Auckland v Wellington 1928–29
The New Zealand cricket writer Dick Brittenden described Worker as "a most brisk and businesslike man in nearly everything he did", and a batsman who made most of his runs on the leg side.Brittenden, Great Days in New Zealand Cricket, p. 47.
Worker served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force during World War II as a flying officer. At the start of the 1947 school year he took up a position as secondary assistant master at Marton District High School. He died at Napier at the age of 93 in 1989. Rupert Worker, CricInfo. Retrieved 27 February 2024.Worker, Rupert Vivian de Renzy, Obituaries in 1989, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1990. ( Available online at CricInfo. Retrieved 27 February 2024.) Obituaries were published in the 1989 New Zealand Cricket Almanack and the 1990 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
External links
Categories: 1896 Births, 1989 Deaths, New Zealand Cricketers, Pre-1930 New Zealand Representative Cricketers, Auckland Cricketers, Canterbury Cricketers, Otago Cricketers, Wellington Cricketers, Cricketers From Auckland, University Of Auckland Alumni, University Of Otago Alumni, New Zealand Schoolteachers, South Island Cricketers, New Zealand Military Personnel Of World War Ii, Royal New Zealand Air Force Personnel, People Educated At Auckland Grammar School
|
|
