Rupert Worker

Rupert Worker

Personal information
Full name	Rupert Vivian de Renzy Worker
Born	(1896-04-15)15 April 1896 Auckland, New Zealand
Died	23 April 1989(1989-04-23) (aged 93) Napier, New Zealand
Batting style	Left-handed
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1914–15	Auckland
1919–20 to 1922–23	Canterbury
1923–24 to 1925–26	Otago
1926–27 to 1929–30	Wellington
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 37 Runs scored 2338 Batting average 34.89 100s/50s 4/12 Top score 172 Balls bowled 54 Wickets 0 Bowling average – 5 wickets in innings – 10 wickets in match – Best bowling – Catches/stumpings 9/0
Source: Cricket Archive, 20 April 2014

Rupert Vivian de Renzy Worker (15 April 1896, in Auckland, New Zealand – 23 April 1989, in Napier, New Zealand) played first-class cricket in New Zealand between 1914 and 1929.

Early career

Worker made his first-class debut when he played one match for Auckland in the 1914–15 season. After graduating from Auckland University College he became a schoolmaster. While teaching at Christchurch Boys' High School^[1] he appeared for Canterbury, playing his first game as an opening batsman in the 1919–20 season.

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,^[2] with a top score of 65 (in an opening partnership of 208 with Roger Blunt) against MCC in 1922–23.^[3]

Plunket Shield record

Worker transferred to Otago Boys' High School and began playing for Otago.^[4] He began the 1923–24 Plunket Shield season with 172 and 16 against Canterbury,^[5] then scored 93 and 34 against Auckland.^[6]

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^[7] – 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.^[8] When Wellington made 465 in their second innings their opening batsman John 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,^[9] and beating Hiddleston's record by 10 runs,^[10] but Otago, needing 641 to win, were dismissed for 495.^[11] Hiddleston reclaimed the record in the 1925–26 season, when he made 537 runs.^[12]

After the Plunket Shield season ended, a New South Wales team played two matches against New Zealand. Worker made 8 and 37 in the first match, and a pair in the second.

Later career

In 1924–25 Worker made 205 runs in the Plunket Shield at an average of 41.00^[13] and played both matches for New Zealand against Victoria, scoring 33, 34, 55 and 6.

He toured Australia with a New Zealand side in 1925–26, playing all four matches, but finished seventh in both aggregates and averages, with 195 runs at 27.85.^[14]

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.^[15]

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.^[16]

References

External links

• Rupert Worker at Cricket Archive