Charles Christian Ralph "Ces" Dacre (15 May 1899 – 2 November 1975) was a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er from New Zealand who also represented New Zealand in

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

. He played in the

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

and

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

cricket teams and was in

New Zealand's New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country b ...

first team to go to England in 1927, though no

Tests Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

were played on the tour.

Rugby career

Dacre played

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

in the war years for the Railway club (a wartime combination of the Marist and City clubs). In 1917 he was involved in a breakaway movement from the club that switched to

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

, playing matches against Ponsonby United and the

City Rovers The City Newton Dragons are a defunct New Zealand rugby league club that was based at Victoria Park, Auckland. The club was created in 1948 by a merger of two original clubs, the City Rovers and Newton Rangers. Both the Rovers and the Rangers par ...

.Coffey, John and

Bernie Wood Bernard Joseph Wood (9 December 1939 – 28 April 2013) was a New Zealand rugby league administrator and sports historian. Biography Wood was born in Greymouth in 1939 and was educated at Marist Brothers Boys' School there. He was a member of the ...

''Auckland, 100 years of rugby league, 1909–2009'', 2009. . Railway XIII merged with Grafton Athletic for the 1918

Auckland Rugby League The Auckland Rugby League (ARL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. It is responsible for rugby league in the region, including both club and school rugby league. It began in 1910 when the fi ...

season, though it is not known whether Dacre was still with the club.

Cricket career

Dacre was a hard-hitting, somewhat impetuous, right-handed middle order batsman''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' 1977, p. 1051. and an occasional slow left-arm bowler, who also kept wicket a few times in a first-class career that spanned more than 20 years. An outstanding schoolboy cricketer, he made his debut for Auckland when only 15 and appeared regularly for the team until the 1927–28 season, and then again in two matches in 1932–33. He toured Australia twice and England once with

New Zealand national cricket team The New Zealand national cricket team represents New Zealand in men's international cricket. Named the Black Caps, they played their first Test in 1930 against England in Christchurch, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. From 1930 ...

s in the period before New Zealand played Tests. In

1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith becomes the first Director-General. * January 7 * ...

, in a strong batting side, he was a success with 1,070 runs at an average of 31.47 in the first-class matches. In the first innings of the match against

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

he scored 107 in an hour and a half. Though he returned to New Zealand the following winter, in 1928 he was back in England where he spent two years playing occasional cricket before becoming qualified to play

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

matches for Gloucestershire. Winning a regular place for Gloucestershire as soon as he was qualified in 1930, he made more than 1,000 runs in each of the next six seasons, though his average declined steadily over the period. His best season was 1930, when he hit his highest score, 223, with five sixes and 25 fours, in 255 minutes against

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

. He scored two centuries in the match against Worcestershire in 1933. By 1935, he was averaging no more than 21 runs an innings and when his form declined further in 1936 his contract was terminated by mutual agreement and he returned to New Zealand.

Football career

Dacre also represented

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, appearing in 4 A-Internationals in 1922 and 1923, scoring 2 goals. Dacre was also a member of the North Shore side who reached the 1926 Chatham Cup final, losing 4–2 to Sunnyside.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dacre, Ces 1899 births 1975 deaths Association football forwards Auckland cricketers Cricketers from Auckland Gloucestershire cricketers L. H. Tennyson's XI cricket team New Zealand association footballers New Zealand cricketers New Zealand international footballers New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand rugby union players North Island cricketers North v South cricketers Players cricketers Pre-1930 New Zealand representative cricketers Rugby league players from Auckland