Clifford Vernon Shirley (22 March 1917 – 25 December 2001) was a New Zealand

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. He played one first-class match for

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

during the 1945–46 season and played Hawke Cup and other matches for Southland for more than 15 seasons.Cliff Shirley
CricketArchive. Retrieved 3 June 2023. Shirley was born at

Invercargill Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of t ...

in Southland in 1917 and was educated at Invercargill South school. He played club cricket for Colts and then for Appleby Cricket Club―a 1936 report credited him with being the side's "most dangerous" bowler and said that "he kept a good length and appeared to be unlucky not to get more wickets". He made his Southland debut during a wartime match at Carisbrook against an Otago XI in January 1941, but war service meant he did not play again for the side until the end of 1944, although he did play cricket whilst a soldier. He continued to play for Southland until the 1957–58 season, making around 35 appearances for the team and, according to ''

The Press ''The Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand owned by media business Stuff Ltd. First published in 1861, the newspaper is the largest circulating daily in the South Island and publishes Monday to Saturday. One comm ...

'' in 1956, scoring over 1,000 runs. He played in two Hawke Cup matches during the 1954–55 season as Southland challenged for the trophy, and against touring sides from Australia, Fiji and the West Indies. He was called into the side towards the end of the 1946 season following a number of good batting performances, with some commentators suggesting that he should have been called into the Otago side earlier in the season. A "sound and stylish" innings of 46 for Southland―who he was captaining―against

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

in January had been praised, and his 76 in the second innings of the match considered "bright". By March '' The Evening Star'' considered him "undoubtedly Southland's most stylish batsman" whilst the ''

Otago Daily Times The ''Otago Daily Times'' (ODT) is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ''ODT'' is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a c ...

'' praised his "sound and polished stroke play" and the "crispness and certainty with which his strokes were made". Shirley's only first-class match was against the touring Australians in March 1946 at Carisbrook. He scored 16 and 10 in his two first-class innings, although press reports suggest that he had started soundly in both innings and was unlucky to be out in his first innings. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Shirley served in Egypt with 20th Infantry Battalion, part of the

2nd New Zealand Division The 2nd New Zealand Division, initially the New Zealand Division, was an infantry Division (military), division of the New Zealand Army, New Zealand Military Forces (New Zealand's army) during the World War II, Second World War. The division was ...

.Clifford Vernon Shirley
Online Cenotaph,

Auckland Museum The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira (or simply the Auckland Museum) is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its collections concentrate on New Zealand history (and especially the history of the Auckla ...

. Retrieved 3 June 2023.General sports, '' New Zealand Herald'', volume LXXVII, issue 23674, 5 June 1940, p. 17.
Available online
at Papers Past. Retrieved 3 June 2023.) After the war he worked as a legal clerk.McCarron A (2010) ''New Zealand Cricketers 1863/64–2010'', p. 105. Cardiff: The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. He died at

Oamaru Oamaru (; mi, Te Oha-a-Maru) is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is south of Timaru and north of Dunedin on the Pacific coast; State Highway 1 and the railway ...

North Otago North Otago in New Zealand covers the area of Otago between Shag Point and the Waitaki River, and extends inland to the west as far as the village of Omarama (which has experienced rapid growth as a developing centre for astronomy and for glid ...

in 2001 aged 84. An obituary was published in the following year's ''New Zealand Cricket Almanack''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shirley, Cliff 1917 births 2001 deaths Burials at Eastern Cemetery, Invercargill New Zealand cricketers Otago cricketers Cricketers from Invercargill