Dixie June Cockerton (10 July 1925 – 26 July 1998) was a New Zealand

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

player and coach. She played as goal keep in the New Zealand team in one Test match, in 1948 against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. She went on to coach the national team from 1960 to 1963, guiding them to second place at the

1963 World Netball Championships The 1963 World Netball Championships was the first edition of the INF Netball World Cup, a quadrennial international netball competition. It was held from 2 August to 14 August and in Eastbourne, England. It featured 11 teams. In a round robin sty ...

. Cockerton was also 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, making two first-class appearances for

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 gaining a New Zealand trial in 1953. A schoolteacher for almost 40 years, Cockerton was principal of Matamata Intermediate from 1970, and then Tauranga Intermediate from 1978 until her retirement in 1985. She was the first female principal of a New Zealand

intermediate school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...

Early life

Born in

Hāwera Hāwera is the second-largest centre in the Taranaki region of New Zealand's North Island, with a population of . It is near the coast of the South Taranaki Bight. The origins of the town lie in a government military base that was established i ...

on 10 July 1925, Cockerton was the daughter of Ronald George Cockerton and Alice Thelma Cockerton (née Lyon). The family moved to

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during the

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when Cockerton's father drew a farm in a ballot. She subsequently completed her secondary education by correspondence, before studying at Auckland Teachers' Training College.

Sporting career

Described as a "fine all-round sportswoman", Cockerton played representative netball for Matamata and New Zealand, representative

for Matamata and Auckland women's teams, and representative

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

for Matamata and the North Island. She was noted for her powerful hitting in both cricket and softball. She also played

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

and

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

Netball

Player

A tall player, Cockerton was a member of the Matamata team at the New Zealand national netball championships from 1945, competing in the second-grade tournament. Following the 1947 national championships in

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, she was selected for the New Zealand team to play the visiting Australian team the following year. In 1948, Cockerton played in the first Test against the touring Australian team at

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Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. The match was played under international rules, with seven players per side, which were unfamiliar to the New Zealanders who were used to playing nine-a-side. The Australian team was victorious, winning 27–16. Cockerton then captained a combined Tauranga–Matamata selection against the touring Australians in Tauranga, won by the Australian team 12–8 and played under nine-a-side rules. After the match, Cockerton was one of two local players who took part in a seven-a-side exhibition match with members of the Australian team, but she injured her ankle and was subsequently replaced in the New Zealand team for the third Test in Auckland. Cockerton continued to play for Matamata until at least 1953.

Coach and official

After retiring as a player, Cockerton moved into coaching. In 1960, she became the New Zealand national coach. In her first match in charge, the New Zealand team achieved their first ever victory over Australia, winning 49–40 in

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. However, the second and third Tests of the series were won by Australia, 44–39 and 46–45, respectively. Cockerton was retained as national coach for the 1963 World Netball Championships, where New Zealand recorded nine wins and one loss, 36–37 against Australia, to finish as runners-up in the tournament. Overall, Cockerton's record of coach of the New Zealand team was 10 wins from 13 international matches, with all three losses coming against Australia. Cockerton has been described as a popular and influential figure, tactically astute, and a coach ahead of her time.

Lois Muir Dame Lois Joan Muir (née Osborne; born 16 April 1935) is a New Zealand netball coach and administrator, and a former representative netball and basketball player. Muir represented New Zealand in two sports, playing with the Tall Ferns from 195 ...

, who was a member of the New Zealand team in 1960 and 1963, has credited Cockerton as being hugely influential on both her playing and coaching careers. Cockerton also had roles as a North Island and national selector. She was also a qualified netball umpire, and umpired three matches at the 1963 World Netball Championships. Drawing on her teaching background, she wrote netball coaching notes for primary schools, and was a national coaching award scheme examiner. In 1975, Cockerton received a national service award from the New Zealand Netball Association.

Cricket

Cockerton played for the Matamata women's cricket team against the touring Australian women's team at Matamata Domain on 25 February 1948. In that match, which was drawn, she batted at number eight and scored two runs before being bowled by

Myrtle Craddock Myrtle Baylis (1 May 1920 – 23 September 2014), also known as Myrtle Craddock, was an Australia women's Test cricketer and an Australia netball international. In 1948 she made her debut for both national teams, just five months apart. Betwe ...

. The following season, Cockerton played for the Matamata women's team against the touring English women's team. Batting at five in the order, she was bowled by

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for a

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. With the ball, she bowled five overs for 15 runs without taking a wicket. England won the match by eight wickets. Cockerton played two-women's first-class cricket matches, for the Auckland women's cricket team in the 1953/54 season. She made 48 runs, at an average of 24.00. In 1953, Cockerton played in a trial to select the New Zealand women's team to tour England in 1954: she scored 20 runs with the bat but was not chosen for the touring squad. In 1947, Cockerton's fielding was described as being "of the highest standard and would gain her a place in very many men's teams".

Teaching career

In March 1947, Cockerton was appointed as a teacher at

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School, but by later that year she was teaching at

Tīrau Tīrau is a small town in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand, 50 kilometres southeast of Hamilton. The town has a population of 804 (2018 census). In the Māori language, "Tīrau" means "place of many cabbage trees." Tīrau ...

School. She went on to be principal at Nawton Primary School in

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, and a senior teacher at Rotorua Intermediate School. In 1970, she was appointed principal of Matamata Intermediate, becoming the first woman to head a New Zealand intermediate school. In 1978, she moved to Tauranga Intermediate as principal, where she remained until retiring in 1985.

Later life

In retirement, Cockerton lived in Tauranga, where she died on 26 July 1998.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cockerton, Dixie 1925 births 1998 deaths Sportspeople from Hāwera New Zealand international netball players New Zealand netball players New Zealand netball coaches New Zealand women cricketers New Zealand softball players New Zealand schoolteachers Heads of schools in New Zealand New Zealand netball umpires Auckland Hearts cricketers New Zealand national netball team coaches