Eric William Dempster (25 January 1925 – 15 August 2011) 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 who played in five
Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to:
* Test cricket
* Test match (indoor cricket)
* Test match (rugby union)
* Test match (rugby league)
* Test match (association football)
...
in 1953 and 1954, before becoming an international umpire.
Cricket career
A left-arm spinner and useful lower-order batsman, Dempster played for
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
from 1947–48 to 1960–61. His best first-class bowling figures of 5 wickets for 46 runs came in the match against
Orange Free State
The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...
at Bloemfontein in 1953–54,
[ and he scored his only century, 105, for Wellington 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.
...
at Wellington in 1956–57.
He made his Test debut in the Second Test against South Africa in Auckland in 1952–53, and toured South Africa the following season, playing in four of the five Tests.[ His best performance in Tests was in the Fourth Test in 1953–54 in Johannesburg: he made 21 not out batting at number eight in the first innings then, when New Zealand ]followed on
In the game of cricket, a team who batted second and scored significantly fewer runs than the team who batted first may be forced to follow-on: to take their second innings immediately after their first. The follow-on can be enforced by the team ...
, he opened and top-scored with 47 in the second innings.
After cricket
Dempster became an umpire
An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection.
The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...
and officiated in several of 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 ...
's home first-class and one-day matches from 1971–72 to 1979–80. He also umpired three One Day International
A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...
matches in Dunedin and Christchurch between 1973–74 and 1975–76.
Dempster worked in 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 ...
as the manager of the artificial limb service which was attached to Dunedin Hospital.['']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 ...
'' 2012, p. 190. In the 1986 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
, for services to the disabled and cricket.
See also
* List of One Day International cricket umpires
This is a list of cricket umpires who have officiated at least one men's One Day International (ODI) match. As of October 2022, 418 umpires have officiated in an ODI match. The first ODI match took place on 5 January 1971 between Australia and E ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dempster, Eric
1925 births
2011 deaths
New Zealand Test cricketers
New Zealand cricketers
Wellington cricketers
New Zealand Members of the Order of the British Empire
New Zealand One Day International cricket umpires
Burials at Green Park Cemetery