Ewen John Chatfield (born 3 July 1950) is a former
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 ...
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. A medium-pace bowler, though Chatfield played 43
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), ...
and 114
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 ...
s for his country, he is also remembered for having been hit in the head by a ball while batting, causing him to collapse and need resuscitation.
With the ball, his chief weapon was his accuracy, giving him economical bowling figures, although he occasionally would come in for punishment in the late stages of limited overs matches due to a lack of variation in his line and length.
Domestic career
In a three-day match for Wellington in February 1980, Chatfield played a key role in defeating the West Indies, who were at the time the best cricket team in the world, taking six wickets in the first innings and seven in the second.
Chatfield also played for
Hutt Valley
The Hutt Valley (or 'The Hutt') is the large area of fairly flat land in the Hutt River valley in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Like the river that flows through it, it takes its name from Sir William Hutt, a director of the New Zeala ...
in the
Hawke Cup
The Hawke Cup is a non-first-class cricket competition for New Zealand's district associations. Apart from 1910–11, 1912–13 and 2000–01 the competition has always been on a challenge basis. To win the Hawke Cup, the challengers must beat t ...
. In 1984 he was awarded the Hutt City Sportsperson of the Year award (the first person to receive this award).
International career
With the ball, Chatfield distinguished himself with efforts against the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
, the leading cricketing side of the day, on tour in 1984/85 and in the home series which New Zealand drew in 1986/87. He was also a member of the New Zealand sides which achieved the country's first Test series wins against England and Australia at home and away. Chatfield spent much of his career as the bowling partner to Sir
Richard Hadlee
Sir Richard John Hadlee (born 3 July 1951) is a New Zealand former cricketer. Hadlee is widely regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders in cricket history, and amongst the very finest fast bowlers.
Hadlee was appointed an MBE in the 1980 ...
. Coincidentally, the pair share the same birthday, though Chatfield is one year Hadlee's senior.
Head injury
Chatfield is also noted for being seriously injured on the cricket field, in the First Test against
England in the 1974–75 season at
Eden Park
Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and King ...
,
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 ...
. England were at the end of a long and difficult tour in which they had been defeated in
the Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, ''The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first Te ...
by
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 ...
, chiefly by the Australian fast bowlers
Jeff Thomson
Jeffrey Robert Thomson (born 16 August 1950) is a former Australian cricketer. Known as "Thommo", he is one of the fastest bowlers in the history of cricket; he bowled a delivery with a speed of 160.6 km/h against the West Indies in Perth ...
and
Dennis Lillee
Dennis Keith Lillee, (born 18 July 1949) is Australian retired cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation". . Chatfield, a number 11 batsman, was holding up England with a last wicket partnership with his future captain,
Geoff Howarth
Geoffrey Philip Howarth (born 29 March 1951) is a former New Zealand cricketer and former captain, who remains the only New Zealand captain to have positive win–loss records in both Test cricket and ODI cricket. He was the third most success ...
. English fast bowler
Peter Lever
Peter Lever (born 17 September 1940) is a former English cricketer, who played in seventeen Tests and ten ODIs for England from 1970 to 1975. A fast-medium opening bowler, he took 41 wickets, and was a handy lower-order batsman with a top score ...
decided to test Chatfield with a bouncer. At the time helmets and other now common protective gear were not in use. The ball deflected from Chatfield's bat and struck him on the temple, rendering him unconscious and not breathing. The English team's physiotherapist Bernard Thomas was the first to realise what had happened: Chatfield had swallowed his tongue. Thomas flicked it back into place and managed to revive Chatfield with heart massage and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Lever was distraught; Chatfield later joked that when he was visited by Lever in hospital, "he looked worse than I did". A couple of years later helmets were introduced into cricket and Chatfield wore one thereafter.
Late career
A classic no.11 batsmen, In one of the most memorable tests in New Zealand cricket history, he accompanied Wellington teammate
Jeremy Coney
Jeremy Vernon Coney (born 21 June 1952) is a former New Zealand cricketer and current cricket commentator. An all-rounder, between 1974 and 1987 he played 52 Test matches and 88 One Day Internationals (ODIs) for New Zealand, of which he was ca ...
in a partnership to defeat
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
at Carisbrook, Dunedin, in the 1984/85 Test series. It was technically not a last wicket win, as
Lance Cairns
Bernard Lance Cairns (born 10 October 1949) is a former all-rounder who played for the New Zealand cricket team, and is the father of New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns.
He was also known for the unusual bat he played with throughout much of h ...
was still available to bat, but Cairns was severely concussed at the time and essentially incapable of batting, making Chatfield his side's last hope for a series win. Chatfield managed his highest Test score, an unbeaten 21. Such was Coney's faith in his partner that Chatfield ended up facing 84 deliveries during their stand as opposed to Coney's 48.
In the
1990 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 1990 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countries ...
, Chatfield 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 cricket.
After cricket
Since retiring from first-class cricket, Chatfield has had a variety of jobs. He coached the Hutt Valley association until they merged with Wellington, worked in a chip shop, was a courier and drove a van for a dairy. He also mowed lawns, and in 2009 was working as a taxi driver in Wellington.
In 2020, the 95-year old Basin Reserve Museum Stand was reopened and the Old Pavilion Stand therein was renamed for Chatfield.
References
External links
*
I never bowled a bouncer– interview at
ESPNcricinfo
ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chatfield, Ewen
1950 births
Living people
Cricketers at the 1979 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1983 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1987 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers from Dannevirke
New Zealand cricketers
New Zealand Members of the Order of the British Empire
New Zealand One Day International cricketers
New Zealand taxi drivers
New Zealand Test cricketers
North Island cricketers
Wellington cricketers