John William D'Arcy (born 23 April 1936 in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

) 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 who played five

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), ...

on New Zealand's tour of England in 1958.

Cricket career

D'Arcy attended

Christchurch Boys' High School , motto_translation = I Seek Higher Things , type = State school, Day and Boarding school , gender = Boys , song = The School We Magnify , colours = Blue and Black , established = , address = 71 Straven R ...

, where he opened the batting with Bruce Bolton for the first team. He continued to open the batting throughout his first-class career for

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. ...

from 1955–56 to 1958–59, and 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 ...

from 1960–61 to 1961–62. His top score was 89, made in nearly five hours, against

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

early in the 1958 tour. In his first three seasons before the 1958 tour, D'Arcy made 810 runs at 30.00 with five fifties. Although he scored only 136 runs in the five Tests in 1958, this tally still made him New Zealand's third-highest scorer. He top-scored twice in the first two Tests, and his 33 out of a team total of 74 all out in the Second Test, in just over two hours, was the team's highest individual score until

Tony MacGibbon Anthony Roy MacGibbon (28 August 1924 – 6 April 2010) was a cricketer who played 26 Tests for New Zealand in the 1950s. MacGibbon was a useful lower-order right-hand batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler who led the attack for his countr ...

made 39 in the second innings of the Third Test. At the end of the tour, the former England Test captain

Norman Yardley Norman Walter Dransfield Yardley (19 March 1915 – 3 October 1989) was an English cricketer who played for Cambridge University, Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England, as a right-handed batsman and occasional bowler. An amateur, he ca ...

said he thought D'Arcy the best of the New Zealand team's young players, saying he had "applied genuine thought to his game and adapted himself with shrewdness and intelligence". He made 327 runs at 32.70 in the

Plunket Shield New Zealand has had a domestic first-class cricket championship since the 1906–07 season. Since the 2009–10 season it has been known by its original name of the Plunket Shield. History The Plunket Shield competition was instigated in Octob ...

in 1958-59 and played for

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

in the trial match against

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

before the Test series against England in 1958–59, but despite scoring 57 in the second innings, he was not selected in the two Tests. D'Arcy was only 25 when his first-class career ended.

Christopher Martin-Jenkins Christopher Dennis Alexander Martin-Jenkins, MBE (20 January 1945 – 1 January 2013), also known as CMJ, was a British cricket journalist and a President of MCC. He was also the longest serving commentator for ''Test Match Special'' (TMS) on B ...

said of him, "He often defended admirably, but an absence of forcing strokes, due partly to an unorthodox grip, reduced his effectiveness." John Reid, his captain in 1958, said that while D'Arcy's "courage and patience could never be questioned", his "limited stroke equipment was ... the factor which restricted his batting to something removed from international class".

Later life

D'Arcy worked as the

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 ...

manager for IBM before returning to Christchurch as IBM's manager for the

. Later he moved to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, where he spent 12 years working with IBM. He then ran his own business in Sydney, which he sold in 2000.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:D'Arcy, John 1936 births Living people People educated at Christchurch Boys' High School Cricketers from Christchurch New Zealand cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers Canterbury cricketers Otago cricketers Wellington cricketers South Island cricketers New Zealand businesspeople