John Leith (31 May 1857 – 28 July 1928) was an Australian-born 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 made a single first-class appearance 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 1880–81 season.John Leith

CricInfo 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 d ...

. Retrieved 2023-11-10. Leith was born at

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in the Colony of Victoria, the eldest son of Peter and Amelia Leith,Deaths, '' Evening Star'', issue 19931, 30 July 1928, p. 6.
Available online
at Papers Past. Retrieved 2023-11-10.) but educated at the Middle District School 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 ...

. Professionally he worked as a clerk.McCarron A (2010) ''New Zealand Cricketers 1863/64–2010'', p. 80. Cardiff: The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians.
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 2023-06-05.) Leith played for an Otago of 22 players against the touring Australians in January 1881 before making his only first-class appearance the following month in the fixture 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. ...

, scoring a total of five runs in the match. The following season he played against an English touring side in a team of 18 Otago players.John Leith
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2023-11-10. Leith died at Dunedin in 1928 aged 71.

References

1857 births 1928 deaths New Zealand cricketers Otago cricketers Burials at Dunedin Northern Cemetery People from the Colony of Victoria 19th-century New Zealand sportspeople {{NewZealand-cricket-bio-1850s-stub