Leslie Watt (17 September 1924 – 15 November 1996) was a New Zealand

cricketer 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 ...

who played one

Test 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), ...

for

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 ...

, against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in March 1955.

Cricket career

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

Watt played 48 matches between 1942-43 and 1962-63, making just over 2,000 runs at a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 23.30. He often opened the batting 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 ...

with

Bert Sutcliffe Bert Sutcliffe (17 November 1923 – 20 April 2001) was a New Zealand Test cricketer. Sutcliffe was a successful left-hand batsman. His batting achievements on tour in England in 1949, which included four fifties and a century in the Tests, e ...

, whose first-class average was more than twice as high. Watt's highest first-class score was 96 against

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 ...

in 1950-51, when he and Sutcliffe (who made 275) batted throughout the first day to put on 373 for the first wicket. Later that season the pair put on 178 for the first wicket (Watt making 65) against

Central Districts The Central Stags, formerly known as Central Districts, are a first-class cricket team based in central New Zealand. They are the men's representative side of the Central Districts Cricket Association. They compete in the Plunket Shield firs ...

. Otago won 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 ...

, Sutcliffe scoring 610 runs and Watt 326 (at an average of 46.57, including a score of 94 against

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 ...

) in the four matches. It was his most productive season. He was twelfth man in New Zealand's two Tests against England at the end of the season. In 1954-55, batting at number six for Otago, Watt came third in the Plunket Shield averages with 237 runs at 47.40, and made 37 not out in a trial match 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 ...

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 ...

. He was selected for the First Test at Dunedin, making his Test debut with

Noel McGregor Spencer Noel McGregor (18 December 1931 – 21 November 2007) was a Test cricketer who played 25 Test matches for New Zealand between 1954–55 and 1964–65. He was the New Zealand Cricket Almanack Player of the Year in 1968. Domestic career N ...

and Ian Colquhoun. Batting at number six, he was

bowled In cricket, the term bowled has several meanings. First, is the act of propelling the ball towards the wicket defended by a batsman. Second, it is a method of dismissing a batsman, by hitting the wicket with a ball delivered by the bowler. (Th ...

twice, for 0 and 2.New Zealand v England, Dunedin 1954-55
/ref> He was replaced in the Second Test team by

Matt Poore Matt Beresford Poore (1 June 1930 – 11 June 2020) was a New Zealand cricketer who played 14 Test matches for New Zealand in the 1950s. He was born in Christchurch. Domestic career A right-handed middle order batsman and handy off-spin bowler ...

. He retired after the 1955-56 season, then returned to play in 1962-63, but Otago lost all five of its matches, and Watt made only 135 runs at 13.50, and did not play again.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Watt, Leslie 1924 births 1996 deaths New Zealand cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers Otago cricketers South Island Army cricketers South Island cricketers

Cricket career

See also

References

External links