Spencer Noel McGregor (18 December 1931 – 21 November 2007) was a
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), ...
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 str ...
er 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
Noel McGregor was born 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 ...
and played for
Otago. A batsman who liked to play his strokes, at 17 he hit the first ball he faced 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 ...
for four, and two more boundaries in the same over from
Tom Burtt
Thomas Browning Burtt (22 January 1915 – 24 May 1988) was a New Zealand cricketer who played in ten Tests from 1947 to 1953.
Domestic career
In his last first-class match, for Canterbury against the MCC in 1954–55, he hit 24 off one over ...
.
In 90 first-class matches for Otago between 1947–48 and 1968–69 he scored 4259 runs at an average of 27.65. In all first-class matches he made five centuries, the highest a fine unbeaten 114 to take Otago to a seven-wicket victory over
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 metr ...
in 1959–60. He was also an occasional wicketkeeper.
He continued in club cricket after his long first-class career, playing up to the age of 58, and was also a leading bowls administrator.
International career
The highlight of his long Test career was his only
century, 111 scored in five and a half hours at number four against
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
in a losing cause in
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...
in 1955. It was also his first first-class century.
In his second Test he had been part of the team that was bowled out by England in 1954–55 for just 26, the record lowest Test score; the next season he took a crucial catch against the West Indies when New Zealand won a Test for the first time.
He made three fifties in the series against
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
on
New Zealand's 1961–62 tour there, scoring 709 runs in all first-class matches. In the Third Test at Cape Town he opened the batting and made 68 and 20 in New Zealand's first Test victory outside New Zealand. In the Fifth Test at Port Elizabeth his contribution was more modest (10 and 24 at number five) but New Zealand won again. He (along with
John Reid and
Jack Alabaster) played in all of New Zealand's first three Test victories.
He played all three Tests against South Africa in New Zealand in 1963–64, his 168 runs at 28.00 placing him second in the New Zealand aggregates and averages behind
Barry Sinclair
Barry Whitley Sinclair (23 October 1936 – 10 July 2022) was a New Zealand cricketer. He played 21 Test matches for New Zealand national team as a specialist batsman from 1962–63 to 1967–68, and captained the team from 1966 to 1968.
...
. His last two Tests were against Pakistan in New Zealand in 1964–65.
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 ...
described McGregor's batting style as "as light on his feet as a dancer, and absolutely full of shots".
Dick Brittenden
Richard Trevor Brittenden (22 August 1919 – 10 June 2002) was from the 1950s to the 1980s New Zealand's most prominent cricket writer.
Early life, family and career
Brittenden was born at Rakaia on 22 August 1919, and was educated at Chris ...
wrote of him in 1961, "He fairly bristles with aggression, he has a glittering array of strokes, and he is capable of demoralising the most phlegmatic and painstaking bowler
uthe has too often squandered his talents." After the tour of South Africa in 1961–62, the tour manager,
Gordon Leggat, said McGregor was "one of our best-equipped batsmen if only he would curb an impetuosity to make his century not merely before lunch but, as it sometimes seemed, before breakfast".
R. S. Whitington
Richard Smallpeice Whitington (30 June 1912 – 13 March 1984) was an Australian first-class cricketer who played for South Australia and after serving in World War II, represented the Australian Services cricket team, which played in the Victo ...
, ''John Reid's Kiwis'', Whitcombe & Tombs, Christchurch, 1962, p. 162.
References
External links
*
Obituaryat sportal.co.nz
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGregor, Noel
1931 births
2007 deaths
New Zealand cricketers
New Zealand Test cricketers
Otago cricketers
Cricketers from Dunedin