Robert Alexander Holloway (born 15 November 1940) is a New Zealand former cricketer. He played 15

first-class match 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 ...

es, including 14 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 ...

in the Plunket Shield, during the 1960s as an opening batsman. A good club batsman who is considered to have not fulfilled his potential in representative cricket, Holloway also played for Southland in the Hawke Cup.

Early life

Holloway was born at

Invercargill Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of t ...

in 1940 and was educated at

Southland Boys' High School Southland Boys' High School (SBHS) is an all-boys school in Invercargill, New Zealand, and has been the only one in the city since Marist Brothers was merged with St Catherines to form Verdon College in 1982. History SBHS was founded in 1881 and ...

in the city. In his final two years at school, Holloway was a

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...

and served as a sergeant in the school's cadet force. He won academic honours at school and was a member of several school sports teams, playing in the

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

XV, cricket XI, and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

side.''The Southlandian'', 1957, pp. 2, 5. Invercargill:

.
Available online
Retrieved 12 September 2022.)''The Southlandian'', 1958, pp. 2, 5, 17, 33. Invercargill:

.
Available online
Retrieved 12 September 2022.) A tall man, he played rugby as a flank forward and was described as a "rugged, fiery forward" who was the school's "main lineout forward". As a cricketer, Holloway often played at school as an opening batsman. He played for the school's first XI for four years and in his final year he was described as "the most powerful batsman in the team".''The Southlandian'', 1958, p. 34.''The Southlandian'', 1955, p. 33. Invercargill:

.
Available online
Retrieved 12 September 2022.) He was also a useful

leg spin Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

bowler―against Otago Boys' High School he took four wickets for 43 runs from 35 overs and was described as an "outstanding" bowler. As a batsman, he was "a player of great concentration and determination". His straight drive was a particular strength, and he was selected for both Southland's and Otago's Brabin Shield sides whilst at school as well as the senior Southland team.

Senior cricket

Holloway played in Otago's Brabin Shield team for three seasons from the 1958–59 season.Bob Holloway
CricketArchive. Retrieved 12 September 2022. A "courageous knock" against Canterbury's under-20 side at the end of 1958 was noted by ''

The Press ''The Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand owned by media business Stuff Ltd. First published in 1861, the newspaper is the largest circulating daily in the South Island and publishes Monday to Saturday. One comm ...

'', and he "scored well", making 73 runs against the Wellington side, in the 1959–60 tournament. In early 1960 he was one of Southland's top scorers against Canterbury B, having first "saved the day" in a first-innings stand of 45 for the eighth-wicket. He played in the Hawke Cup for Southland at the beginning of December 1960 and was again in Otago's Brabin Shield side for the season―both his leg-spin bowling and "attractive" batting in a partnership of 81 drawing attention at the end of the month― although he missed out on selection for a representative Brabin side in January 1961 due to injury. In club cricket Holloway played for North East Valley Cricket Club 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 ...

. He and Bert Sutcliffe, who scored 125

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

, put on an unbroken first-wicket stand of 200 in a club match in October 1960, Holloway scoring 71 not out. He later played for Union Cricket Club in

and had a reputation as a "prolific" and consistent run scorer in club cricket.Transfer to Chch, ''

'', vol. CVIII, issue 31840, 19 November 1968, p. 19.
Available online
via Papers Past. Retrieved 16 September 2022.)Gains for Riccarton, ''

'', vol. CVIII, issue 31861, 13 December 1968, p. 7.
Available online
via Papers Past. Retrieved 16 September 2022.) With four of Otago's team touring South Africa with the New Zealand national side, Holloway was one of seven debutants when he was named in the representative side for the first time in December 1961. Opening the batting on Christmas Day against Wellington, he scored 21 runs in his first first-class innings in Otago's first Plunket Shield match of the 1961–62 season. According to ''The Press'', he "played dourly but commendably in the circumstances" as Otago were dismissed for a score of 79 with only Holloway and Sutcliffe, who scored 22, batting with any "resistance". He went on to play in two more Shield matches over the Christmas and New Years period 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 ...

and Northern Districts, but during the last match injured his ankle whilst fielding and was unavailable for the matches against Canterbury and Central Districts later in January, although he did play in a non-first-class match for Southland against

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

during the month. The following season Holloway played in all five of Otago's Plunket Shield matches, opening the batting in each match and scoring a total of 160 runs. He made 27 runs in the team's first match of the season but was run out "in a disastrous way" just as he was "getting on top of the bowling". In the second match of the 1962–63 season he

carried his bat In cricket, the term carry the bat (or carry one's bat) refers to an opening batsman (no. 1 and 2) who is not dismissed ("not out") when the team innings is closed. The term is mainly used when the innings closes after all 10 wickets have fall ...

for 61

in a total of 122 against Central Districts, becoming the third Otago player to do so.Yuile Bewilders Otago Batsmen, ''

'', vol. CI, issue 30018, 31 December 1962, p. 10.
Available online
via Papers Past. Retrieved 14 September 2022.) This innings was his first half-century and remained his highest first-class score.Robert Holloway

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 10 September 2022. He batted "very solidly" according to ''The Press'', and was one of only two Otago batsmen to reach double-figures in their first innings. Otago did not win a match in 1962–63, but ''The Press'' considered that if their younger players, including Holloway, who it described as "a sturdy opening bat", continued to develop that they were likely to improve with time. Holloway was selected to play against the touring MCC side, featuring in an Otago Invitational XI in March 1963. Opening once more, he scored just five runs in the match. Holloway played in all five of Otago's matches in 1963–64, scoring a total of 147 runs. He started well with a half-century in the side's first match of the season and a score of 46 in the second against Northern Districts, but Otago again failed to win a match. The side did, however, take batting points in the match against Northern Districts―their first points of any kind since the 1961–62 season―after Holloway was part of an "excellent" top-order batting performance. The last first-class match Holloway played was the following season. He was called into the Otago side for the final match of the season after captain

Jack Alabaster John Chaloner Alabaster (born 11 July 1930) is a former cricketer who played 21 Test matches for New Zealand between 1955 and 1972. A leg-spin bowler, he was the only New Zealander to play in each of the country's first four Test victories. In ...

was dropped. Batting at number three, he was out for a

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

in his first innings and scored 13 in the second. Later in the month he was in the Southland Hawke Cup side that played Central Otago and the following season played against Manawatu in the same competition. In total Holloway played in 15 first-class matches and scored 373 runs with two half-centuries; his batting average was just 13.81 runs per innings. He played "off the front foot" and was considered a particularly strong driver of the ball. Although he was considered a fine club batsman and effective medium-pace change bowler, ''The Press'' considered that he "never fulfilled the promise he showed as a youngster". He played his final Hawke Cup match for Southland in January 1968, having played against the touring Fijians earlier in the same month.

Later life

Holloway moved to

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 / ...

in 1968. He played club cricket with Riccarton Cricket Club in the city, scoring a half-century on debut for the side. He worked for the Farmer's Co-operative Insurance Association. He served on the executive committee of the Old Boys' Association of Southland Boys' High School during the 1970s.''The Southlandian'', 1975, p. 55. Invercargill:

.
Available online
Retrieved 16 September 2022.)

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Holloway, Robert 1940 births Living people New Zealand cricketers Otago cricketers Cricketers from Invercargill People educated at Southland Boys' High School