Rupert Vivian de Renzy Worker (15 April 1896 – 23 April 1989) played

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 ...

in New Zealand between 1914 and 1929. He represented

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 ...

in the years before New Zealand played

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...

Early career

Worker was born at

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 1896 and educated at

Auckland Grammar School Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

.McCarron A (2010) ''New Zealand Cricketers 1863/64–2010'', p. 142. Cardiff: The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians.
Available online
at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 5 June 2023.) He made his first-class debut when he played one match for

in the 1914–15 season. After graduating from Auckland University College he became a schoolmaster. While teaching at Christchurch Boys' High School he appeared 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. ...

, playing his first game as an opening batsman in the 1919–20 season. He was the outstanding batsman 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 / ...

club cricket in 1919–20, scoring 609 runs at an average of 76.12 for West Christchurch. Nobody else scored more than 400 runs. He became a regular player in the Canterbury side, but his achievements to the end of the 1922–23 season were modest: in 12 first-class matches he had made 510 runs at 22.17, with a top score of 65 (in an opening partnership of 208 with

Roger Blunt Roger Charles Blunt (3 November 1900 – 22 June 1966) was a cricketer who played nine Test matches for the New Zealand national cricket team. Personal life Blunt was born in England, but his family moved to New Zealand when he was six months ...

) against MCC in 1922–23.

Plunket Shield record

Worker transferred to Otago Boys' High School and began playing for Otago. He began the 1923–24 Plunket Shield season with 172 and 16 against Canterbury, then scored 93 and 34 against Auckland. In the final match, 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 ...

at Carisbrook, 1905 runs were scored over five days – which is still the seventh-highest aggregate in the history of first-class cricket – and Worker set the record for most runs in a Plunket Shield season. Wellington batted first and made 560, and Otago replied with 385, Worker scoring 106 and making an opening partnership of 154 in 76 minutes with James Shepherd. When Wellington made 465 in their second innings their opening batsman

Syd Hiddleston John Sydney Hiddleston (10 December 1890 – 30 October 1940) was a cricketer who played for Otago, Wellington and New Zealand, from 1909-10 to 1928-29, in the years before New Zealand played Test cricket. Cricket career An all-rounder who coul ...

scored 150 to set a new Plunket Shield record of 505 runs in a season. The next day Worker made 94, putting on 155 with Shepherd in 85 minutes, and beating Hiddleston's record by 10 runs, but Otago, needing 641 to win, were dismissed for 495. Hiddleston reclaimed the record in the 1925–26 season, when he made 537 runs. After the Plunket Shield season ended, a New South Wales team played two matches against

. Worker made 8 and 37 for New Zealand in the first match, and a pair in the second. In July 1924 Worker was awarded a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree from Otago University, with honours in history.

Later career

In 1924–25 Worker made 205 runs in the Plunket Shield at an average of 41.00 and played both matches for New Zealand against Victoria, scoring 33, 34, 55 and 6. He toured Australia with a New Zealand side in 1925–26, playing all four first-class matches, but finished seventh in both aggregates and averages, with 195 runs at 27.85. He transferred to Wellington in 1926, playing three matches in 1926–27, two in 1927–28, and one each in 1928–29 and 1929–30. His success was modest, apart from his one match in 1928–29, when he made 151 and 73, top-scoring in each innings, and Wellington beat Auckland by 37 runs. Dick Brittenden described Worker as "a most brisk and businesslike man in nearly everything he did", and a batsman who made most of his runs on the leg side.

Personal life

Worker married Lily Edith Emerson in Dunedin in December 1928. At the time he was teaching in

Napier Napier may refer to: People * Napier (surname), including a list of people with that name * Napier baronets, five baronetcies and lists of the title holders Given name * Napier Shaw (1854–1945), British meteorologist * Napier Waller (1893–19 ...

, where they lived for most of the rest of their lives. He was teaching a class at

Napier Boys' High School Napier Boys' High School is a secondary boys' school in, Napier, New Zealand. It currently has a school roll of approximately pupils. The school provides education from Year 9 to Year 13. Notable alumni Business * Rod Drury – chief execu ...

on 3 February 1931 when the

Napier earthquake Napier may refer to: People * Napier (surname), including a list of people with that name * Napier baronets, five baronetcies and lists of the title holders Given name * Napier Shaw (1854–1945), British meteorologist * Napier Waller (1893–19 ...

struck, destroying most of the town. Worker served in the

Royal New Zealand Air Force The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) ( mi, Te Tauaarangi o Aotearoa, "The Warriors of the Sky of New Zealand"; previously ', "War Party of the Blue") is the aerial service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed from New Zeala ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as a flying officer. At the start of the 1947 school year he took up a position as secondary assistant master at Marton District High School. He died at

at the age of 93 in 1989.Rupert Worker

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 27 February 2024.Worker, Rupert Vivian de Renzy, Obituaries in 1989, ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'', 1990.
Available online
at

. Retrieved 27 February 2024.) Obituaries were published in the 1989 ''New Zealand Cricket Almanack'' and the 1990 edition of ''

''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Worker, Rupert 1896 births 1989 deaths New Zealand cricketers Pre-1930 New Zealand representative cricketers Auckland cricketers Canterbury cricketers Otago cricketers Wellington cricketers Cricketers from Auckland University of Auckland alumni University of Otago alumni New Zealand schoolteachers South Island cricketers New Zealand military personnel of World War II Royal New Zealand Air Force personnel People educated at Auckland Grammar School