Thomas Underwood Groube (2 September 1857 – 5 August 1927) was an Australian

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 played in one

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in 1880. He was the first New Zealand-born Test cricketer.

Life and career

Groube's father was Horatio Groube, a Congregational minister who was among the first white settlers in

New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. ...

, where Tom was born. The family left New Zealand in the early 1860s as a result of the

Second Taranaki War The Second Taranaki War is a term used by some historians for the period of hostilities between Māori and the New Zealand Government in the Taranaki district of New Zealand between 1863 and 1866. The term is avoided by some historians, who eit ...

and settled in Melbourne. Tom's paternal grandfather was a rear-admiral in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. Five feet eleven inches tall and slimly built, Tom Groube was a successful batsman in Melbourne club cricket in the late 1870s and early 1880s.''The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket'', Oxford, Melbourne, 1996, p. 223. Jack Pollard, ''Australian Cricket: The Game and the Players'', Hodder & Stoughton, Sydney, 1982, p. 459. Between 1878 and 1885 he scored 2350 runs for the East Melbourne club at an average of 44. He played four matches of

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 ...

for Victoria between 1879 and 1881 but with little success. In 1878-79 he averaged 155.33 for East Melbourne, which helped him earn a place in the Australian team to England in 1880. He was a late replacement for

Charles Bannerman Charles Bannerman (3 July 1851 – 20 August 1930) was an English-born Australian cricketer. A right-handed batsman, he represented Australia in three Test matches between 1877 and 1879. At the domestic level, he played for the New South Wales ...

, who had to withdraw from the selected touring team owing to illness. Groube's highest first-class score was 61 against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

in 1880, which was the only time he reached 20 in first-class cricket. He played in the Test at

The Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

in 1880, the first-ever Test match in England, but was not successful. He later toured New Zealand with the Australian team in 1880-81, his highest score there being 42 against

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. In later years Groube wrote about cricket and

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

in Victoria for the ''

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'' and '' The Herald'' under the pen-names "Old Cricketer" and "Rover". He conducted the choir at the Congregational church in

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

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 ...

, for about 40 years. He was survived by his wife and their three sons.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Groube, Thomas 1857 births 1927 deaths Australia Test cricketers Victoria cricketers Cricketers from New Plymouth Australian cricketers New Zealand emigrants to Australia