Rupert Hickmott

Rupert George Hickmott (19 March 1894 – 16 September 1916) was a cricketer who played for Canterbury and New Zealand. He died in World War I.[1]

Rupert Hickmott
Personal information
Full name
Rupert George Hickmott
Born(1894-03-19)19 March 1894
Christchurch, New Zealand
Died16 September 1916(1916-09-16) (aged 22)
Somme, France
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm leg-spin
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1911-12 to 1914-15Canterbury
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 17
Runs scored 778
Batting average 25.09
100s/50s 1/4
Top score 109
Balls bowled 427
Wickets 11
Bowling average 27.27
5 wickets in innings 0
10 wickets in match 0
Best bowling 4/5
Catches/stumpings 7/0
Source: Cricket Archive, 21 October 2014

Life and career

Rupert Hickmott was born in Christchurch and educated at Christchurch Boys' High School, where he excelled at cricket, scoring a century in the Heathcote Williams Challenge Shield against Auckland Grammar School, and captaining the First XI for three years. He also captained the rugby XV.[2]

At the start of the senior club season in Christchurch in 1911–12, in his first three innings he scored 112, 96 and 213 not out.[3] He made his first-class debut for Canterbury in December 1911 at the age of 17, scoring 30 and 39 in a low-scoring match to help Canterbury to victory over Wellington.[4] He made 52 and 33 in another victory over Wellington in his next match, which was his first in the Plunket Shield.[5] In 1912-13 he made 77, the top score of the match, when Canterbury beat Otago by an innings to win the Plunket Shield.[6]

He toured Australia with the New Zealand team in 1913-14, where he succeeded in some of the minor matches, but against the state teams he made only 94 runs at an average of 11.75.[7] He was the outstanding batsman in the 1914-15 Plunket Shield, with 307 runs at 51.16,[8] helping Canterbury to victories in all four matches. He top-scored in each innings against Auckland with 56 and 63; made his only century, 109, the top score of the match, against Hawke's Bay; and wound up both Otago innings with 2 for 7 and 4 for 5.[9]

Hickmott enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and served as a second lieutenant. He embarked from Wellington in March 1916 on the troopship Willochra. He was killed in action on the Somme in September 1916.[10]

Hickmott's obituary in Wisden said he "was probably the most promising young cricketer in the Dominion, and his early death will be felt severely when the game is resumed".[11] Dan Reese, his captain with both Canterbury and New Zealand, later wrote:

Hickmott ... was a fine all-rounder and to my mind would have become a Warwick Armstrong in New Zealand cricket, for he was a beautiful batsman and bowled "straight" leg-breaks like the great Victorian. His glorious outfielding against Harry Trott's team was a feature of the Canterbury match. His character and temperament made it certain that he would one day have been New Zealand's captain.[12]

References
  1. "Cricketers who died in World War 1 – Part 3 of 5". Cricket Country. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  2. New Zealand Observer, 21 October 1916, p. 10.
  3. "Canterbury Notes". NZ Truth: 3. 11 November 1911.
  4. Wellington v Canterbury 1911-12
  5. Canterbury v Wellington 1911-12
  6. Canterbury v Otago 1912-13
  7. Don Neely & Richard Payne, Men in White: The History of New Zealand International Cricket, 1894–1985, Moa, Auckland, 1986, pp. 53–56.
  8. Plunket Shield batting 1914-15
  9. Plunket Shield 1914-15
  10. "Rupert George Hickmott". Auckland Museum. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  11. "Deaths in the war, 1916". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  12. Dan Reese, Was It All Cricket?, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1948, p. 403.
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