Famous Cricketers No 57 - W. M. Woodfull

Bill Woodfull After Cricket Woodfull effectively retired from first-class cricket at the end of the 1934 English tour. He played one more first-class game the following season when he and Ponsford shared a Testimonial game at the MCG. When Woodfull finished playing District Cricket in 1936 he virtually disappeared from the cricket scene. Heavily involved with his teaching career, he never really became involved in cricket administration. He was a VCA selector for one year (in 1955) but this was his only active involvement in the game after retirement. WilliamMaldon Woodfull died of a heart attack whilst playing golf during a holiday at Tweed Heads (Northern NSW) on 11 August 1965. He was aged only 67. Woodfull was survived by his wife Gwen and by their two sons and daughter. The VCA said at the time that “the entire cricket world mourns the loss of a great gentleman, a player, a fine citizen and an ornament to the game.” Posthumous distinctions for Woodfull have included the re-naming of the Maldon Oval as the ‘Bill Woodfull Recreation Reserve’. One of the gates in the new ‘Great Southern Stand’ at the MCG is the ‘Bill Woodfull Gate’. His old mate is remembered with the ‘William Ponsford Stand’ at the MCG. The parallels continue: in 1996, Matthew Ponsford, Bill’s grandson, married Jenny, Woodfull’s great-niece. Carltons & United Brewery, the VCA’s main sponsor, produced beer cans featuring photos of them both in 1996. In 1999, the main oval at Melbourne High School was officially named the “Woodfull-Miller Oval” after both Bill and Keith Miller. The Headmaster of Melbourne Grammar School, ex-Test cricketer, Paul Sheahan, conducted the ceremony. On the centenary of Woodfull’s birth, a memorial plaque was unveiled at the Maldon church where his father had been Vicar. Paid for by the Mount Alexander Shire, it reads “This plaque celebrates the centenary of the birth of William Maldon Woodfull in Maldon 22 August 1897. Son of Rev. Thomas and Gertrude Woodfull. Celebrated educationalist and Test Cricket Captain.” That really said it all. The Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for Woodfull is flattering and reasonably extensive. It was written by none other than Sir Donald Bradman. This was the only entry Bradman wrote in the ADB. That in itself surely says something about what Bradman thought of his old captain. Collectors also think highly of Woodfull. The bat he used in the Bodyline Series sold for $20,000 at a Christie’s sale in 1999. 8