Famous Cricketers No 57 - W. M. Woodfull

70. Victoria v New South Wales, Sydney, January 26, 27, 28, 30, 31 (Match drawn) c C.O.Nicholls b R.L.A.McNamee 94 422 533 not out 81 205-1 353-8d SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Sheffield Shield 5 7 2 645 191* 129.00 2 3 3 Career 70 103 20 5963 236 71.84 23 26 47 1927/28 – Australians in New Zealand At the end of the season, an Australia XI undertook a six week tour of New Zealand. Woodfull again reserved his best for the matches against New Zealand, scoring a career-best 284 at Eden Park. Scoring at better than 50 runs an hour he “gave a fine exhibition of batting … with well-placed shots he scored faster than his partner (Ponsford)”. Woodfull’s 284 is still the highest score made by an Australian in a match against New Zealand. In the first tour game against Wellington, Woodfull and Ponsford added 122 for the first wicket. They improved on this to add 214 in the next innings against Otago. Virtually repeating his performances of three years previously, Woodfull scored 781 runs at 130.1, giving him the magnificent figures of 1487 runs at 148.7 for his two New Zealand tours. The matches against New Zealand were referred to as ‘Test Matches’ at the time and were so called in the pre-match advertising and in later match scores. If they had been counted as official Test Matches, Woodfull’s Test career batting average would have been over the 50 mark. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 71. Australian XI v Wellington, Wellington, February 17, 18, 20 (Australian XI won by four wickets) c H.M.McGirr b F.T.Badcock 165 375 206 not out 12 65-6 230 72. Australian XI v Otago, Dunedin, February 24, 25, (27) (Match drawn) c J.McMullan b G.R.Dickinson 107 454 171 did not bat - 79-0 73. Australian XI v Canterbury, Christchurch, March 2, 3, 5 (Australian XI won by nine wickets) lbw R.J.Read 30 404 305 1 not out 54 103-1 201 1 74. Australian XI v Auckland, Auckland, March 9, 10, 12 (Australian XI won by an innings and 40 runs) b A.S.Player 69 431 171 2 220 75. Australian XI v New Zealand, Auckland, March 24, 26, 27 (Match drawn) b H.M.McGirr 284 573-5d 288 53-1 76. Australian XI v New Zealand, Dunedin, March 31, April 2, 3 (Australian XI won by seven wickets) b R.J.Read 15 188 162 not out 45 129-3 154 1 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Tour 6 9 3 781 284 130.16 3 2 5 Career 76 112 23 6744 284 75.77 26 28 52 1928/29 Woodfull had another magnificent year with the touring MCC team being his main opponents. He achieved his best Test batting aggregate with 491 runs at 54.55 and scored 854 at 85.40 for the season. In his first tour match against MCC, Woodfull carried his bat for 67* as Victoria collapsed against 18