Syd Ward (cricketer)

Sydney William Ward (5 August 1907 – 31 December 2010) was an Australian-born New Zealand cricketer. Ward was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm medium pace.

Syd Ward

Syd Ward in December 1933
Personal information
Full name	Sydney William Ward
Born	(1907-08-05)5 August 1907 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died	31 December 2010(2010-12-31) (aged 103) Featherston, New Zealand
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm medium
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1929/30–1937/38	Wellington
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 10 Runs scored 282 Batting average 14.84 100s/50s  –/1 Top score 61 Balls bowled 36 Wickets  – Bowling average  – 5 wickets in innings  – 10 wickets in match  – Best bowling  – Catches/stumpings 9/-
Source: Cricinfo, 9 July 2010

From the death of Frank Shipston on 6 July 2005 until his death, Ward was considered the oldest living first-class cricketer and the second oldest ever, behind Jim Hutchinson.^[1] Following his death, Cyril Perkins became the oldest living first-class cricketer.^[2]

Ward was born in Sydney, Australia – hence his name – and moved to New Zealand in 1917 prior to playing first-class cricket for Wellington in the late 1920s. Alongside cricket, when he was young he was also proficient at rugby, athletics, and football.^[3]

His first-class debut for Wellington came in the 1929/30 Plunket Shield against Otago.^[4] From 1929/30 to 1937/38, he represented Wellington in 10 first-class matches, with his final first-class match coming against Canterbury.^[5] In his 20 first-class innings, he scored 282 runs at a batting average of 14.84, with a single half century high score of 61, which came against Auckland in the 1934/35 season.^[6] In 1937–38 he was the leading batsman in Wellington senior club cricket, with 642 runs at an average of 64.20 for Kilbirnie, who won the championship.^[7][8]

He played representative rugby for Wellington between 1931 and 1934, when a broken leg ended his football career.^[9]

Ward served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force in World War II, stationed at Nelson.^[10][11] He worked as a watchmaker – initially as his father's apprentice^[3] – and jeweller in Wellington until 1982, then retired to the Wairarapa farming village of Kaiwaiwai, between Featherston and Martinborough.