Wendell Bill

Wendell Bill

Personal information
Full name	Oscar Wendell Bill
Born	(1910-04-08)8 April 1910 Waverley, Sydney, Australia
Died	10 May 1988(1988-05-10) (aged 78) Sydney, Australia
Batting	Right-handed
Role	Opening batsman
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1929/30–1935/36	New South Wales
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 35 Runs scored 1,931 Batting average 37.86 100s/50s 6/4 Top score 153 Catches/stumpings 20/–
Source: Cricinfo, 22 December 2016

Oscar Wendell Bill (8 April 1910 – 10 May 1988) was an Australian cricketer.[1] He played 35 first-class matches, mostly for New South Wales, between 1929–30 and 1935–36.[2]

Life and career

Bill was one of the children of George Thomas Bill, an English-born lecturer at the University of Sydney.[3] Before he played first-class cricket, Bill was a substitute fielder for New South Wales in one of their matches against the touring MCC in 1928–29; he ended up fielding for most of the match as both sides lost players to injury.[3]

An opening batsman, Bill made a century on his first-class debut against Tasmania in 1929–30.[4] He made his highest score of 153 in 1930–31 against Queensland in the Sheffield Shield.[5]

Bill toured India and Ceylon with the Australian team in 1935–36, scoring three centuries in the first-class matches, including 101 against Ceylon after Ceylon had been dismissed for 96.[6] In the low-scoring unofficial Test at Calcutta he was the top-scorer on either side with 16 and 45 not out.[7] He was one of the Australians' leading batsmen until the match against Patiala when, on 118, his jaw was broken by a delivery from the fast bowler Mohammad Nissar. It was Bill's last first-class match.[8] He wrote a continuing account of the tour for the weekly Sydney Mail between November 1935 and March 1936.[9]

In November 1931, Bill appeared with his New South Wales teammate Don Bradman for a Blackheath team against a team from Lithgow in a match to celebrate the laying of a new artificial pitch at Blackheath. At one point, in three eight-ball overs, Bradman scored 100 runs while Bill, at the other end, made two singles.[10][8]

During World War II, Bill was in the Australian Army from May 1943 to March 1946, serving as a private in an anti-aircraft unit.[11] He married Patricia Adams in Sydney in March 1946.[12] He worked in Alan Kippax's sporting goods store in Sydney before becoming a partner in his own sporting goods store.[8]

References

1. "Wendell Bill". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
2. "Wendell Bill". Cricket Archive. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
3. Jack Pollard, Australian Cricket: The Game and the Players, Hodder & Stoughton, Sydney, 1982, pp. 141–42.
4. "New South Wales v Tasmania 1929-30". CricketArchive. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
5. "Queensland v New South Wales 1930-31". Cricinfo. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
6. "All Ceylon v Australians 1935-36". Cricinfo. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
7. "India v Australians Calcutta 1935-36". Cricinfo. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
8. The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket, Oxford, Melbourne, 1996, p. 61.
9. Bill, Wendell (18 March 1936). "With the Australians in India". The Sydney Mail: 27.
10. Williamson, Martin. "Bradman blitz at Blackheath". Cricinfo. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
11. "World War Two Service". DVA. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
12. "Archbishop Officiates at Test Cricketer's Wedding". The Daily Telegraph: 18. 6 March 1946.

External links

• Wendell Bill at ESPNcricinfo