West Coast cricket team was a cricket team nominally representing the West Coast of the North Island of New Zealand, but actually from Whanganui.[1]
West Coast appeared twice in recorded cricket. The first match was a first-class match against Wellington in 1879 at the Basin Reserve.[a][2][3] Captained by George Anson, the team won its only appearance in first-class cricket by 6 wickets. In the low-scoring match, William Barton scored 75 not out in West Coast's first innings; the next-highest score in the match was 26.[4] The team's second appearance came in a one-day match against Wellington in 1882.[5] The New Zealand captain and cricket historian Dan Reese later wrote: "For a couple of years ... Wanganui cricket reached first-class standard, chiefly on account of Barton, then the best batsman in New Zealand, being resident there. But neither before nor since have they been first-class."[6]
A West Coast Cricket Association was formed in 1888, based in Wanganui and including Hāwera and Feilding.[7] It lapsed in the 1890s, and never fielded a representative team. It should not be confused with the South Island's West Coast Cricket Association, formed around the same time, based in Greymouth, which is still in existence.[8][9]
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