Bill Merritt

Infobox Historic Cricketer


nationality = New Zealand
country = New Zealand
country abbrev = NZ
name = Bill Merritt
picture = Cricket_no_pic.pngbatting style = Right-hand bat
bowling style = Legbreak googly
tests = 6
test runs = 73
test bat avg = 10.42
test 100s/50s = 0/0
test top score = 19
test balls = 936
test wickets = 12
test bowl avg = 51.41
test 5s = 0
test 10s = 0
test best bowling = 4/104
test catches/stumpings = 2/-
FCs = 125
FC runs = 3147
FC bat avg = 19.91
FC 100s/50s = 0/12
FC top score = 87
FC balls = 24255
FC wickets = 537
FC bowl avg = 25.45
FC 5s = 37
FC 10s = 8
FC best bowling = 8/41
FC catches/stumpings = 58/-
debut date = 10 January
debut year = 1930
last date = 29 July
last year = 1931
source = http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/37716.html Cricinfo

William Edward "Bill" Merritt, born on 18 August, 1908, and died at Christchurch, New Zealand on 9 June, 1977, was a cricketer who played for Canterbury, Northamptonshire and New Zealand.

A leg break and googly bowler and a forceful lower order batsman, Merritt had played just four first-class matches when he was selected for the New Zealand tour to England in 1927 – in one of the four, he had taken eight Otago wickets for 68 runs in an innings. The 1927 tour, though no Test matches were played, was a triumph: Merritt took 107 wickets and Wisden ref|w28 noted that though "he showed no great command of length... on certain days – and these were fairly frequent – he had the best of batsmen in trouble".

Merritt was a certain selection when New Zealand were elevated to Test status with the MCC tour of 1929-30, but failed to live up to expectations. In the four Tests, he took just eight wickets and, though he bowled more than any other New Zealand player, his bowling was hit for more than 3.6 runs an over, a high scoring rate for those days. Returning to England on the 1931 tour, he took 99 first-class wickets, but failed in the Tests and was dropped for the final Test at Manchester, which was in any case ruined by rain. Wisden ref|w32 noted that "he had his great days but in many matches bowled the bad ball far too often". Problems with maintaining a length were compounded by a tendency to over-bowl the googly at the expense of the more effective leg-break.

At the end of the 1931 tour, Merritt stayed in England to play League cricket, and by 1938 he had qualified by residence to play for Northamptonshire, where his New Zealand Test colleague Ken James had settled as wicket-keeper. In his one full season for the county, 1939, he scored 926 runs and took 87 wickets, though in this one English season of eight-ball overs he was conceding runs at almost five an over. He was instrumental, with 12 wickets, in enabling Northamptonshire to record their first victory in first-class cricket for almost four years, against Cambridge University, and followed that up with six wickets in an innings when, in the same month of May 1939, the team beat another county (Leicestershire) for the first time since May 1935.

Merritt returned to Northamptonshire to play one season after the Second World War, but his appearances were restricted by a League contract to midweek games. He retired into the Leagues full-time after 1946, returning to New Zealand only in the 1960s.

References

* Wisden, 1928 edition, page 452
* Wisden, 1932 edition, page 5