Sydney William "Syd" Ward (5 August 1907 – 31 December 2010) was an Australian

Australian people

Australian people, or simply Australians, are the citizens of Australia. Australia is a multi-ethnic nation, and therefore the term "Australian" is not a racial identifier. Aside from the Indigenous Australian population, nearly all Australians or their ancestors immigrated within the past 230 years...

-born New Zealand cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er. Ward was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm medium pace

Seam bowling

Seam bowling is a phrase used for a bowling technique in cricket whereby the ball is deliberately bowled on to its seam, to cause a random deviation. Practitioners are known as seam bowlers or seamers....

. He was born at Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 and, until his death, was considered the oldest living first-class cricketer and the second oldest ever behind Jim Hutchinson

Jim Hutchinson

James Metcalf Hutchinson was an English cricketer who played more than 250 first-class games for Derbyshire between 1920 and 1931...

, who at the time of his death was 103 years and 344 days. Following his death, Cyril Perkins

Cyril Perkins

George Cyril Perkins is a former English cricketer. Perkins was a right-handed batsman who bowled both slow left-arm orthodox and left-arm medium pace. He was born in Wollaston, Northamptonshire. On 4 June 2011, he became the 12th former first-class player to reach 100 years of age, and the 4th...

 became the oldest living first-class cricketer.

Ward was born in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, but moved to New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 at some point prior to playing first-class cricket

First-class cricket

First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 for Wellington

Wellington Firebirds

The Wellington Firebirds are one of six New Zealand first-class cricket teams that make up New Zealand Cricket.It is based in Wellington. It competes in the State Championship first class competition, the State Shield domestic one day competition and the State Twenty20 Cricket Tournament.The...

. His first-class debut for Wellington came in the 1929/30 Plunket Shield against Otago

Otago Volts

The Otago Volts are a first class cricket team representing the Otago Cricket Association, one of six major associations that make up New Zealand Cricket....

. From 1929/30 to 1937/38, he represented Wellington in 10 first-class matches, with his final first-class match coming against Canterbury

Canterbury Wizards

The Canterbury Wizards are a New Zealand first class cricket team based in Canterbury, New Zealand. It is one of six teams that make up New Zealand Cricket and has been the most successful domestic team in New Zealand history...

. In his 20 first-class matches, he scored 282 runs at a batting average

Batting average

Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...

 of 14.84, with a single half century high score of 61, which came against Auckland

Auckland Aces

The Auckland domestic cricket team represent the Auckland region and are one of six New Zealand domestic first class cricket teams. Governed by the Auckland Cricket Association they are the most successful side having won 26 Plunket Shield titles, eight Domestic One Day Championships and the HRV...

 in the 1934/35 season.

Outside of cricket, there is an indication that Ward played football for Waterside

Waterside Karori

Waterside Karori AFC is an association football club in Karori, a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand.Waterside Karori was formed in 19881 when Karori Swifts merged with Waterside. These two clubs had contrasting origins: Swifts were founded in 1894 from a Sunday School, and Waterside were founded...

, who won the 1940 Chatham Cup

1940 Chatham Cup

The 1940 Chatham Cup was the 17th annual nationwide knockout football competition in New Zealand, and the last such competition before the suspension of the Chatham Cup due to World War II. The competition resumed in 1945 as hostilities were drawing to a close....

, with Ward scoring a goal in the final against Mosgiel as Waterside ran out 6-2 winners. This was the teams third straight title.

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