Merv Wallace

Who was Merv Wallace?

Walter Mervyn Wallace was a New Zealand cricketer and Test match captain. Former New Zealand captain John Reid called him "The most under-rated cricketer to have worn the silver fern." He was nicknamed "Flip" by his teammates, because that was the strongest expletive they heard him say.

Wallace was born in Grey Lynn, Auckland. He was coached at Eden Park by Ted Bowley and Jim Parks, but left school aged 13. He played cricket with his brother, George Wallace, with the Point Chevalier Cricket Club, and then the Auckland under-20 side. He played for Parnell cricket club from the age of 16, and made his debut for Auckland in the Plunket Shield in December 1933.

He toured to England in 1937, in a team weakened by a policy of refusing to select professional cricketers. He scored two half-centuries on his Test debut, at Lord's. He headed the tour batting averages, scoring 1,641 runs at a batting average of 41.02. After his first three Tests in England, the peak years of his cricketing career were lost to the Second World War, and he did not play Test cricket again until March 1946. He scored 211, his highest first-class score, against Canterbury in January 1940. He joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, but was invalided out due to stomach muscle problems caused by an appendix operation.