Arthur Cresswell

Who was Arthur Cresswell?

Arthur Edward Cresswell was a New Zealand cricketer who played for Wellington and was one of the first players who played for Central Districts in the early 1950s. He was the younger brother of Fen Cresswell.

A right-arm fast-medium bowler, Cresswell was first selected for Marlborough as an 18-year-old in 1935 from the Wairau Club. During World War II he was a leading member of the New Zealand Army XI, along with players such as Bert Sutcliffe and Verdun Scott.

Following the war Cresswell was unhappy with the opportunities to play regular cricket in Marlborough and decided to play club cricket in Wellington, commuting from Blenheim to Wellington by Tiger Moth aeroplane every weekend.

Cresswell played for Wellington between 1948 and 1950 and Central Districts between 1950 and 1952, finishing his career with 13 first-class matches in which he took 38 wickets at 22.55. His best innings figures came in his second first-class match, for Wellington against Canterbury at Wellington in 1948-49, when he took 3 for 41 and 5 for 32 in an eight-wicket victory for Wellington, and his best match figures came in the next match, against Otago in Dunedin, when he took 5 for 57 and 4 for 58. He was the New Zealand Cricket Almanack Player of the Year in 1949.