Bob Cristofani

Who was Bob Cristofani?

Desmond Robert Cristofani, known as Bob Cristofani, was an Australian cricketer who played 18 first-class matches in the 1940s. 14 of those games were for the Australian Services, three for New South Wales and one for the Dominions.

His best performances were both for the Australian Services side in the 1945 Victory Tests against England. In July at Lord's, in the first first-class match since the break forced by the Second World War, he took 5/49. With the bat, his solitary hundred came a month later at Old Trafford, when he scored an unbeaten 110 from number eight. He also took 5/55 in the first innings of this match, but England won by six wickets.

Cristofani's century was mentioned in E. W. Swanton's article "Cricket under the Japs" in the 1946 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. At the end of his piece, Swanton wrote of his experience shortly after the end of the war and his release from his prisoner of war camp:

I had, by then, already taken my first walk for three and a half years as a free man. We found ourselves in a Thai village on the edge of the jungle. In the little café our hosts politely turned on the English programme. Yes, we were at Old Trafford, and a gentleman called Cristofani was getting a hundred....