Bert Sutcliffe was the golden boy of New Zealand cricket, a batsman of dazzling gifts; the course of his career, however, shows what a cruel game Test cricket can be. Fair-haired and good-looking, the tall and slim Sutcliffe was a left-hander who possessed all the strokes – best of all a classic off-drive – and an absolute determination to use them. He reached his peak on the New Zealanders’ tour of England in 1949. Patsy Hendren, watching him massacre the bowling in the nets at Lord’s before the season began, prophesied he would score two and a half thousand runs that summer. In the event, Hendren proved 127 runs short of the mark.
On the slow pitches of May, Sutcliffe showed a tendency to get out to the hook shot, but as the weather improved (1949 was an exceptionally dry summer) he achieved a remarkable consistency for so dashing a player. The moment of transformation came on 17 June, when the New Zealanders had to make 109 runs in thirty-five minutes to beat Hampshire. They reached this total with four minutes to spare, thanks to an astonishing innings from Sutcliffe, who hit three sixes and four fours as he raced to 46 in thirteen minutes. The next day he scored 187 against a Surrey attack who included Alec Bedser and Jim Laker.
Six further centuries followed that summer, including one in the third Test at Manchester. By August Sutcliffe was in such form that he reeled off successive scores of 243 and 100 not out against Essex; 88 and 54 in the fourth Test at the Oval; 61 and 79 not out against Lancashire; 40 and 12 not out against Kent; and 59 and 110 not out against Middlesex, the joint county champions. In the four Tests, all of which were drawn, Sutcliffe was equally consistent, scoring 423 runs from seven innings for an average of 60.42. His average for all first-class matches for the tour was 59.70; at the time only Don Bradman had scored more runs on a tour of England. Moreover, Sutcliffe’s fielding, whether close to the bat or in the deep, was invariably brilliant.
The series of 1953–54 in South Africa proved to be the turning point in Sutcliffe’s career. On Christmas Eve 1953, New Zealand suffered its worst rail disaster when 151 people were killed, among them the fiancée of Bob Blair, one of the team’s bowlers. The side were still coming to terms with the tragedy on Boxing Day when, at Johannesburg in the second Test, they were caught on a flying wicket by the pace of Neil Adcock and Peter Heine. Up to that moment Sutcliffe had always played fast bowling with skill and courage, but at Johannesburg he had only made nine when he was struck behind the left ear by a ball from Adcock and taken to hospital. Twice he fainted; nevertheless he returned to the crease with his head bandaged, and hit seven sixes and four fours in a remarkable 80 not out, scored out of 106 in 112 minutes. There was, however, a hint of desperation about the performance, and in those days without helmets he never regained confidence against the fiercest pace bowling. Sutcliffe went on playing Test cricket until 1965, and on easy batting wickets against bowlers of moderate pace could still dominate. But the dream of the golden boy who could put any attack to the sword had gone forever.
Bert Sutcliffe: b Ponsonby, Auckland, 17 November 1923; d 20 April 2001