Southland's greatest ever batsman has died
No Southlander has played test cricket for New Zealand since Robert "Jumbo" Anderson did against England in 1978, although there is hope that might change next month, 47 years on.
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Robert “Jumbo” Anderson - the last Southland cricketer to play in a test match for New Zealand - has died.
Anderson died aged 76 in Whangarei on Friday.
The talented right-hand top-order batsman was a key figure during one of Southland cricket’s golden eras. It included helping Southland defend the prized Hawke Cup on four occasions during the 1973-74 season.
He scored a remarkable 561 runs at an average of 93.50 with three centuries during that season.
Southland Cricket Association life member Gerry Ward recalls people flocking to Queens Park just to watch Anderson bat, given how entertaining the man known as Jumbo was.
Anderson produced one of Southland cricket's greatest batting performances in 1977 in a Hawke Cup defence against Ashburton County when he posted 255 at Queens Park in Invercargill.
He was named in the all-time Hawke Cup “Team of the Century” which was revealed in 2011 to mark 100 years of Hawke Cup cricket in New Zealand.
Fellow Southland players Gren Alabaster and Richard Hoskin were also included in that “Team of the Century”.
All up, Anderson played in 16 Hawke Cup challenge matches, scoring 1773 runs at an average of 70.29.
He also had stints playing for Northland and Manawatu at Hawke Cup level and played first-class cricket for Otago, Canterbury, and Northern Districts.
Anderson toured England with New Zealand in 1973 but did not play in any of the international matches on the tour.
He made his Test match debut against Pakistan on New Zealand's 1976–77 tour, playing in all three Test matches as well as the sole One Day International (ODI) on the tour.
It included scoring 92 in the opening match, but Anderson did not retain his place for the tour of India which followed.
Anderson played in all three home Tests against England in 1977–78, and all three on New Zealand's tour to England in 1978 as well as one of the two ODIs on the tour.
All up, Anderson played in nine test matches, although he was never able to make a real mark at that level scoring 423 runs at an average of 23.50.
No Southlander has played test cricket since Anderson did against England in 1978, although there is hope that might change next month, 47 years on.
New Zealand is scheduled to play two tests against Zimbabwe in July-August, with Southland’s Jacob Duffy pushing for a spot on that tour.
Interestingly, Robert Anderson's father, Mac Anderson, played one Test match for New Zealand in 1946, while Robert's son Tim played for Central Districts as a leg-spinner from 1997–98 to 2002–03.
In 2008, Robert and Tim started a mortgage-broking company.
Robert Anderson spent his later years in life living in Whangarei. His funeral will be held on Saturday in Whangārei.