Ces Dacre

Charles Christian Ralph Dacre, more commonly known as Ces Dacre, was a cricket player from New Zealand who also represented the New Zealand in football . He was born 15 May 1899 in Devonport, Auckland and died there on 2 November 1975. He played in the Auckland and Gloucestershire teams and was in New Zealand's first team to go to England in 1927, though no Tests were played on the tour.

Rugby career

Dacre played rugby union in the War years for the Railway club (a wartime combination of the Marist and City clubs). In 1917 he was involved in a breakaway movement from the club that switched to rugby league, playing matches against Ponsonby United and the City Rovers.Coffey, John and Bernie Wood Auckland, 100 years of rugby league, 1909-2009, 2009. ISBN 9781869693664. Railway XIII merged with Grafton Athletic for the 1918 Auckland Rugby League season, though it is unknown if Dacre was still with the club.

Cricket career

Dacre was a hard-hitting, somewhat impetuous, right-handed middle order batsman and an occasional slow left-arm bowler, who also kept wicket a few times in a first-class career that spanned more than 20 years. An outstanding schoolboy cricketer, he made his debut for Auckland when only 15 and appeared regularly for the team until the 1927-28 season, and then again in two matches in 1932-33.

He toured Australia twice and England once with New Zealand cricket teams in the period before New Zealand played Tests. In 1927, in a...
Read More