Neil Hawke
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cricket information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batting style | Right-hand bat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right-arm medium-fast | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Source: [1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Neil Hawke | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal information | |||
| Full name | Neil James Napier Hawke | ||
| Original team(s) |
Port Adelaide (SANFL) East Perth (WAFL) West Torrens (SANFL) |
||
| Height / weight | 185 cm / 91 kg | ||
| Position(s) | Full Forward/Centre Half Forward | ||
Neil James Napier Hawke (27 June 1939 – 25 December 2000) was an Australian Test cricketer and leading Australian rules footballer.
Born in Cheltenham, South Australia, Hawke quickly developed as a natural all-round sportsman who excelled in cricket, football and golf and made his senior Australian rules football debut for South Australian National Football League (SANFL) club Port Adelaide in August 1957. Hawke stamped himself as a future champion when in his third game he kicked 15 goals for Port against South Adelaide before being surprisingly dropped two weeks later.
Hawke quit Port at the end of 1957 to try his hand in Western Australia and made his West Australian National Football League (WANFL) debut in 1958 for East Perth Football Club, playing 42 matches and kicking 157 goals in two seasons with the Royals, including East Perth's 1958 and 1959 premierships. Hawke topped the WANFL's goalkicking list in 1959 with 114 goals, represented Western Australia against South Australia and gained local fame for apparently being the first footballer to perfect the drop punt over a long distance. Previously, the drop punt was only used over short distances on wet days but Hawke's innovation was said to have revolutionised the game in Western Australia.
Fresh from his success on the football field, Hawke also made an impact on the cricket field as a medium-fast swing bowler with an unusual "crab-like'" action, a capable lower-order batsman and a sound fieldsman. He made his first-class cricket debut for Western Australia in November 1959, scoring 89 and returning the figures of 0/49. However, Hawke failed to capitalise on this initial success and returned to South Australia at the end of the 1959/60 cricket season.
Playing for West Torrens Football Club in the SANFL and South Australia in the Sheffield Shield, Hawke continued to star in both football and cricket. Hawke was part of the 1963 South Australian football team that defeated Victoria at the Melbourne Cricket Ground; the first time South Australia had won at the MCG since 1926, and in so doing became the first (and still the only) person to have represented both South Australia and Western Australia in Australian Rules football and cricket. His cricket also developed enough for him to make his Test debut on 15 February 1963 in the Fifth Ashes Test against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground, scoring 14 and recording match figures of 2/89.
...
Wikipedia