Nelson cricket team

Nelson cricket team is a cricket team representing the Nelson Region of New Zealand. It played first-class cricket from 1874 to 1891, and currently competes in the Hawke Cup.

Cricket was first reported as being played in Nelson in the Nelson Examiner in March 1844, in a match between the Surveyors of the Land Company and Nelson. Nelson as a representative team played interprovincial cricket as early as 1862, later first playing first-class cricket in 1873-74 against Wellington at the Basin Reserve, becoming the fifth team to play first-class cricket in New Zealand. This match is also notable for having ended in a tie, the eighth time this had happened and one of sixty occasions overall that a first-class match has ended in such a result.

Over the coming seasons, Nelson averaged one first-class match a year, all but one of them against Wellington, before appearing in first-class cricket for a final time in 1891 against Wellington at Trafalgar Park. Nelson played 17 times in first-class cricket, winning nine and losing seven. Nelson used three home grounds during this period, all of them in the city of Nelson: Victory Square, the Botanical Gardens and Trafalgar Park.

The 17 matches were extremely low-scoring affairs. Only twice did a side reach 200, and on 40 occasions a side was dismissed for under 100. Nelson's highest team score was 238 in 1880-81, when Louis Balmain, in his only first-class match, top-scored with 40, having top-scored with 50, Nelson's first individual fifty, in the first innings. Nelson's only other fifty was a 52 made by Andrew Bennett in 1886-87. The best innings and match figures were 9 for 43 and 5 for 20 by Thomas Eden in 1875-76. Bennett, in his only other first-class match, took 6 for 13 and 6 for 5 in 1885-86.

The origin of the "Nelson" superstition in cricket is unknown. However, in both Nelson's first and last innings in first-class cricket they were dismissed for 111 – "Nelson".

Nelson today competes in the Hawke Cup, which is played below first-class level. Nelson has won the competition several times, and holds the record for the longest period of holding the trophy, from December 1958 to February 1965.

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