Harold Monaghan

New Zealand cricketer and clergyman (1886–1958)

Harold Monaghan

Personal information
Full name|

Harold Wyatt Monaghan

Born| (1886-10-07)7 October 1886
Karori, Wellington, New Zealand
Died| 15 October 1958(1958-10-15) (aged 72)
Levin, New Zealand
Batting| Left-handed
Bowling| Right-arm medium-pace
Domestic team information
Years| Team
1905–06 to 1910–11| Wellington
1913–14| Canterbury
Career statistics
| Competition | First-class

|

Matches | 15
Runs scored | 354
Batting average | 18.63
100s/50s | 0/0
Top score | 47*
Balls bowled | 2,765
Wickets | 59
Bowling average | 20.49
5 wickets in innings | 2
10 wickets in match | 0
Best bowling | 7/50
Catches/stumpings | 7/–

Source: Cricket Archive, 1 September 2014

Harold Wyatt Monaghan (7 October 1886 – 15 October 1958) was a New Zealand first-class cricketer and a clergyman in the Anglican Church.

## Cricket career

[edit]

Monaghan made his first-class debut for Wellington in 1905-06, when in two matches he took 14 wickets at an average of 9.71,[1] including 5 for 42 and 4 for 53 in his second match against Auckland, when he opened the bowling with Ernest Upham.[2] He took 7 for 95 when Wellington played Melbourne Cricket Club later in the season, and was selected to play for New Zealand later in the same tour, but took only one wicket, that of Warwick Armstrong. Both matches were non-first-class.[3] In March 1906 "Long Slip", the cricket writer of the Otago Witness, wrote: "Monaghan is now probably the best bowler in New Zealand, his swerve being a decided and puzzling one."[4]

His 1906-07 season consisted of two matches for Wellington against the touring MCC. In the first match he took 7 for 50 in the first innings.[5] He continued to play for Wellington until 1910-11.

Monaghan moved to Canterbury for the 1913-14 season, forming an opening-bowling partnership with George Wilson that enabled Canterbury to win all four of their Plunket Shield matches. Monaghan took 14 wickets at 17.92 in the Shield.[6] In the match against Auckland he scored 46 and 39, taking part in two batting partnerships with Wilson of 83 (for the tenth wicket) and 59 (for the ninth), as well as taking 2 for 46 and 3 for 73.[7]

The former New Zealand captain Thomas Cobcroft thought that, apart from the Australian Tom McKibbin, Monaghan was the most difficult bowler he ever faced: "just as you had made your stroke to drive him, his ball would swing and drop suddenly. A great pity for New Zealand cricket that this promising bowler went out of the game so early."[8] Monaghan was 27 when he played his last first-class match. He badly fractured his right arm in 1915 and played little cricket of any sort thereafter, and then mostly as a batsman.[9]

## Clerical career and personal life

[edit]

Monaghan was educated at Wellington College, where he was head prefect in 1904,[10] and Victoria University, where he was awarded the degree of Master of Arts (with "second-class honours in mental science") in 1910.[11] He was ordained a deacon in Christchurch in 1913, and a priest in 1914.[12]

He was a vicar at Richmond in Christchurch,[13] in Ross on the West Coast, in Pahiatua in the Wairarapa, and was later Archdeacon of Timaru and of Rangitikei.[14][15]

Monaghan wrote four books:

* The Wicket Gate: A Sunday School Manual (1931, reprinted 1959)
* Christ in You: A Manual for Communicants  (1932, reprinted several times)
* A Joy for Ever: St. Mary's Parish Church, Timaru (1945)
* From Age to Age: The Story of the Church of England in the Diocese of Wellington, 1858–1958 (1957)[16]

Monaghan married Jessie Butler in Wellington in October 1913.[17] They had five children.[18] Their sons David, also a cricketer,[19] and Gerald died on active service in World War II.[20][21] He died at his home in Levin in October 1958, aged 72, survived by his widow, two daughters and a son.[12]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Harold Monaghan bowling by season
2. ^ Wellington v Auckland 1905-06
3. ^ "Melbourne Cricket Club in New Zealand 1905-06". CricketArchive. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
4. ^ "Notes by Long Slip". Otago Witness: 62. 7 March 1906.
5. ^ Wellington v MCC 1906-07
6. ^ Plunket Shield bowling 1913-14
7. ^ Canterbury v Auckland 1913-14
8. ^ New Zealand Truth, 30 September 1922, p. 7.
9. ^ Rex Bowden, Green Fields of Yesteryears, Timaru, 1993, pp. 44–45.
10. ^ Evening Post, 14 April 1931, p. 11.
11. ^ "Conferring the Degrees". Evening Post. LXXIX (152): 8. 30 June 1910. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
12. ^ a b "Archdeacon H. W. Monaghan". Press: 7. 16 October 1958.
13. ^ "Cricket". Free Lance. XVII (908): 19. 14 December 1917. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
14. ^ "Men for the War". Dominion. XI (273): 6. 7 August 1918. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
15. ^ Wisden 1960, p. 958.
16. ^ National Library of New Zealand catalogue
17. ^ "Social Gossip". Free Lance: 16. 11 October 1913.
18. ^ In memory of Sheila Mary Monaghan Retrieved 1 September 2014.
19. ^ David Monaghan at CricketArchive
20. ^ Monaghan, David Wyatt Retrieved 1 September 2014.
21. ^ "Gerald Cawte Monaghan". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 7 July 2022 – via Online Cenotaph.

## External links

[edit]

* Harold Monaghan at ESPNcricinfo
* Harold Monaghan at CricketArchive (subscription required)

Authority control databases

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* ISNI
* VIAF
* WorldCat

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