Bert Oldfield

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title: "Bert Oldfield" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1894-births", "1976-deaths", "australia-test-cricketers", "australian-cricketers", "australian-cricket-coaches", "new-south-wales-cricketers", "wisden-cricketers-of-the-year", "cricketers-from-sydney", "australian-imperial-force-touring-xi-cricketers", "australian-members-of-the-order-of-the-british-empire", "australian-military-personnel-of-world-war-i", "australian-army-soldiers", "wicket-keepers", "20th-century-australian-sportsmen", "people-from-the-north-shore,-sydney"] description: "Australian cricketer (1894–1976)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Oldfield" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Australian cricketer (1894–1976) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox cricketer"]

Field	Value
name	Bert Oldfield
honorific_suffix
image	Studio Portrait of William Oldfield, ca. 1925.jpg
country	Australia
fullname	William Albert Stanley Oldfield
birth_date
birth_place	Alexandria, New South Wales, Australia
death_date
death_place	Killara, Sydney, Australia
batting	Right-handed
role	Wicket-keeper
international	true
testdebutdate	17 December
testdebutyear	1920
testdebutagainst	England
testcap	109
lasttestdate	3 March
lasttestyear	1937
lasttestagainst	England
club1	New South Wales
year1	1919–1938
columns	2
column1	Test
matches1	54
runs1	1,427
bat avg1	22.65
100s/50s1	0/4
top score1	65*
deliveries1	0
wickets1	–
bowl avg1	–
fivefor1	–
tenfor1	–
best bowling1	–
catches/stumpings1	78/52
column2	First-class
matches2	245
runs2	6,135
bat avg2	23.77
100s/50s2	6/21
top score2	137
deliveries2	0
wickets2	–
bowl avg2	–
fivefor2	–
tenfor2	–
best bowling2	–
catches/stumpings2	399/263
date	29 September
year	2009
source	http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/7003.html Cricinfo
module	{{Infobox military person
embed	yes
allegiance	Australia
branch	Australian Army
rank	Corporal
unit	15th Field Ambulance (AIF)
battles
caption	Oldfield
::

| name = Bert Oldfield | honorific_suffix = | image = Studio Portrait of William Oldfield, ca. 1925.jpg | country = Australia | fullname = William Albert Stanley Oldfield | birth_date = | birth_place = Alexandria, New South Wales, Australia | death_date = | death_place = Killara, Sydney, Australia | batting = Right-handed | role = Wicket-keeper | international = true | testdebutdate = 17 December | testdebutyear = 1920 | testdebutagainst = England | testcap = 109 | lasttestdate = 3 March | lasttestyear = 1937 | lasttestagainst = England | club1 = New South Wales | year1 = 1919–1938 | columns = 2 | column1 = Test | matches1 = 54 | runs1 = 1,427 | bat avg1 = 22.65 | 100s/50s1 = 0/4 | top score1 = 65* | deliveries1 = 0 | wickets1 = – | bowl avg1 = – | fivefor1 = – | tenfor1 = – | best bowling1 = – | catches/stumpings1 = 78/52 | column2 = First-class | matches2 = 245 | runs2 = 6,135 | bat avg2 = 23.77 | 100s/50s2 = 6/21 | top score2 = 137 | deliveries2 = 0 | wickets2 = – | bowl avg2 = – | fivefor2 = – | tenfor2 = – | best bowling2 = – | catches/stumpings2 = 399/263 | date = 29 September | year = 2009 | source = http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/7003.html Cricinfo | module = {{Infobox military person | embed = yes | allegiance = Australia | branch = Australian Army | rank = Corporal | unit = 15th Field Ambulance (AIF) | battles =

• World War I
  • Western Front
    • Ypres Salient |caption=Oldfield

William Albert Stanley Oldfield (9 September 1894 – 10 August 1976) was an Australian cricketer and businessman. He played for New South Wales and Australia as a wicket-keeper. Oldfield's 52 stumpings during his Test career remains a record several decades after his final Test.

Early life

Oldfield was born in Alexandria, a suburb of Sydney, the seventh and youngest child of John William Oldfield, an upholsterer born in Manchester and his Australian wife Mary Gregory.

Military service

During World War I, Oldfield served with the army in the first Australian Imperial Force as a Corporal in the 15th Field Ambulance. He was wounded and knocked unconscious at Ypres Salient in 1917, and spent six months recovering from shell shock. At the conclusion of the war, he was selected to be part of the Australian Imperial Forces cricket team, which played 28 first-class matches in Britain, South Africa, and Australia between May 1919 and February 1920.

Career

Oldfield made his first-class debut in England in 1919, and played his first Test match against England in his hometown of Sydney in the 1920–21 season. In 1921, it was reported that he entered into negotiations to play for Lancashire as an amateur. He had injured himself on the passage to the UK in 1921, giving Carter the chance to restore his position, although Oldfield replaced him for the last two Tests. He was dropped for several matches over the next few years, but established himself as Australia's automatic selection for wicket-keeper in the 1924–25 Ashes series against England.

He missed only one other Test in his career, the fourth Test of the 1932–33 Bodyline series. In the notorious third Test at Adelaide, the English Bodyline tactic of bowling fast balls directed at the Australian batsmen's bodies reached its most dramatic moment when a ball from fast bowler Harold Larwood hit Oldfield in the head, fracturing his skull (although this was from a top edge off a traditional non-Bodyline ball and Oldfield admitted it was his fault). Oldfield was carried from the ground unconscious. He recovered in time for the fifth Test of the series. Always an easy-going personality, Oldfield immediately forgave Larwood for the incident, and the two eventually became firm friends when Larwood later emigrated to Australia. Oldfield played Test cricket for four more years, ending his career in 1937. He was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1927.

Oldfield played 54 Tests for Australia, scoring 1,427 runs at an average of 22.65, and taking 78 catches and 52 stumpings. His tally of 52 stumpings remains a Test career world record; 28 were off Clarrie Grimmett alone. In first-class cricket he played 245 matches, scoring 6,135 runs at an average of 23.77, and taking 399 catches and 263 stumpings.

After retiring from cricket, he coached, taking several schoolboys teams on overseas tours. He was awarded an MBE in 1970.

Death and legacy

Oldfield died in Killara, Sydney, on 10 August 1976.

In 1988, a public school in Seven Hills, New South Wales was renamed as Bert Oldfield Public School to commemorate his life. A cricket oval in the Sydney suburb of Killara, where he lived later in life, is named in Oldfield's honour.

Gallery

File:Bert Oldfield.jpg|Portrait of Bert Oldfield File:CrackerOldfield.jpg|Portrait of Bert Oldfield, 1930. File:Bodyline 3rd Test Oldfield 01.jpg|A ball from Harold Larwood hits Bert Oldfield in the head. File:Bert oldfield keep.jpg|Bert Oldfield wicketkeeping File:BertOldfield-autograph.jpg|Autograph written at Bert Oldfield's Sports Store in 243 Pitt Street, Sydney

References

References

1. "Bert Oldfield". ESPN Cricinfo.
2. R.I. Cashman. "Oddfield, William Albert Stanley (Bert)". Australian Dictionary of Biography.
3. ''The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket'', Oxford, Melbourne, 1996, p. 401.
4. "Notes and Comments".
5. In 1964, he spent a month coaching cricketers in [[Ethiopia]], and met [[Haile Selassie]].''[[Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. Wisden]]'' 1965, p. 127.
6. "Home – Bert Oldfield Public School".
7. "Killara Park / W.A. Bert Oldfield Oval".

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