Neil Hawke

Australia|Bowler
Neil Hawke
INTL CAREER: 1963 - 1968
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Full Name

Neil James Napier Hawke

Born

June 27, 1939, Cheltenham, Adelaide, South Australia

Died

December 25, 2000, North Adelaide, South Australia, (aged 61y 181d)

Nicknames

Hawkeye

Batting Style

Right hand Bat

Bowling Style

Right arm Medium fast

Playing Role

Bowler

Neil Hawke played for three Australian states, for two Lancashire League clubs, and in every Test nation, and never lost his unquenchable enthusiasm for the game. Built for work, he had an ungainly asymmetrical action, but moved the ball late, bowled a well-disguised slower ball, was seldom collared and never demoralised: his best innings figures (7 for 105) and match figures (10 for 115) both arose during heavy Australian defeats. Hawke was a first-rate Australian Rules footballer, and injuries from that sport handicapped him in the second half of his career, while in later years he suffered acutely from illness. He finally lost his 20-year battle against various ailments on Christmas Day, 2000. But his lust for cricket, and for life, emerges in his autobiography Bowled Over, one of the frankest Australian cricketing memoirs.
Gideon Haigh

Neil Hawke died on Christmas Day, 2000, aged 61, having been ill for more than 20 years. "Hawkeye" was a mainstay of the Australian attack in the 1960s and took 91 wickets in 27 Tests. "He was a strapping medium-pacer," wrote Gideon Haigh, "with an un-aesthetic, asymmetrical action but a fine follow-through conducive to late movement." His stamina (built up by playing Australian Rules) and his uncomplaining good nature were vital to a team that, in his time, often had to scrap for any advantage. Hawke's best Test figures - seven for 105 - came at Sydney in 1965-66 when he bowled defiantly with the second new ball after England had touched 303 for one. Even so, he could not prevent an innings defeat. Nine months earlier, he had achieved match figures of ten for 115 in another losing cause at Georgetown. In England he is best remembered for yet another negative reason: as Fred Trueman's 300th Test victim at The Oval in 1964. However, Hawke had a more decisive role in that series. Batting at No. 9, he put on 105 with Peter Burge to transform the Headingley Test after Ted Dexter had controversially withdrawn the spinners and taken the new ball. Hawke had already collected five for 75 in the first innings, and Australia went on to win the only decided game of the series. He took 18 wickets in the five Tests, second only to Graham McKenzie, and 83 on the tour at 19.80. He was far less successful in 1968 and dropped after Lord's. Hawke remained a heroic figure in South Australia, where he was born - he also played briefly for Western Australia and Tasmania, and for seven years in the Lancashire League - and became an even greater icon after 1980, when he was infected following an operation and became so ill that he needed 30 operations in two years. For the rest of his life he suffered regular relapses, but his response was inspirational: as his wife, Beverley, put it, "He fought back from the brink of death time after time."
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack

Neil Hawke Career Stats

Bowling

FormatMatInnsBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10w
Tests275069742677917/10510/11529.412.3076.6261
FC145-29193120884588/61-26.392.4863.7-235
List A1-36320---5.33-000

Batting & Fielding

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAveBFSR100s50s4s6sCtSt
Tests27371536545*16.59--00-090
FC145198573383141*23.99--111--850
List A1-----------00
Neil Hawke

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Test

Debut/Last Matches of Neil Hawke

FC Matches

Span
1959/60 - 1969

List A Matches

Span
1964 - 1964

Recent Matches of Neil Hawke

MatchBatBowlDateGroundFormat
Australians vs ROW XI331/30 & 0/1031-Aug-1968Lord'sFC
Australians vs MCC Pres XI23 & 31/3014-Aug-1968Lord'sFC
Australians vs Glamorgan6 & 60/10 & 2/2703-Aug-1968SwanseaFC
Australians vs Derbyshire7 & 9*2/32 & 3/5231-Jul-1968ChesterfieldFC
Australians vs Gloucs--4/29 & 0/3517-Jul-1968BristolFC

Photos of Neil Hawke

Neil Hawke
The 1968 Australian team in London
Peter Burge and Neil Hawke return to the pavilion