Selwyn Eric Belsham (28 September 1930 – 11 March 2016) was a New Zealand

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

player who represented

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

at the 1957 World Cup. His position of preference was at . He also played cricket for

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

. His brother

Vic Vic, vic or VIC may refer to: People and fictional characters * Vic (name), a list of people, fictional characters and mascots with the given name * V.I.C. (rapper) (born 1987), stage name of an American rapper Places * Vic, Spain, a town and ...

was also a

New Zealand national rugby league team The New Zealand national rugby league team () has represented New Zealand in rugby league since 1907. Administered by the New Zealand Rugby League, they are commonly known as the Kiwis, after the Kiwi (bird), native bird of that name. The team' ...

representative. Vic later became a referee, controlling his brother's team in the 1957 World Cup. Their father Alf represented Auckland in rugby union.

Sporting career

Rugby league

representative, Belsham played for the Richmond club in the

Auckland Rugby League The Auckland Rugby League (ARL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. Founded in 1909, the ARL has played a pivotal role in the development and promotion of rugby league in Auckland and beyond. ...

competition. He represented the

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

on three occasions, in 1955, 1956 and 1957. Belsham represented the

, playing 10 consecutive test matches between 1955 and 1957. He was first selected for the 1955 tour of Great Britain and France, but began the trip with a broken collarbone, suffered in New Zealand. He played in only two games during the England leg of the trip before making his test debut in the first test against France. Belsham played for the Rest of the World against Australia after the 1957 World Cup. His final test match was for New Zealand against a combined Great Britain-France side.

Cricket

Belsham played six

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

matches for

as a

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

, taking 13 catches and four

stumping Stumped is a method of Dismissal (cricket), dismissing a batter (cricket), batter in cricket, in which the wicket-keeper put down the wicket, puts down the wicket of the Glossary_of_cricket_terms#S, striker while the striker is out of their Bat ...

s. With the bat, he scored 105 runs at an average of 11.66 and a high score of 41.

Death

Belsham died in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia, on 11 March 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belsham, Sel 1930 births 2016 deaths Auckland cricketers Auckland rugby league team players New Zealand cricketers New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand rugby league players North Island rugby league team players Richmond Bulldogs players Rugby league halfbacks Wicket-keepers

Sporting career

Rugby league

Cricket

Death

See also

References