| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | David Glendenning Watt | ||||||||||||||
| Born | (1920-07-21)21 July 1920 Ashburton, Canterbury, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||
| Died | 29 August 1996(1996-08-29) (aged 76) Wellington, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | ||||||||||||||
| 1943/44 | Otago | ||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Source: Cricinfo, 5 October 2022 | |||||||||||||||
David Glendenning Watt (21 July 1920 – 29 August 1996) was a New Zealand cricketer and periodontist. In his only first-class match, which he played for Otago in the 1943–44 season, he scored a century.
Life and career
Born in Ashburton, where his father was a dentist, David Watt attended Timaru Boys' High School before studying dentistry at the University of Otago. After completing his degree in 1943 he spent a year teaching at the university's medical school before returning to Ashburton and taking over his father's dental practice.
While working at the university and representing the University club in senior Dunedin cricket, Watt was selected to be twelfth man for Otago in a first-class match against Canterbury in Christchurch over the Christmas period in 1943. When one of the Otago players, Bill McDougall, was unable to travel to Christchurch for the match, Watt took his place in the team. He scored 15 in the first innings and 105 in the second; no other Otago batsman in either innings reached 40 in their innings defeat. Otago's only other scheduled first-class match for the season, a return match against Canterbury in Dunedin, could not take place owing to travel restrictions, so Watt was unable to play again for Otago before he returned to Ashburton in mid-1944. While living in Ashburton he played minor inter-provincial cricket for Ashburton County.
After three years practising as a dentist in Ashburton, Watt was awarded a travelling scholarship, the Dunedin Savings Bank Scholarship, and he and his wife went to Canada for three years, where Watt completed a DDS with honours and a BSc at the University of Toronto. He returned to New Zealand to practise as a periodontist, settling in Wellington. He served as secretary of the New Zealand Society of Periodontology, and chairman of the New Zealand Dental Council. In 1977, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal.
Watt died at Wellington in 1996. He was aged 76. An obituary was published in the 2002 edition of the New Zealand Cricket Almanack.
References
- ^ "David Watt". CricInfo. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
- ^ "Bound for Canada". Ashburton Guardian: 4. 30 June 1947.
- "Colleges v. Sir J. Cahn's XI". Ashburton Guardian: 2. 3 February 1939.
- "Personal". Ashburton Guardian: 3. 15 May 1943.
- "Changes in Otago Teams". Evening Star: 5. 20 December 1943.
- "Canterbury v Otago 1943–44". CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
- ^ McCarron A (2010) New Zealand Cricketers 1863/64–2010, p. 136. Cardiff: The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. ISBN 978 1 905138 98 2 (Available online at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 5 June 2023.)
- "Local Cricket: Season Reviewed". Evening Star: 3. 6 April 1944.
- ^ "Study Overseas: Mr. D. G. Watt Returns". Ashburton Guardian: 2. 1 August 1950.
- "N.Z. Dental Association Elects Officers". Press: 13. 25 August 1956.
- ^ Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1994). Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand. Auckland: New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa. p. 434. ISBN 0-908578-34-2.