Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Arthur Montague Ongley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Oamaru, New Zealand |
21 June 1882||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 7 October 1974 Palmerston North, New Zealand |
(aged 92)||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname | Joe | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowling style | Right-arm leg-spin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Relations |
Joe Ongley (son) Mont Ongley (brother) |
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Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1901–02 | Hawke's Bay | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: Cricket Archive, 30 August 2015
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Arthur Montague "Joe" Ongley OBE (21 June 1882 – 17 October 1974) was a New Zealand lawyer, politician, and cricket and rugby union player and administrator. Born in Oamaru, he later lived in Wellington, Napier, and Hokitika, before settling in Feilding. He excelled in a number of sports and Ongley Park in Palmerston North, used for cricket and rugby, is named for him. His most notable sporting activity was as a cricketer, and he played four first-class matches. He served as an administrator on the New Zealand Cricket Council and was the organisation's president. He was a solicitor and then barrister in Feilding, and became Crown Solicitor in Palmerston North. He was a member of the Feilding Borough council and was the town's mayor from 1913 to 1919.
Ongley was born in Oamaru, the son of the gardener Frederick Ongley (died 1944 in Wellington) and his wife, Mary Ann Ongley (née Mullin). His father, born in Sussex, arrived in 1872 and settled in Oamaru, where his parents married in 1877. Frederick "Fred" William Ongley (1879–1969), a judge at the Compensation Court, was an elder brother. The geologist Mont Ongley (1888–1976) was a younger brother. He attended St. Patrick's College, Wellington.
Ongley excelled at a number of sports, and in sports circles was known as "Joe". While living in Feilding, he became champion at both local tennis clubs.
It was in Oamaru where he learned his cricket. After his time in Wellington, he moved to Napier, where he was coached by Albert Trott and represented Hawke's Bay in two first-class matches in 1901–02. He then moved to Hokitika in Westland, where, playing for the Hokitika team in local cricket in 1902–03, he took 55 wickets with his leg-spin for only 147 runs. Representing a Westland XXII against Lord Hawke's XI that season, on a matting pitch in Greymouth, he took 8 for 36 off 23 overs, bowling unchanged throughout the innings, and dismissed the English team for 69 in the first innings after Westland had made 111.