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Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Ronald Arthur Hamence | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Hindmarsh, South Australia, Australia |
25 November 1915|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 24 March 2010 Adelaide, Australia |
(aged 94)|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting style | Right-hand | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowling style | Right-arm medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Role | Specialist batsman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1936–50 | South Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: Cricket Archive, 26 February 2008
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Ronald Arthur Hamence (25 November 1915 – 24 March 2010) was a cricketer who played for South Australia (SA) and Australia. A short and compact right-handed batsman, Hamence excelled in getting forward to drive and had an array of attractive back foot strokes. Already the youngest Australian to play district cricket, he was also, from the death of Bill Brown in 2008 until his own death in 2010, the oldest surviving Australian Test cricketer.
While Hamence only played three Test matches for his national team, he had a successful domestic career, being called South Australia's most successful batsman in 1950. He played 99 first-class matches from 1935 until 1951, which brought him a career total of 5,285 runs that came at an average of 37.75 runs per innings and included 11 centuries. He scored two of these centuries in his first and last first-class matches.
Born in the Adelaide suburb of Hindmarsh, Hamence was the cousin of Charlie Walker, a fellow Australian cricketer. At 15 years and 25 days, Hamence became the youngest district cricketer in South Australian cricket history when he made his debut for Adelaide club West Torrens in 1930. While playing with the SA team, he worked as a public servant at the Government Printing Office. He was a compact batsman preferring attack over defence, however he suffered a weakness throughout his career against fast bowling.