Leo O'Connor

Australian first-class cricketer
The basics

Quick Facts

IntroAustralian first-class cricketer
PlacesAustralia
wasAthlete Cricketer Football player Australian-rules footballer
Work fieldSports
Gender
Male
Birth11 April 1890, Murtoa, Australia
Death16 January 1985Melbourne, Australia (aged 94 years)
Star signAries
Sports Teams
Essendon Football Club
Queensland cricket team
The details

Biography

Leo Patrick Devereaux O'Connor (11 April 1890 – 16 January 1985) was an Australian first class cricketer who captained and kept wicket for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield.

Prior to commencing his first class cricket career, O'Connor played briefly with Australian rules football club Essendon in the VFL.

He made his first appearance for Queensland in 1913 and was a regular for the state whenever they played a first class match over the following decade and a half. When Queensland made their Sheffield Shield debut in 1926-27 O'Connor was named as their inaugural captain.

Their first game was against New South Wales at Brisbane and with Queensland set 400 to win in the 4th innings he opened the batting and made 196 before being run out. He had been the last wicket to fall and Queensland fell just 8 runs short of the target.

Queensland travelled to Sydney the following week to play their away fixture and O'Connor scored a century in both innings, thus becoming the first Queenslander to do so in Shield history. It would be a good season for O'Connor with the bat, he finished with 731 runs at 66.45.

He was the first person ever to captain Queensland at cricket and represent them in Australian rules football, a feat later replicated by Aub Carrigan. His son, Brian O'Connor, also played both cricket and football for Queensland.

The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article on 02 Jun 2020. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.