One of New Zealand's most unique sportsmen Eric Tindill has died aged 99 years 228 days.
A double All Black in rugby and cricket, he was also a double referee having stood in Test cricket matches and also controlling rugby Tests.
At the time of his death he held the record as the oldest surviving Test cricketer.
A left-hand batsman and wicketkeeper in cricket he was a halfback-five-eighths in rugby and played his sport in Wellington where he lived all his life.
Tindill toured Britain and France with the 1935-36 All Blacks under the captaincy of Jack Manchester and then returned in the 1937 cricket team captained by Curly Page.
In a manner befitting his sports career Tindill marked his first-class cricket career with a century on debut for Wellington against Auckland. In the second innings he also suffered a duck in the same match.
His second match was against Douglas Jardine's bodyline team of 1932-33 for Wellington. In the rain affected match, Tindill had the satisfaction of stumping the controversial England captain, Jardine, from the bowling of a future Governer-General of New Zealand Denis Blundell.
When he was chosen for the 1937 cricket tour he made the occasion of the team's departure memorable by getting married between the end of the day's play between MCC and New Zealand and the departure of the ship carrying the team to England.
One of his most famous cricketing moments occurred as the team worked its way home across Australia, stopping in Adelaide, to play Sir Donald Bradman's South Australia team. It was the only time Bradman played a New Zealand side.
In the New Zealand team was fast bowler Jack Cowie, a bowler who had won significant plaudits on his first foray to England, and it was Cowie who caught the edge of the Don's bat early on the second morning of the game. And it was Tindill who held the catch at wicketkeeper. It was a catch which was said to have cost New Zealand Cricket thousands of pounds because the ground emptied almost immediately the legendary Bradman was dismissed.
In his rugby career Tindill's only Test was against England on the 1935-36 tour, a game now remembered for the two tries scored by the Russian Prince on the wing, Alexander Obolensky. New Zealand lost the game 0-13. Usually a halfback, Tindill was played at first five-eighths in the game, in place of his Wellington team-mate and future NZRU councillor Jack Griffiths.
Tindill was one of seven double rugby-cricket All Blacks from New Zealand. The others were: W N 'Bill' Carson, George Dickinson, Brian McKechnie, Charlie Oliver, 'Curly' Page and Jeff Wilson.