Grahame Bilby


Grahame Paul Bilby is a former cricketer and association football player who represented both the Black Caps and the All Whites.

Cricket career

Bilby played in two Tests against the English cricket team, in Christchurch and Dunedin in 1965–66. Both Tests were drawn.
As a Test opener, Bilby was fairly unspectacular, making 28 and 3 in the first Test and 3 and 21 in the second, giving himself a career batting average of 13.75. He was caught behind in three of those dismissals and caught once. He took three catches in those matches also.
Bilby also played for Wellington, with whom he made 161 against Otago earlier in the 1965–66 season and which probably earned him his Test debut. In his first-class career he played in 57 matches, with a respectable 32.62 average, and which included 3 centuries and 15 fifties.
With a career spanning 1962–63 to 1975–76, he was named New Zealand Cricket Almanack Player of the Year in 1974.

Football career

Bilby made his full All Whites debut in a 0–4 loss to New Caledonia on 8 November 1967 and ended his international playing career with 8 A-international caps and 1 goal to his credit, his final cap a substitute appearance in a 2–4 loss, also to New Caledonia, on 18 July 1971.

Personal life

After attending Rongotai College, Bilby spent his working life in information technology. He and his wife Joy have two daughters and a son.