{{Short description|Former Somoan cricket player}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Ata Matatumua | image = | fullname = Ata Mamea Matatumua | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1940|9|28|df=yes}} | birth_place = Apia, Western Samoa | nickname = | batting = Right-handed | bowling = Right-arm medium | role = | family = | heightm = | club1 = Otago | year1 = {{nowrap|1966/67–1967/68}} | columns = 1 | column1 = First-class | matches1 = 8 | runs1 = 228 | bat avg1 = 16.28 | 100s/50s1 = 0/1 | top score1 = 69 | deliveries1 = 494 | wickets1 = 18 | bowl avg1 = 27.44 | fivefor1 = 0 | tenfor1 = 0 | best bowling1 = 3/38 | catches/stumpings1 = 4/– | date = 16 June | year = 2015 | source = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/22/22397/22397.html CricketArchive }}
'''Ata Mamea Matatumua''' (born 28 September 1940) is a former Samoan cricketer who played in New Zealand domestic competitions in the 1960s. His first-class career consisted of eight matches for Otago.
==Life== A graduate of Samoa College,<ref>[http://www.scopa.ws/yrlists/1956.htm List of Samoa College Students by Year of Entrance] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304112627/http://www.scopa.ws/yrlists/1956.htm |date=4 March 2016 }} – Samoa College History Project. Retrieved 1 July 2015.</ref> Matatumua is first recorded as playing in New Zealand during the 1960–61 season, when he appeared for a Wanganui district team in the Hawke Cup. A right-handed batsman and right-arm medium pacer, he played for the Otago under-23s during the 1963–64 season,<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/22/22397/Miscellaneous_Matches.html Miscellaneous matches played by Ata Matatumua] – CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 July 2015.</ref> but did not make his first-class debut until the 1966–67 season, in the Plunket Shield.<ref name="fc">[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/22/22397/First-Class_Matches.html First-class matches played by Ata Matatumua] – CricketArchive. Retrieved 2 July 2015.</ref> On debut against Auckland in January 1967, Matatumua took 2/61 and 1/31 opening the bowling with another non-New Zealander, Barbadian Rudi Webster. Coming in eighth in the batting order, he made 24 in the first innings and a duck in the second, dismissed by future Test spinner Hedley Howarth in both instances.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/28/28574.html Auckland v Otago], Plunket Shield 1966/67</ref>
Matatumua went on to feature in Otago's final two matches of the 1966–67 season, and all of its matches in the 1967–68 season.<ref name="fc"/> Still batting at number eight, in the opening match of the latter season, against Wellington, he scored 69 runs, his only first-class half-century.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/29/29196.html Wellington v Otago], Plunket Shield 1967/68 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 July 2015.</ref> In the next match, a home fixture against Auckland at Dunedin's Carisbrook ground, Matatumua took career-best figures of 3/38 in the first innings, including the wickets of Test players Terry Jarvis and Graham Vivian.<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/29/29207.html Otago v Auckland], Plunket Shield 1967/68 – CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 July 2015.</ref> He finished the season with eight wickets at average of 34.75, behind only three players for Otago – Jack Alabaster (27 wickets), Gren Alabaster (19 wickets), and Rudi Webster (nine wickets).<ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/3/Plunket_Shield_1967-68/Otago_Bowling.html Bowling for Otago, Plunket Shield 1967/68] – CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 July 2015.</ref>
In 1964 Matatumua also represented Otago in rugby league, while he was a playing member of the Samoana club. It was also the first year that Samoana played in the Otago Rugby League premier competition. While playing cricket in Dunedin, he represented the Otago University Club.
Professionally Matatumua worked as a doctor.<ref name=mc>McCarron A (2010) ''New Zealand Cricketers 1863/64–2010'', p. 90. Cardiff: The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. {{isbn|978 1 905138 98 2}} ([https://archive.acscricket.com/cricketers_series/new_zealand_cricketers_1863-64_2010/index.html Available online] at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 5 June 2023.)</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{cricinfo|id=37832}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matatumua, Ata}} Category:1940 births Category:Living people Category:Otago cricketers Category:Sportspeople from Apia Category:Samoan cricketers Category:Samoan expatriates in New Zealand