{{short description|New Zealand cricketer (1918–1992)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=June 2016}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Jim Everest | image = Jim Everest of Northern Districts.jpg | caption = Everest in 1957 | country = | fullname = James Kerse Everest | birth_date = {{birth date|1918|3|28|df=yes}} | birth_place = Hamilton, New Zealand | death_date = {{death date and age|1992|9|28|1918|3|28|df=yes}} | death_place = Hamilton, New Zealand | batting = Left-handed | bowling = Right-arm medium | role = Opening batsman | club1 = Auckland | year1 = {{nowrap|1954/55–1955/56}} | club2 = Northern Districts | year2 = 1956/57 | clubnumber2 = | columns = 1 | column1 = First-class | matches1 = 13 | runs1 = 809 | bat avg1 = 36.77 | 100s/50s1 = 2/4 | top score1 = 104 | hidedeliveries = true | catches/stumpings1 = 2/– | date = 17 June | year = 2018 | source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/36990.html Cricinfo }} '''James Kerse Everest''' (28 March 1918 – 28 September 1992) was a New Zealand cricketer. He played first-class cricket for Auckland and Northern Districts between 1954 and 1957.<ref name="Bio">{{Cite web|url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/36990.html |title=James Everest |access-date=7 June 2016 |work=ESPN Cricinfo}}</ref>
==Early life and career== Jim Everest was born in Hamilton and attended Hamilton Technical College.<ref>{{cite journal |title=School Cricket |journal=Waikato Times |date=24 March 1934 |page=6 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WT19340324.2.66}}</ref> He was part of the first Waikato team to win the Hawke Cup. He scored 53 and 16 when they successfully challenged Manawatu in a close match in February 1938 and remained in the team that held the trophy until they lost to Manawatu in January 1940.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/6/Hawke_Cup_1937-38.html| title = Hawke Cup 1937-38| publisher = CricketArchive|url-access=subscription | access-date = 27 April 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/6/Hawke_Cup_1939-40.html| title = Hawke Cup 1939-40| publisher = CricketArchive|url-access=subscription | access-date = 27 April 2017}}</ref>
In World War II he served as a private in the New Zealand 24th Battalion in the Mediterranean campaigns and was taken prisoner.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C140452 | title = James Kerse Everest| publisher = Auckland War Memorial Museum| access-date = 27 April 2017}}</ref>
He continued to play for Waikato after the war, captaining them when they regained the Hawke Cup for the first time since 1940 in the last match of the 1950–51 season.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/123/123527.html| title = Wairarapa v Waikato 1950-51| publisher = CricketArchive|url-access=subscription | access-date = 27 April 2017}}</ref> He also played for the new Northern Districts team in its first non-first-class matches. In 1953-54 he played in the Northern Districts teams that beat Auckland twice in three-day matches.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/7/Other_matches_in_New_Zealand_1953-54.html| title = Other matches in New Zealand 1953-54| publisher = CricketArchive|url-access=subscription | access-date = 27 April 2017}}</ref>
==First-class career== In 1954–55, at the age of 36, Everest finally made his first-class debut, playing for Auckland. Auckland lost all four matches in the Plunket Shield, but Everest was their second-highest-scoring batsman, with 221 runs at an average of 27.62.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/3/Plunket_Shield_1954-55/Auckland_Batting.html| title = Batting and fielding for Auckland, Plunket Shield 1954-55| publisher = CricketArchive|url-access=subscription | access-date = 27 April 2017}}</ref> He scored Auckland's only century, 103 against Canterbury in the third match, out of a team total of 202.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/21/21404.html| title = Auckland v Canterbury 1954-55| publisher = CricketArchive|url-access=subscription | access-date = 27 April 2017}}</ref> In the 1955–56 season he scored 212 runs for Auckland at 42.40, finishing seventh in the national Plunket Shield averages.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/3/Plunket_Shield_1955-56/Batting_by_Average.html| title = Batting and fielding in Plunket Shield 1955-56| publisher = CricketArchive|url-access=subscription | access-date = 27 April 2017}}</ref>
In 1956-57 Northern Districts were admitted to the Plunket Shield and played their first game against Auckland. Everest was one of the four members of the Northern Districts team for the first game who had previously played for Auckland (the others were Bernard Graham, Allen Lissette and Eric Petrie). The other seven members of the team were making their first-class debuts. Petrie, the captain, won the toss and decided to bat first, and Everest faced the first ball. He made 69, the highest score in a rain-affected draw.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/22/22289.html| title = Northern Districts v Auckland 1956-57| publisher = CricketArchive|url-access=subscription | access-date = 27 April 2017}}</ref> Having made Northern Districts' first fifty, Everest also made their first century, in the fourth match, against Canterbury. Again it was the highest score of the match.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/22/22308.html| title = Northern Districts v Canterbury 1956-57| publisher = CricketArchive|url-access=subscription | access-date = 27 April 2017}}</ref>
Everest was one of the leading batsmen of the 1956-57 Plunket Shield season, with 376 runs at an average of 41.77, with one century and three fifties.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/3/Plunket_Shield_1956-57/Batting_by_Average.html| title = Batting and fielding in Plunket Shield 1956-57| publisher = CricketArchive|url-access=subscription | access-date = 27 April 2017}}</ref> He was also the outstanding batsman of the Hawke Cup season. He scored 49 and 29 when he captained Waikato to victory over Northland and the title, followed with 41 and 101 not out when they beat Thames Valley, and finished the season by scoring 264 against Manawatu, falling only eight runs short of the Hawke Cup record.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/6/Hawke_Cup_1956-57/Batting_by_Average.html| title = Batting and fielding in Hawke Cup 1956-57| publisher = CricketArchive|url-access=subscription | access-date = 24 May 2024}}</ref> He was named Batsman of the Year in the 1957 ''New Zealand Cricket Almanack''.<ref name="WCA">''Wisden'' 1993, p. 1273.</ref>
==Legacy== Everest played no representative cricket after 1956–57. His ''Wisden'' obituary noted that at the time of his brief and late first-class career there were "complaints that his ability and powers of concentration should have won him consideration for a Test place long before".<ref name="WCA"/>
In recognition of his important place in Northern Districts' early years, the official history written by Winston Hooper in 2006 to mark 50 seasons of first-class cricket for Northern Districts is called ''Everest to Vettori: The ND Story''.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.thebestlittlebookstore.nz/product-info.php?Everest_to_Vettori_-_The_ND_Story-pid470.html| title = Everest to Vettori | publisher = The Best Little Book Store | access-date = 15 August 2025}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{cricinfo|id=36990}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Everest, James}} Category:1918 births Category:1992 deaths Category:New Zealand cricketers Category:Auckland cricketers Category:Northern Districts cricketers Category:Cricketers from Hamilton, New Zealand Category:New Zealand military personnel of World War II Category:New Zealand prisoners of war in World War II Category:World War II prisoners of war held by Germany