{{short description|Australian cricketer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}} {{use Australian English|date=January 2017}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Maurice Shea | image = | country = | fullname = Maurice Bernard Shea | birth_date = {{birth date|1869|6|7|df=yes}} | birth_place = Campbelltown, New South Wales, Australia | death_date = {{death date and age|1946|7|26|1869|6|7|df=yes}}<ref name=death/> | death_place = Waverley, Sydney, Australia | batting = Left-handed | bowling = Right-arm medium | role = Bowler
| club1 = New South Wales | year1 = 1895/96
| date = 31 January | year = 2017 | source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/7599.html CricInfo }}
'''Maurice Bernard Shea'''{{efn|Shea's forename is sometimes spelled Morris.<ref name=nsw/><ref name=ca/> CricInfo gives his name as Maurice Bernard Shaw, and the name Maurice is used in contemporary reports in Australian newspapers.<ref name=ci/><ref name=bird>Cricket crumbs, ''The Bird O'Freedom'', 27 April 1895, p. 2. ([https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/207808187?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2FB%2Ftitle%2F1049%2F1895%2F04%2F27%2Fpage%2F22647542%2Farticle%2F207808187 Available online] at Trove. Retrieved 29 June 2025.)</ref>}}<ref name=death>Deaths, Family notices, ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 27 July 1946, p. 32. ([https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/29767599?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2FS%2Ftitle%2F35%2F1946%2F07%2F27%2Fpage%2F1001092%2Farticle%2F29767599 Available online] at Trove. Retrieved 29 June 2025.)</ref> (7 June 1869 – 26 July 1946) was an Australian cricketer.<ref name=ci>[http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/7599.html Maurice Shea], CricInfo. Retrieved 31 January 2017.</ref> He played four first-class matches for New South Wales in 1895–96.<ref name=ca>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/6/6108/6108.html Morris Shea], CricketArchive. Retrieved 31 January 2017. {{subscription}}</ref>
Born at Campbelltown in New South Wales in 1869,<ref name=ci/> all four of Shea's matches for New South Wales came on the team's 1895–96 tour of New Zealand.<ref name=nsw>Page R (1981) ''New South Wales Cricketers 1855–1981'', p. 35. Retford: The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. ([https://archive.acscricket.com/cricketers_series/new_south_wales_cricketers_1855-1981/index.html Available online] at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 11 May 2025.)</ref> Described as a "right-arm bowler with a free easy delivery", he played club cricket for East Sydney Electorate Cricket Club.<ref name=star>The New South Wales team, ''The Star'', issue 5428, 2 December 1895, p. 1. ([https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS18951202.2.10.6 Available online] at Papers Past. Retrieved 29 June 2025.)</ref>
In 1894–95, Shea was the third leading wicket-taker in the newly formed Sydney Electoral Cricket competition,<ref name=star/> and played for a Sydney Juniors team against the touring England Test team. The Sydney team, which featured 18 players, scored 443 runs against the English in a two-day match. Shea, whose name is transcribed as O'Shea, took the wicket of Jack Brown.<ref>Notes by Slip, ''Otago Witness'', issue 2179, 28 November 1895, p. 39. ([https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18951128.2.125 Available online] at Papers Past. Retrieved 29 June 2025.)</ref><ref>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/134/134981.html Sydney Juniors v AE Stoddart's XI], scorecard, CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 June 2025. {{subscription}}</ref> Described as a "good" bowler,<ref>Cricket, ''New Zealand Times'', volume LVII, issue 2670, 20 November 1895, p. 3. ([https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18951120.2.24 Available online] at Papers Past. Retrieved 29 June 2025.)</ref> he batted left-handed and was considered a "fair" batsman and "a first-class field".<ref name=star/>
Shea played in four of the five matches on the tour of New Zealand, during which New South Wales played each of the Major Associations as well as playing a match against a New Zealand representative team.<ref name=ca/> Described as "one of our best bowlers",<ref name=cric>Bettesworth WA (1902) Chats on the cricket field: Mr LOS Poidevin, ''Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game'', volume XXI, number 613, 4 September 1902, pp. 385–386. ([https://archive.acscricket.com/cricket/1902/392/index.html#zoom=z Available online] at The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 29 June 2025.)</ref> he took four wickets, three of them for the cost of six runs against Auckland in the final match of the tour.<ref>Inter-colonial cricket, ''New Zealand Herald'', volume XXXIII, issue 10023, 9 January 1896, p. 6. ([https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18960109.2.67 Available online] at Papers Past. Retrieved 29 June 2025.)</ref>
Generally batting towards the end of the order, Shea scored 90 runs on the tour. Against Wellington he made scores of 24 not out in his first innings, an innings described as "hard hit" and including two sixes off the bowling of Frank Ashbolt, before making a "lively" 25 runs in the second.<ref name=nzm>Cricket, ''New Zealand Mail'', issue 1244, 2 January 1896, p. 30. ([https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZMAIL18960102.2.96 Available online] at Papers Past. Retrieved 29 June 2025.)</ref> ''Cricket'' magazine considered that his batting was some of the most successful of the match and helped New South Wales recover from a "disappointing" start to their innings.<ref>A New South Wales team in New Zealand, ''Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game'', volume XV, number 411, 27 February 1896, pp. 22–23. ([https://archive.acscricket.com/cricket/1896/28/index.html#zoom=z Available online] at The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 29 June 2025.)</ref> He scored 18 against Canterbury, and made a "hard hit" 15 against the New Zealand XI.<ref name=nzm/>
He umpired against Otago, doing so in an "absolutely fair" way according to the cricket correspondent of the ''Otago Witness'', despite optimistic appealing by the Otago players.<ref>Notes by Slip, ''Otago Witness'', issue 2182, 26 December 1895, p. 34. ([https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18951226.2.152 Available online] at Papers Past. Retrieved 29 June 2025.)</ref> Some years later, Les Poidevin, who also made his first-class debut for New South Wales on the tour, recounted that Shea, "forgetting himself in the moment", had appealed for a catch behind, to the amusement of the players.<ref name=cric/><ref>Sports of all kinds, ''Evening Star'', issue 11720, 29 October 1902, p. 7. ([https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19021029.2.83 Available online] at Papers Past. Retrieved 29 June 2025.)</ref>
Although Shea did not played in the Sheffield Shield for New South Wales, he continued playing for East Sydney in Electoral Cricket. The seasom after the tour of New Zealand, he scored 64 not out in a club match against Burwood Cricket Club.<ref>Cricket chat, ''The Press'', volume LIII, issue 9574, 14 November 1896, p. 2. ([https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP18961114.2.6 Available online] at Papers Past. Retrieved 29 June 2025.)</ref> By the 1903-04 season he was playing for Sydney Cricket Club,{{efn|The current Sydney Cricket Club is not the same team.}} primarily in the Second Grade, although "excellent form with the bat, including a century against Glebe II,<ref>Cricket: Knock and notches, ''The Sydney Sportsman'', 4 March 1903, p. 7. ([https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/167241600?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2FS%2Ftitle%2F692%2F1903%2F03%2F04%2Fpage%2F15997466%2Farticle%2F167241600 Available online] at Trove. Retrieved 29 June 2025.)</ref> saw him promoted to the First Grade team.<ref>Cricket: Knock and notches, ''The Sydney Sportsman'', 11 March 1903, p. 7. ([https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/167255994?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2FS%2Ftitle%2F692%2F1903%2F03%2F11%2Fpage%2F15997474%2Farticle%2F167255994 Available online] at Trove. Retrieved 29 June 2025.)</ref>
Shea worked in the mail department of the General Post Office, Sydney. He was married with five daughters.<ref name=death/> He died at Waverley in Sydney in 1946. He was 77.<ref name=ci/>
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{ESPNcricinfo|id=7599|name=Maurice Shea}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shea, Morris}} Category:1869 births Category:1946 deaths Category:Australian cricketers Category:New South Wales cricketers Category:Cricketers from Sydney Category:Colony of New South Wales people Category:Sportspeople from Campbelltown, New South Wales