Dick Motz
Wisden's obituary for Dick Motz
15-Apr-2008
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Motz, Richard Charles, was found dead in his flat on April 29, 2007,
aged 67. In the 1960s when New Zealand were regularly beaten up by other Test
teams, Dick Motz represented their best means of retaliation. He was a big strong
outswing bowler with an easy action and ferocious energy. "He gave it heaps all
the time," said his friend and Test skipper Graham Dowling. "He was a captain's
dream." Motz was chosen for Canterbury as
a 17-year-old, and took three wickets in his
first three overs: a few weeks later he was
talked about as a possible for New Zealand's
1958 tour of England.
At 21, he was
spearheading the attack in South Africa when
the team won their first Tests overseas and
drew the series 2-2; Motz took 81 wickets
on that tour. He came to England in 1965 and
took five for 108 in the opening innings of
the series, at Edgbaston (with the help of the
keeper, Artie Dick, c Dick b Motz was his
standard mode of dismissal that summer).
Motz had little support from the batsmen but,
though they lost the series 3-0, he was named
as one of the Wisden Five. His best Test
performances came later, at Christchurch in
1967-68, when he took six for 63 as New
Zealand beat India for the first time, and six
for 69 a year later at Wellington in a win over
West Indies, Sobers and all. In England in
1969 he twice dismissed Geoff Boycott for nought, and signed off at The Oval by becoming the first New Zealander to take
100 Test wickets. Motz was still only 29, but by then he was a martyr to back
trouble: New Zealand being unable to afford a full-time physio in those days,
Dowling would often kneel on Motz's back and pummel him himself. Motz could
still delight the crowds with his tail-end hitting, which was sometimes more
exciting than his bowling - he once hit 62 off three eight-ball overs from Ian
Chappell for a New Zealand XI against South Australia, and his only first-class
century, for Canterbury against Otago, came in 53 minutes. In retirement, however,
he went rapidly downhill. He took a pub in Timaru, began drinking and allowed
himself to balloon to well over 20 stone - 30 on some estimates. In 1989, his
son Wayne was murdered in a random shooting in the centre of Christchurch, and
Motz's decline inevitably worsened.
He didn't blame anyone: "It's me not getting
on with my life," he said. "Mostly being too bloody soft and letting things happen."
For a time, he drove a taxi, but struggled to get in and out of the cab. An operation
to staple his stomach was a failure. He died of an apparent heart attack, living
alone in a small council flat; his friend Dowling found the body.