Alf Cate

William Alfred Cate (22 November 1878 – 22 October 1939) was a New Zealand cricketer who played four matches of first-class cricket for Wellington between 1908 and 1922, and represented New Zealand in 1922–23.

Alf Cate

Personal information
Full name	William Alfred Cate
Born	(1878-11-22)22 November 1878 Upper Hutt, New Zealand
Died	22 October 1939(1939-10-22) (aged 60) Petone, New Zealand
Batting	Right-handed
Role	Wicket-keeper
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1908/09–1922/23	Wellington
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 5 Runs scored 43 Batting average 6.14 100s/50s 0/0 Top score 11 Catches/stumpings 4/2
Source: CricketArchive, 20 April 2017

Alf Cate worked as a wool classer in Wellington, and taught wool classing at the Hutt Valley Memorial Technical College for 25 years. He and his wife had a daughter.^[1]

A wicket-keeper, Cate made his first-class debut in 1908, but then had to wait until 1920 before he played again, partly because Wellington had New Zealand representative wicket-keepers in Jeremiah Mahoney and James Condliffe in this period, but also because he was unable to make himself available.^[1] Despite his age (44) and lack of first-class experience, Cate replaced Condliffe as New Zealand's wicket-keeper in the third of the three matches New Zealand played against MCC in 1922–23.^[2] It was his last first-class match.

The former New Zealand captain Tom Cobcroft, writing in the New Zealand Truth, regarded Cate still as New Zealand's best wicket-keeper in 1925, when Cate was 47, hampered by ill-health, and playing only club cricket for Petone in Wellington.^[3]