Michael Pierce (cricketer)

Michael Pierce (3 September 1869 – 4 February 1913) was an Australian cricketer. He played eight first-class matches for New South Wales and Queensland between 1892/93 and 1894/95.

Short, thick-set and muscular, Mick Pierce was a slow leg-break bowler who could spin the ball sharply even on the hardest pitch. On his first-class debut in December 1892, which was also the first-ever Sheffield Shield match, Pierce opened the bowling for New South Wales and took 8 for 111 and 5 for 154, but South Australia nevertheless won by 57 runs. A week later, in the second Sheffield Shield match, he took 6 for 100 and 1 for 63 against Victoria, but again he was on the losing side. Despite this brilliant beginning to his career he quickly faded from the first-class scene, apparently through lack of ambition.

Pierce died in February 1913 after a long illness.