His batting achievements on tour in England in 1949, which included four fifties and a century in the Tests, earned him the accolade of being one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year.

He was a brilliant schoolboy cricketer,[2] and spent two years at teacher training college before joining the army.

[3] He scored heavily in matches he was able to play while serving with New Zealand forces in Egypt and Italy in the Second World War.

[8] He made his Test debut a few days later, scoring 58 in New Zealand's only innings and adding 133 for the first wicket with Walter Hadlee.

New Zealand's batsmen were routed by South African fast bowler Neil Adcock on a green wicket.

Sutcliffe was hit on the head by Adcock and, having left the field to receive hospital treatment, returned to the crease swathed in bandages.

The New Zealand fast bowler Bob Blair, the next man in, was understood to be back at the team hotel distraught as his fiancee had been killed in the Tangiwai disaster two days earlier.

[22] In the 1985 New Year Honours, Sutcliffe was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to cricket.

[25] In 2010 The Last Everyday Hero: The Bert Sutcliffe Story, a biography by Richard Boock, was published.

[27] Sutcliffe was named in the First XI of the newly established NZC Hall of Fame in December 2024 where he was described as "the ultimate cricketing hero of countless New Zealand youngsters.