William Rodger Playle (1 December 1938 – 27 February 2019) was a New Zealand cricketer who played eight Test matches for the national team between 1958 and 1963, making 151 runs as a specialist batsman.
[2] Bill Playle's first-class career started with Auckland in 1956–57 at the age of 18.
In the second innings of the Third Test at Leeds, in an attempt to avert defeat, he "gave a remarkable stonewalling display, for he stayed three and a quarter hours for 18, during which time he limited himself to seven scoring strokes".
[6] After the 1963–64 season in New Zealand he moved to Australia, where he played as an opening batsman for Western Australia from 1965–66 to 1967–68, making his highest first-class score of 122 against Queensland[7] and 116 against Victoria, both in 1965–66, when he made 583 runs at 41.64 in the Sheffield Shield.
[8] Playle died in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, on 27 February 2019.