Full Name

William Holden Walker

Born

December 16, 1835, Islington, London, England

Died

June 14, 1886, Hobart, Tasmania, (aged 50y 180d)

Batting Style

Right hand Bat

Bowling Style

Right arm Bowler

Fielding Position

Wicketkeeper

Following in the footsteps of another pioneer in John Marshall, William Holden Walker was one of the leading forces behind the establishment of the sport of cricket in Tasmania. Born at Islington in England on 16 December 1835, Walker was a prominent player before moving to Tasmania in 1859. In a short space of time he became Tasmania's foremost cricketer - a reality underlined when he scored 60 in the 1860 North-South game. At that stage, his score was the highest ever registered in such matches. He bowled right arm underarm and was the last bowler of this kind to play for Tasmania. During the 1875-76 season he won the bowling average taking sixty wickets at 8.47 and perplexing many batsmen of the time. Not only could he both bat and bowl but he also kept wicket, and did so with a large amount of skill. Despite his array of abilities, he was remembered mostly as a captain - a shrewd tactician who was cool in a crisis and had the magical knack of inspiring those around him. He impressed in representative games and was often the shining light of a rather dismal Tasmanian side - despite the fact that his team was beaten by an innings by Victoria in 1866, for instance, he still top scored and claimed 5/32. He also had the distinction of hitting the great W.G. Grace for six and, despite his teams' poor performances, he still led from the front and battled on bravely. His all-round talents made him one of the finest cricketers of his time. (Thomas Rose, June 2000)

William Walker Career Stats

Batting & Fielding

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAve100s50sCtSt
FC240732718.250031

Bowling

FormatMatRunsWktsBBIAve5w10w
FC29153/2018.2000

Debut/Last Matches of William Walker

FC Matches

Span
1872/73 - 1877/78