Aldam Murr Pettinger (30 July 1859 – 18 August 1950) was a leading sportsman in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

in the late nineteenth century. Born in Adelaide in 1859, the son of a police inspector,Kneebone, H. "World of Sport", ''The Advertiser'', 3 May 1946, p. 6. Pettinger represented South Australia in

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

and

bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

, was a leading local

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

player,

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er,

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rider, an excellent gun shot, and bred and trained hunting dogs.Kneebone, H. "A.M. Pettinger's Death", ''The Advertiser'', 21 August 1950, p. 2. Pettinger began playing club cricket for the North Adelaide Young Men's Society (later known as North Adelaide) in 1876/77, serving as captain for many seasons, retiring at the end of the 1896/97 season. Pettinger played in one first-class match for

in 1880/81 (South Australia's first 11-a- side match against

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) and a non-first-class match, for a South Australian XV against Australia on 26-29 November 1880. Pettinger founded the

South Australian Football Association The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

(SAFA) club

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in 1877 and captained the club until its dissolution in 1884, after which he played for

Adelaide Football Club The Adelaide Crows (officially the Adelaide Football Club) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1990. The Crows has fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since ...

on its readmission to SAFA in 1885. Following his retirement from cricket and football, Pettinger became involved in golf and lawn bowls, winning the

Adelaide Bowling Club Adelaide Bowling Club was founded in 1897 and is the oldest bowling club in South Australia. The club was founded as the result of a public meeting called by Henry F. Dench and chaired by J. H. Finlayson. The Governor, Sir T. Fowell Buxton acc ...

championships "many times" and for many years was able to play a round of golf in less than his age in years. Outside of sport, Pettinger worked for D. and W. Murray Ltd, a wholesale importing firm, for 50 years, starting upon leaving school at 16 and retiring as company secretary and director,"After 50 Years", ''The Register'' (Adelaide), 16 July 1925, p. 10. and served as a

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."New J'S.P", ''Daily Herald'' (Adelaide), 30 August 1918, p. 4. On his death in 1950, Pettinger was referred to as "the grand old man of South Australian sport".

References

Sources

* Harte, C. (1990) ''SACA: The History of the South Australian Cricket Association'', Sports Marketing: Adelaide. * Page, R. (1984) ''South Australian Cricketers 1877–1984'', Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians: Retford, Nottinghamshire. * Sando, G. (1997) ''Grass Roots'', South Australian Cricket Association: Adelaide.

External links

* 1859 births 1950 deaths Australian cricketers South Australia cricketers Cricketers from Adelaide Australian rules footballers from South Australia Old Adelaide Football Club players Baseball players from Adelaide Australian lacrosse players Australian jockeys Sportsmen from South Australia 19th-century Australian sportspeople Colony of South Australia people Sportspeople from South Australia {{Australia-cricket-bio-1850s-stub