Bernard Gerard Wensley Atkinson (11 September 1900 – 4 September 1966) was an English

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

er. Atkinson was a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

who bowled right-arm

fast-medium Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...

. He was born at

Puddington, Devon Puddington is a small village in Mid Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devo ...

. Educated at

St Paul's School, London (''By Faith and By Learning'') , established = , closed = , type = Independent school Public school , religion = Church of England , president = , he ...

, Atkinson played for the school cricket team from 1916 to 1919, heading the batting averages in his last two years there. He later attended the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, but did not represent the university in

. He would make his debut in first-class cricket for

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

against

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in the

1922 County Championship The 1922 County Championship was the 29th officially organised running of the County Championship. Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is one of 18 first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of ...

. He made ten first-class appearances for the county in that season, scoring 257 runs at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 17.13, with a high score of 91, his only

half century One half ( : halves) is the irreducible fraction resulting from dividing one by two or the fraction resulting from dividing any number by its double. Multiplication by one half is equivalent to division by two, or "halving"; conversely, ...

score of the season. As an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

, he also took 5 wickets with the ball, which came at an

of 31.80, with best figures of 2/13. Outside of cricket, he was an educator, which may account for his making no appearances for Northamptonshire in first-class cricket in 1923 and 1924. He did however make three first-class appearances for the county in the

1925 County Championship The 1925 County Championship was the 32nd officially organised running of the County Championship. Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is one of 18 first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of ...

, scoring 29 runs at an average of 5.80, while with the ball he took 2 wickets. A gap of several years followed before his next appearance in first-class cricket, this time for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

for whom he made his debut against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

in the

1933 County Championship The 1933 County Championship was the 40th officially organised running of the County Championship. Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is one of 18 first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of ...

. He played for the county in the 1933 and 1934 seasons, making a total of nine appearances, scoring 286 runs at an average of 14.30, with a high score of 91. With the ball, he took 18 wickets at an average of 36.00, with best figures of 4/97. He left the county at the end of the 1934 season to undertake a teaching position at the

Edinburgh Academy The Edinburgh Academy is an Independent school (United Kingdom), independent day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was opened in 1824. The original building, on Henderson Row in the city's New Town, Edinburgh, New Town, is now part of the Se ...

, while teaching there he played club cricket for

Grange Cricket Club The Grange Club is a cricket and sports club in the Stockbridge district of Edinburgh, Scotland. The cricket ground, commonly known as The Grange, is the regular home of the Scotland national cricket team, and is situated adjacent to the Edin ...

, also making several minor appearances for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. He died at a hospital in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, London on 4 September 1966. His brother,

Nigel Atkinson Nigel Samuel "Sam" Mitford Atkinson (26 July 1899 – 24 October 1966) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Middlesex County Cricket Club, Middlesex in two matches in the 1923 season. He was a right-handed batsman and a left-arm b ...

, also played first-class cricket.

References

External links

Bernard Atkinson
at

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

Bernard Atkinson
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Atkinson, Bernard 1900 births 1966 deaths People from Mid Devon District People educated at St Paul's School, London Alumni of the University of Cambridge English cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Middlesex cricketers Schoolteachers from Devon Cricketers from Devon