William James Whitty (15 August 1886 – 30 January 1974) was an Australian
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 ...
er who played 14
Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to:
* Test cricket
* Test match (indoor cricket)
* Test match (rugby union)
* Test match (rugby league)
* Test match (association football)
...
between 1909 and 1912.
Early career
Born in
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, Whitty had only played junior cricket before he was noticed by Test
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 ...
Victor Trumper
Victor Thomas Trumper (2 November 1877 – 28 June 1915) was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found ...
, who recommended him for coaching and gave him the opportunity to bowl to the
New South Wales state team. In 1907, at the age of 21, Whitty made his
first-class debut for New South Wales against
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
at the
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...
, taking 3
wicket
In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings:
* It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...
s. This was the only first-class match Whitty played for his home state, as he was recruited to
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
by
Clem Hill
Clement "Clem" Hill (18 March 18775 September 1945) was an Australian cricketer who played 49 Test matches as a specialist batsman between 1896 and 1912. He captained the Australian team in ten Tests, winning five and losing five. A prolifi ...
to play for
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 1908. Whitty played 5 first-class games in the 1908–09 Australian season, including one match for a "Rest of Australia" team against the Australian XI, where he took 3 wickets. Over the entire season, Whitty took 11 wickets with 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 49.00, which was enough to earn him selection into the
Australian team to tour
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in 1909.
Test career
Whitty played in the first Test of the series, recording figures of 0/43 and 0/18 as
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
posted a dominant 10 wicket victory. Whitty was replaced for the second Test, which Australia won, along with the third, in retaining
the Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, ''The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first Te ...
. Despite his struggle to hold on to his Test position, Whitty took 77 wickets on the tour, at the impressive average of 20.42. On his return home to Australia, he continued to play for South Australia in 1909–10, helping them to win the
Sheffield Shield
The Sheffield Shield (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Marsh Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Sheffield Shi ...
for the second time in their history. In the final match of the season against New South Wales, Whitty took 5/43 as his former team was dismissed for just 92 in their first innings.
Whitty's six-foot tall frame allowed him to
swing the new ball considerably, and he also bowled reasonably quick
left-arm orthodox
Left-arm orthodox spin, Left-arm off spin also known as slow left-arm orthodox spin bowling, is a type of left-arm finger spin bowling in the sport of cricket.
Left-arm orthodox spin is bowled by a left-arm bowler using the fingers to spin ...
deliveries with the older ball. He was seen as the ideal partner for
fast bowler
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 ...
Tibby Cotter
Albert "Tibby" Cotter (3 December 1883 – 31 October 1917) was an Australian cricketer who played in 21 Test matches between 1904 and 1912. He served in World War I with the First Australian Imperial Force and was killed in action in the moun ...
, and the pair opened the bowling at home against
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
in 1910–11. This series has been described as Whitty's "greatest Test success", as he played all 5 Tests to take 37 wickets at the outstanding average of 17.08. Whitty took 8 wickets in the first Test, followed by 3 in the first innings of the second Test in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
. In the second innings, with South Africa requiring 170 runs for victory, Whitty produced one of the "most sensational" bowling spells by an Australian in the period, taking 6/17 in 16
overs as South Africa were bowled out for 80. Whitty's good form continued throughout the series, including a further 8 wickets in the third Test, and 5/79 for South Australia against the tourists. In the fourth Test, Whitty produced his best Test performance with the bat, making 39
not out
In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress.
Occurrence
At least one batter is not out at t ...
in an 82-run
partnership
A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments o ...
with
Vernon Ransford
Vernon Seymour Ransford (20 March 1885 – 19 March 1958) was an Australian cricketer who played in 20 Test matches between 1907 and 1912.
Ransford was a smooth and stylish left-handed batsman who could score with ease all round the wicket or ...
, which remained a record for the 10th wicket in Tests between the two nations until it was broken by
Mike Hussey
Michael Edward Killeen Hussey (born 27 May 1975) is an Australian cricket coach, commentator and former international cricketer, who played all forms of the game. Hussey is also widely known by his nickname 'Mr Cricket'. Hussey was a relative la ...
and
Glenn McGrath
Glenn Donald McGrath (; born 9 February 1970) is an Australian former international cricketer who played international cricket for 14 years. He was a fast-medium pace bowler (cricket), bowler and is considered one of the greatest international ...
in
2005–06.
Whitty was again selected in the Australian team for the first two Tests against England during their 1911–12 tour of Australia, but managed just 3 wickets at 61.67, and was left out of the team for the remainder of the five-Test series. Despite this performance, and partly due to a "boardroom brawl" which saw Australia leave behind many of its best players, Whitty was selected to tour England for the
1912 Triangular Test series, which also featured South Africa. The squad has often been described as "one of the worst teams Australia ever sent overseas", 10 of the 15 players having never travelled to England before. Whitty took 25 wickets in the 6 Test matches, including 7 wickets against England at
The Oval
The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...
, and 5/55 against South Africa at
Old Trafford
Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...
. He finished the tour with 109 wickets at 18.08, second only in averages to
Charles Macartney
Charles George Macartney (27 June 1886 – 9 September 1958) was an Australian cricketer who played in 35 Test matches between 1907 and 1926. He was known as "The Governor-General" in reference to his authoritative batting style and his flamb ...
.
South Australia took their 3rd Sheffield Shield in 1912–13, with Whitty taking figures of 5/65 in Melbourne and 5/92 (and a
run out
Run out is a method of dismissal in cricket, governed by Law 38 of the Laws of Cricket.
A run out usually occurs when the batsmen are attempting to run between the wickets, and the fielding team succeed in getting the ball to one wicket befo ...
) in Sydney. He was selected in the Australian team scheduled to tour South Africa in 1914–15, but the tour was cancelled due to
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, effectively ending Whitty's Test career.
During his Test career, Whitty also toured
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and
Bermuda
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = National song
, song = " Hail to Bermuda"
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, mapsize2 =
, map_caption2 =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name =
, e ...
. In the United States, at the end of the 1912 England tour, Australia incredibly lost to a
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
n team, with Whitty being one of only two players to score over 20 in Australia's first innings, before being
bowled
In cricket, the term bowled has several meanings. First, is the act of propelling the ball towards the wicket defended by a batsman.
Second, it is a method of dismissing a batsman, by hitting the wicket with a ball delivered by the bowler. (Th ...
on the fourth
delivery of the final over, with Australia needing 3
runs for victory.
After World War I
Whitty continued to play domestically after the War ended, and was still good enough to regularly take 5-wicket hauls in first-class cricket up to the age of 38. Whitty played his final first-class game as New South Wales wrapped up the 1925–26 Sheffield Shield. A feature of Whitty's first-class career was his remarkable success bowling to his hero Trumper, with Whitty dismissing him seven times in ten innings – Trumper remaining not out in the other three.
At lower levels, Whitty played for East Torrens in Adelaide from 1908 to 1915, consistently taking over 50 wickets a season, and leading district bowling averages for four consecutive years from 1911. He played for
Glenelg from 1920 to 1927, and continued playing in the
Mount Gambier
Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with an estimated urban population of 33,233 . The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about south-east of the capital Ad ...
region until 1937. He was also an enthusiastic
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, and at one stage played off
scratch. From 1938 Whitty lived on his property at
Tantanoola, where he died aged 87, the longest surviving of Australia's pre-WWI Test cricketers.
Footnotes
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Bill Whitty espncricinfo.com
# ''200 Years of Australian Cricket'' 1997, p. 153
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# Pollard 1982, p. 381
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# ''200 Seasons of Australian Cricket'' 1997, p. 161
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitty, Bill
1886 births
1974 deaths
Australia Test cricketers
New South Wales cricketers
South Australia cricketers
Australian cricketers
H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers