Andrew William Farnsworth (14 January 1887 – 30 October 1966) was an Australian pioneer

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who played in the 1910s whose club career was played in Sydney with Newtown. He represented at state level for both

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and

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_ ...

, and at the national level for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...

. He is the brother of fellow New South Wales and Australian representative, and Newtown player

Viv Farnsworth Viv Farnsworth (1889–1953) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1910s and 1920s. He played for Newtown Jets, Newtown, Western Suburbs Magpies, Wests, New South Wales state rugby league team, New South Wales a ...

Rugby Union career

Farnsworth's

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

career was played with the Newtown club and he was invited to join the new rebel code from the outset to play against

Albert Baskerville Albert (Bert) Henry Baskerville (born as "Baskiville") (15 January 1883 – 20 May 1908) was a Wellington postal clerk, a rugby union forward, author of the book "''Modern Rugby Football: New Zealand Methods; Points for the Beginner, the Pla ...

's All Golds when they arrived in Sydney in 1907. Farnsworth stayed true to rugby union and remained an amateur till 1909.

Rugby League career

In NSWRFL season 1910, he joined the

ranks and commenced playing with the Newtown club. During the

1910 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand The 1910 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand was the first international tour of the Great Britain national rugby league team, "The Lions". They played the second ever Ashes series against Australia, and their first as the visiti ...

, Bill Farnsworth and his brother,

Viv VIV or Viv may refer to: People * Viv (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Viv., the standard author abbreviation of Domenico Viviani (1772–1840), Italian botanist and naturalist Places * 2558 Viv, a main belt asteroid * ...

, made their international debut against the British Lions. With Newtown Farnsworth also won the premiership that year. The following year the Farnsworth brothers were selected for the 'Australasian' Kangaroo tour of Britain in 1911–1912. They were the first set of brothers to play representative rugby league for Australia. Their brother Roy also played at Newtown. Farnsworth also played in Brisbane for Toombul and Kurilpa, gaining selection for

in 1912. With his brother Viv, he headed to England and the end of 1912 and joined the

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...

club ( Heritage № 142). He was still in England at the out-break of the Great War and enlisted for active duty. He continued playing for Oldham 'til 1920. Farnsworth returned to the Newtown club as coach for part of the

1924 NSWRFL season The 1924 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the seventeenth season of Sydney’s top-level rugby league club competition, Australia’s first. Nine teams from across the city contested during the season which culminated in Balma ...

Cricket career

Farnsworth also played in two first-class

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 ...

matches: one in 1908-09 for

and one in 1919 for

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 ...

. He became the first player to represent

at Rugby, Rugby League and Cricket.Alan Whiticker, www.rugbyleagueproject.org

Accolades

Bill Farnsworth was the great-uncle of the Parramatta Eels ex player and CEO Denis Fitzgerald. His youngest brother

Roy Farnsworth Roy Eric Farnsworth (1892-1957) was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1910s. Playing career Youngest brother of the famous rugby league footballers: Bill Farnsworth and Viv Farnsworth, Roy Farnsworth was also a noted Half ...

also played for Newtown. In 2008, the centenary year of rugby league in Australia, Farnsworth was named as five-eighth of the Newtown Jets 18-man team of the century.

References

Sources