John Edward Aitchison (27 December 1928 – 2 April 2009) was an English sportsman who played

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 ...

for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

. A left-arm spin bowler, he played in three

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 ...

matches, one in 1949 and two in 1950, and was signed as an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

er by

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

. Aitchison was born at Gillingham in

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 1928,John Aitchison

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 ...

. Retrieved 19 March 2017. the son of Gilbert and Margaret Aitchison. His father was a hairdresser and John played cricket for

Bexleyheath Bexleyheath is a town in south-east London, England. It had a population of 31,929 as at 2011. Bexleyheath is located south-east of Charing Cross, and forms part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is identified in the London Plan as one of ...

Cricket Club. After taking 128 wickets during the 1945 season,Carlaw D (2024) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part Three: 1946–1999'', p. 10.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 29 February 2024.) he was taken on to the ground staff at Kent in 1946, living with an aunt in

Whitstable Whitstable () is a town on the north coast of Kent adjoining the convergence of the Swale Estuary and the Greater Thames Estuary in southeastern England, north of Canterbury and west of Herne Bay. The 2011 Census reported a population of 32 ...

in order to be closer to the county's

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

headquarters.A Remarkable Sporting Life – Derek Ufton

, 27 August 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2018. On his debut for the Kent Second XI, Aitchison took nine wickets against Sussex Second XI, but he played little cricket in either 1947 or 1948 whilst undertaking his

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

, spending much of the period posted in Germany. He made his

debut just three days after his first Second XI appearance of 1949, playing against

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

with Kent's primary spin bowler

Doug Wright Douglas Wright (born December 20, 1962) is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2004 for his play ''I Am My Own Wife''. Early years Wright was born in Dallas, Texas. He attended and ...

unable to play.John Aitchison
CricketArchive. Retrieved 16 July 2014. . He took all three of his first-class wickets on debut, taking 3/33 to dismiss the Glamorgan tail in their first innings. On what ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' called a "badly crumbling pitch", he did not bowl in the second innings as

Fred Ridgway Frederick Ridgway (10 August 1923 – 26 September 2015) was an English professional cricketer who played in five Test matches for the England cricket team on the 1951–52 tour of India. Ridgway played county cricket as a fast bowler for Kent ...

and Eddie Crush took all ten wickets to dismiss Glamorgan for 114 runs.''The History of Kent Cricket – Appendix H, 1946–1963'', p. 5. Canterbury:

. Described by

Derek Ufton Derek Gilbert Ufton (31 May 1928 – 27 March 2021) was an English professional cricketer and footballer, and later a football manager. Playing professionally for Kent County Cricket Club as a wicket-keeper and Charlton Athletic Football Club, ...

, a contemporary on the Kent ground staff, as "a left-arm bowler with a beautiful action", Aitchison appears to have been less effective following his National Service. He took 24 Second XI wickets in 1949 and was awarded his Second XI

county cap In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

in 1950, but played in only two other matches for Kent's First XI, both in July 1950. He failed to take a wicket against either

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

and

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

, conceding 17 runs from one over in the latter match, and was released from the ground staff at the end of the season.Cricket: Kent's chance, ''

'', 7 July 1950, p. 2.
Available online
at

The Times Digital Archive ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

. Retrieved 29 February 2024.) Away from cricket, Aitchison played football for Ramsgate Athletic. He was described in ''The History of Kent Cricket'' as a "professional footballer"''

Op. cit. ''Op. cit.'' is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase ' or ''opere citato'', meaning "the work cited" or ''in the cited work'', respectively. Overview The abbreviation is used in an endnote or footnote to refer the reader to a cited work, standing ...

'', p. 34. and was signed by Queens Park Rangers, but never played for the side in a senior match. He worked for Harvey's Sports and played club cricket for the company as well as for Bexleyheath. Aitchison later moved to work in the metal fabrication industry as a manager. He died at

Sydenham Sydenham may refer to: Places Australia * Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Sydenham railway station, Sydney * Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne ** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne ...

in South London in 2009 aged 80.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aitchison, John 1928 births 2009 deaths English cricketers Kent cricketers Cricketers from Gillingham, Kent