Michael John Godby (29 September 1850 – 14 December 1923) was a New Zealand

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. He played

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 ...

for

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

and

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. ...

between 1875 and 1881. Godby was born in England and educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...

. He went to New Zealand in the 1870s, living first in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

before moving to Timaru where he practised law until 1887. A batsman with a strong defence and an occasional bowler, he played some useful innings in an era of very low scoring, including 23 (top score of the innings) and 14 in the 1877–78 season when Canterbury played in the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

for the first time and beat

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. He captained the South Canterbury team that played the touring Australians at Timaru in January 1881. Godby married Ada Rhodes in Timaru in August 1881. They had two sons and three daughters. They returned to England early in the 1900s. He died in London in December 1923 after a long illness. Ada died in London in May 1942.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Godby, Michael 1850 births 1923 deaths New Zealand cricketers Canterbury cricketers Otago cricketers Sportspeople from Henley-on-Thames People educated at Winchester College Moorhouse–Rhodes family Cricketers from Oxfordshire