Nathan Evan Batson (born 24 July 1978) is a former English

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 had a brief

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

career with

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 ...

. He was born in

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. Batson was discovered by Worcestershire after writing to the county the previous winter to ask for a trial. After one match for Essex Second XI, and several more for Worcestershire seconds, he made his first-class debut for Worcestershire in August, scoring 15 and 4 against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it had ...

. He appeared in a further two matches that season, but made little impression in either of them. That winter, he played a single List A game for Zimbabwe Cricket Academy against England A at the

Harare South Country Club The Harare South Country Club is a country club to the south of Harare. Its facilities include a golf course and a cricket ground. The cricket ground has played host to first-class cricket, first-class and List A cricket, List A one-day matches. ...

ground, making 43. Batson played three successive first-class matches in May 1999, but 91 runs in six innings was not enough to keep him in contention and he returned to the seconds. There he continued to struggle at first, but two hundreds and two more half-centuries in July was enough to gain him another chance in the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

game against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

in early August. He was dismissed for 1 in each innings, but managed 72 (his career best) and 16

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 ...

against Sri Lanka A a few days later. That was to prove his final appearance in senior cricket, although he did play one further match for Essex Second XI in 2000. In

club cricket Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal, form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obs ...

, Batson played for Billericay Cricket Club's first team for 13 years, bowing out after the 2006 season when he emigrated to

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 ...

with his

fiancée An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be ''fi ...

. Batson has now returned to play for Billericay in the 2008 season.

References

External links

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Statistical summary
from CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Batson, Nathan 1978 births Living people English cricketers Worcestershire cricketers Sportspeople from Basildon