Brief profile of W.A.Bettesworth by Don Ambrose

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Player:

WA Bettesworth

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BETTESWORTH, Walter Ambrose.
Amateur.
Born at Horndean, Hampshire, 24th November 1856.
Died at Hampstead, London, 23rd February 1929.
Educated at Ardingly College, Haywards Heath, Sussex, he was a member of the College cricket eleven from 1871 until 1882, first as a pupil and then as an assistant master. He then accepted a mastership at Blair College in Scotland. He first played for Sussex in 1878 and by 1883 had turned out for them 21 times. Then working in Scotland precluded any further appearances.
He then turned to authorship and journalism. His three books on cricket, A Royal Road to Cricket [1891], The Walkers of Southgate [1900] and Chats on the Cricket Field [1910] are scholarly works. He was on the staff at the Cricket Field magazine from 1892 until 1895, when that publication folded. From 1896 until 1905 he was the assistant editor of Cricket, a Weekly Record of the Game and from 1906 until 1928 he was cricket editor of The Field.
The 1881 Census finds him resident at St.Saviors Middle Class School, Ardingly, with the headmaster the Rev Frederick Mertens, his wife and six children. There are five assistant schoolmasters in Holy Orders, a secretary clerk, and twelve further assistant schoolmasters, including Bettesworth and W.Blackman .

(Article: Copyright © 2003 Don Ambrose)