Frank Ashbolt

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Frank Ashbolt
Personal information
Full name
Frank Lionel Ashbolt
Born(1876-04-11)11 April 1876
Christchurch, New Zealand
Died16 July 1940(1940-07-16) (aged 64)
Wellington, New Zealand
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm leg-spin
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1893/94-1900/01Wellington
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 21
Runs scored 330
Batting average 13.75
100s/50s 0/0
Top score 37 not out
Balls bowled 3527
Wickets 105
Bowling average 16.01
5 wickets in innings 11
10 wickets in match 3
Best bowling 8/58
Catches/stumpings 23/0
Source: Cricket Archive, 16 May 2017

Frank Lionel Ashbolt (11 April 1876 – 16 July 1940) was a New Zealand cricketer who played first-class cricket for Wellington from 1894 to 1901 and represented New Zealand in the days before New Zealand played Test cricket.

Early life[edit]

Frank Ashbolt was the son of Alfred Ashbolt, who worked as the printer for The New Zealand Times and also umpired 19 first-class cricket matches from 1886 to 1898.[1][2]

Cricket career[edit]

A leg-spin bowler, Frank Ashbolt played senior club cricket in Wellington from his early teens. In the 1891–92 season, aged 15, he twice took four wickets in four balls.[3]

He made his first-class debut at 17 in 1893–94, taking 4 for 48 and 2 for 34 for Wellington in a one-wicket loss to Auckland.[4] In his next match, against the touring New South Wales team three weeks later, he opened the bowling and took 6 for 52 in the first innings of a drawn match.[5] A few weeks later, in a low-scoring victory over Hawke's Bay, he took 5 for 37 and 5 for 32, and made 30 not out at number nine (the top score of the innings) and 24 not out.[6]

In 1894–95 he took 7 for 61 and 5 for 41 in another low-scoring victory, this time over Otago.[7] The next season he took seven wickets for Wellington against another New South Wales team,[8] but he was not selected in the New Zealand team to play New South Wales a few days later.

In 1898–99 he was a member of New Zealand's first touring team, which visited Australia in February 1899, but neither he nor the team as a whole was successful.[9] He took his best first-class figures in 1900–01 when his 5 for 39 and 8 for 58 helped Wellington to an innings victory over Hawke's Bay.[10]

Later life[edit]

He served in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force for four years during World War I, first in the Gallipoli Campaign and later on the Western Front.[2][11]

While in London in 1916 he married Gladys Rhind. They lived in Wellington, and had two daughters and a son. He worked in the insurance business.[2]

His elder brother Alfred (1870–1930) moved to Tasmania, where he was a prominent businessman, served as Tasmania's agent-general in London, and was knighted.[12]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Alfred Ashbolt as umpire in first-class matches". CricketArchive. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  2. ^ a b c "Mr. Frank Ashbolt". Evening Post. Vol. CXXX, no. 15. 17 July 1940. p. 9.
  3. ^ "Cricket". New Zealand Times. Vol. LIII, no. 9510. 23 January 1892. p. 3.
  4. ^ "Wellington v Auckland 1893–94". CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  5. ^ "Wellington v New South Wales 1893–94". CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  6. ^ "Wellington v Hawke's Bay 1893–94". CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  7. ^ "Otago v Wellington 1894–95". CricketArchive. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
  8. ^ "Wellington v New South Wales 1895–96". CricketArchive. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
  9. ^ Don Neely & Richard Payne, Men in White: The History of New Zealand International Cricket, 1894–1985, Moa, Auckland, 1986, pp. 40–43.
  10. ^ "Hawke's Bay v Wellington 1900–01". CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  11. ^ "Frank Lionel Ashbolt". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  12. ^ Chapman, Peter and John Reynolds. "Ashbolt, Sir Alfred Henry (1870–1930)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 1 June 2017.

External links[edit]