Bill Skitch Explained

Bill Skitch
Fullname:William Henry Skitch
Birth Date:31 August 1860
Birth Place:Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Death Place:Kawakawa, Northland, New Zealand
Year1:1883/84
Date:24 May
Year:2016
Source:http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/38496.html CricInfo

William Henry Skitch (31 August 1860  - 13 July 1944) was a New Zealand cricketer. He played two first-class matches for Otago during the 1883–84 season.[1]

Skitch was born at Bendigo in Australia and was educated at Bendigo School. After moving to New Zealand he was prominent in Otago cricket as a player, administrator and umpire for 34 years until he moved to Auckland for business reasons in 1907.[2] [3] He umpired seven first-class matches, six of them at the Carisbrook ground in Dunedin, between 1898 and 1903.[4] [5] He was elected a life member of the Dunedin Cricket Club, of which he was one of the founders, in 1901.[6] He also won prizes as a professional sprinter and was a member of the Dunedin fire brigade teams that won competitions around New Zealand.[7]

Skitch married Ellen Matilda Mariner in Dunedin in November 1881.[8] She died at their home in Grey Lynn, Auckland, in May 1938.[9] He moved to live with his son in Manurewa, and died in July 1944, aged 83.[7]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: William Skitch . 24 May 2016 . CricInfo.
  2. McCarron A (2010) New Zealand Cricketers 1863/64–2010, p. 121. Cardiff: The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. (Available online at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 5 June 2023.)
  3. Presentation to Mr. W. H. Skitch . Otago Daily Times . 2 November 1907 . 12 .
  4. Web site: William Skitch as Umpire in First-Class Matches . CricketArchive . 12 July 2023.
  5. Cricket . Evening Star . 30 December 1940 . 7 .
  6. Dunedin Cricket Club . Evening Star . 4 May 1922 . 3 .
  7. Obituary: Mr. W. H. Skitch . Evening Star . 15 July 1944 . 4 .
  8. Marriages . Evening Star . 16 November 1881 . 2 .
  9. Deaths . Auckland Star . 25 May 1938 . 1 .