Education
He moved to Tasmania in 1926 and finished his footballing career with Lefroy.
cricketer Australian-rules footballer
He moved to Tasmania in 1926 and finished his footballing career with Lefroy.
Atkinson played his football with Fitzroy in the VFL from 1917 to 1925. Atkinson was club captain in 1924 and 1925. He represented Tasmania at the interstate football carnival in Melbourne in 1927.
He broke "virtually every bone in his body" during his career, and his injuries finally forced him out of the game in 1930.
In cricket, Atkinson played 26 first-class games for Victoria and Tasmania between 1921-1922 and 1933-1934. "Probably Tasmania"s greatest cricket captain" in the years before it entered the Sheffield Shield, he led the team in 19 first-class matches from 1928-1929 to 1932-1933.
An opening batsman, in 1927-1928 he carried his bat for 144 not out against Victoria, and in 1929-1930 he did it again, with 104 not out. Nevertheless, Tasmania lost each time.
In the two matches against the touring Master Control Console in 1928-1929 he scored 17, 47, 20 and 30, the last three innings of which were Tasmania"s top scores.
Against the South Africans in 1931-1932 he scored 90, 1, 48 and 55, again top-scoring three times. The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket described him as an "uncompromising opening batsman, capable of thunderous hooks and drives, as well as delicate late cuts, and a fine close-to-the-wicket fieldsman". In Tasmania"s victory over Victoria in Melbourne in 1928-1929 he took seven catches – five in the first innings and two in the second – as well as scoring 54, the second-highest score in the match.
After he retired from senior club cricket in 1935 he became a publican in Launceston.
