William Lankham

Career

An opening bowler, Lankham played his first first-class match in December 1882 for Auckland against Canterbury in Christchurch. He took 7 for 39 in Canterbury"s first innings. On the second day, which was also his 21st birthday, he made the second-top score in Auckland"s first innings with 27, batting at number ten.

Then he took 4 for 60.

Auckland then travelled to Wellington, where Lankham took 3 for 28 and 4 for 41 in an Auckland victory. The team then crossed Cook Strait again to play Nelson.

Three months later Taranaki travelled to Auckland to play their initial first-class match, but Lankham was too much for them, bowling unchanged to take 13 for 35 (7 for 13 and 6 for 22) and dismiss Taranaki for 63 and 55 to give Auckland an innings victory. Lankham finished the season as the leading wicket-taker in New Zealand with 41 wickets at an average of 6.34.

In 1883-1884 Auckland played only one first-class match, against Canterbury in Auckland.

He never played again, and died from tuberculosis two days before his 25th birthday.

Achievements

• Canterbury nevertheless won by 27 runs. In a match in which 40 wickets fell for 370 runs, Lankham took 6 for 18 and 4 for 39, and Auckland won by four runs after the Nelson last-wicket pair had put on 50, the highest partnership of the match. Lankham bowled for most of the first innings and unchanged in the second to take 6 for 60 and 6 for 54, and Auckland won by four wickets.