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 the national side in the days before New Zealand played Test cricket.
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Frank Lionel Ashbolt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 11 April 1876 Christchurch, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 16 July 1940 (aged 64) Wellington, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-arm leg-spin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1893/94–1900/01 | Wellington | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: CricketArchive, 16 May 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Early life
editFrank 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
editA 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
editHe 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- ^ "Alfred Ashbolt as umpire in first-class matches". CricketArchive. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
- ^ a b c "Mr. Frank Ashbolt". Evening Post. Vol. CXXX, no. 15. 17 July 1940. p. 9.
- ^ "Cricket". New Zealand Times. Vol. LIII, no. 9510. 23 January 1892. p. 3.
- ^ "Wellington v Auckland 1893–94". CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
- ^ "Wellington v New South Wales 1893–94". CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
- ^ "Wellington v Hawke's Bay 1893–94". CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
- ^ "Otago v Wellington 1894–95". CricketArchive. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
- ^ "Wellington v New South Wales 1895–96". CricketArchive. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
- ^ Don Neely & Richard Payne, Men in White: The History of New Zealand International Cricket, 1894–1985, Moa, Auckland, 1986, pp. 40–43.
- ^ "Hawke's Bay v Wellington 1900–01". CricketArchive. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
- ^ "Frank Lionel Ashbolt". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
- ^ Chapman, Peter and John Reynolds. "Ashbolt, Sir Alfred Henry (1870–1930)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 1 June 2017.