William Lankham

Who was William Lankham?

William Lankham was a New Zealand cricketer who played five first-class matches for Auckland before his death at the age of 24.

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. Canterbury nevertheless won by 27 runs. 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. 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.

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 and dismiss Taranaki for 63 and 55 to give Auckland an innings victory.