Billy Bestwick

Who was Billy Bestwick?

William Bestwick was an English cricketer who played for Derbyshire between 1898 and 1926. He was a demon medium-fast bowler who took over 1400 wickets for the county, including 10 in one innings. From his wild temperament and reckless behaviour, he was known as a "bad boy" of cricket.

Bestwick was born at Tag Hill, Heanor, Derbyshire the son of a miner and worked at Coppice Pit from the age of 11. He debuted for the Derbyshire team in 1898, as a professional although still working in the mine in winter. He is one of only two bowlers to have hit ten wickets in a single innings for Derbyshire, a feat he achieved in June 1921, the other being five-time Test cricketer Tommy Mitchell. He was a true tailender batsman, who never averaged above eight with the bat in a single season for Derbyshire, and did not once reach twenty in his last two hundred and eighty first-class innings, a run of batting failures equalled only by Eric Hollies between 1939 and 1954. This extreme weakness as a batsman was probably why Bestwick never managed to gain a single Test cap.