Bill Tickner was born near Goulburn in 1883 and came to live in the Canberra region before the First World War. He played cricket in the Goulburn and Canberra regions for at least 20 years before the ACT Cricket Association was formed in 1922.
He commenced his representative career in 1922 and represented the ACT in every representative match through 1941. He was an excellent batsman who made a century in several representative games, but it was as a bowler that he was best known.
His best season in district cricket was 1929-30 when he took 94 wickets (at the time of his induction this was still the Association’s record aggregate) at an average of 6.87. In his twelve seasons of district cricket his accurate slow-medium off-spinners took
634 wickets at an average of 9.88. He finished his First Grade career at the age of 61 with 8/19, 8/27 and 6/17 in successive weekends.
Tickner was a member of the Southern Districts XIII which played England in Goulburn in February 1929, when he had the figures of 3/45, including clean-bowling Jack Hobbs, then the world’s best batsman. In April 1939, when he was 55, he took 6/12 off seven overs against a Metropolitan team that included Stan McCabe, Bill O’Reilly and four other Sheffield Shield players.
Tickner was Chairman of the Permit and Umpires Committee and a member of the Selection Committee for a number of years and the Cricket Association’s Assistant Secretary for seven years.
From 1938-48 he was Secretary of the Southern Districts Cricket Council and in 1946 he was made a Life Member of the Council. Tickner was also curator of Manuka Oval from 1940 to 1947.
CRICKET
Born: 22 August 1883
Deceased; 12 March 1956
Inducted: 1997
Full Member