Billy Bates

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For the American baseball player use Billy Bates (baseball player)

Billy Bates England (ENG)

Batting style	Right-hand bat (RHB)
Bowling type	Right-arm round-arm off-break
	Tests	First-class
Matches	15	299
Runs scored	656	10,249
Batting average	27.33	21.57
100s/50s	0/5	10/47
Top score	64	144*
Balls bowled	2,364	61,033
Wickets	50	874
Bowling average	16.42	17.13
5 wickets in innings	4	52
10 wickets in match	1	10
Best bowling	7-28	8-21
Catches/stumpings	9/0	238/0
Test debut: 31 December 1881 Last Test: 1 March 1887 Source: [1]

Willie Bates, known as Billy (born 19 November 1855 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, died 8 January 1900 in Huddersfield) was an English all-round cricketer. Excellent with both bat and ball, he scored over 10,000 first-class runs and took more than 870 wickets, although he was not entirely reliable in the field.

Born in Lascelles Hall, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, in 1873 Bates became a professional in Rochdale; four years later he made his first-class debut for Yorkshire, taking 4-69 in Middlesex's first innings to begin a ten-year career in the first-class game. He played 15 Test matches for England between 1881/82 and 1886/87, all of them in Australia.

At Melbourne in 1882/83, Bates played a starring role. He scored 55 in England's only innings before taking 7-28 (including a hat-trick for England) to force Australia to follow on, and then claimed 7-74 in the second innings to help his team to the first innings victory in a Test match. Bates also set several individual Test match records in this game: his hat-trick was the first for England, 7-28 was a world record innings return, no Englishman had previously taken 14 wickets in a game, and no player from any country had previously taken ten or more wickets and scored a half-century in the same match.

In domestic cricket Bates topped 100 first-class wickets only once, in 1881 when he took 121, but he passed 80 on another four occasions. His best bowling of 8-21 came in 1879, for Yorkshire against Surrey at The Oval. As a batsman he passed 1,000 runs in five seasons, scoring ten centuries including three in 1884. He made his highest first-class score of 144 not out in 1882 for Under 30 v Over 30 at Lord's, when he also recorded a miserly second-innings analysis of 22-15-17-3.

The end of Bates' career came suddenly. On the a non-Test tour of Australia with GF Vernon's XI in 1887/88, he was bowling in the nets when he was hit in the eye by a ball hit by a team-mate, and his eyesight was sufficiently impaired that he never again played first-class cricket, though he did appear in club cricket in the early 1890s, and was able to coach.

His inability to play the first-class game again caused him great unhappiness, however. Depression set in, and at one point he attempted suicide. At the end of December 1899 he caught a cold whilst attending the funeral of fellow Yorkshire player John Thewlis. His condition quickly worsened, and a few days later he died, aged just 44.

His son William Bates had a long first-class career for Yorkshire and Glamorgan.