Benjamin B. Wilson


Benjamin Birdsall Wilson was an English first-class cricketer, who played 185 games for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1906 and 1914.
Born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, Wilson was a right-handed batsman, who scored 8,053 runs at 27.20, with a best of 208 against Sussex, one of four tons he made against the county. He scored fourteen centuries in all, thirty five fifties, and he took 53 catches in the field. He took two first-class wickets at 139.00 each. He also played for the Yorkshire Second XI from 1902 to 1911, and H. Hayley's XI in 1906.
Wilson was a prolific scoring batsman for Yorkshire from 1906 to 1914, but scored slowly at times and was slow in the field. He possessed a strong defence, and could hit hard without any pretense to style. After a modest start, he scored 109 at Headingley against Derbyshire, in his only innings of the 1908 season, and his extended trail in 1909 saw him finish fourth in Yorkshire's batting averages with a four-figure aggregate. He maintained his place as Yorkshire's opening bat, but left the county when hostilities ceased in 1919.
He played his early cricket at Scarborough, but before going to coach to Harrow in 1921, he was with Pudsey Britannia C.C. He was at Harrow for eleven years and later went to St. Peter's School, Yorkshire. He coached in New Zealand, and was coach at Harrogate C.C. when he was over 70 years old.
Wilson died in September 1957 in Harrogate, Yorkshire. His son, Ben Wilson, played one match for Warwickshire.