Arthur "Ticker" Mitchell (13 September 1902 – 25 December 1976) was an English

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er, who played both for

Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yorkshire County Cricket Club is a professional Cricket club based in Yorkshire, England. The team competes in the County Championship, the top tier of English First-class cricket. Nicknamed "Vikings". Yorkshire also competes in T20 Blast, O ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Born at

Baildon Baildon is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Bradford, Bradford Metropolitan Borough in West Yorkshire, England and within the Historic counties of England, historic boundaries of the West Riding of Yorkshire. ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, and nicknamed "Ticker" because of a habit of talking to himself while batting, Mitchell was a solid, determined and sometimes dour middle order batsman who converted to become an opening batsman after the retirement of Percy Holmes in 1932. An accumulator of runs rather than a stroke maker, he very occasionally allowed himself to bat more freely, and when he did he revealed himself as a particularly fine cutter. He scored centuries in four consecutive innings for Yorkshire in 1933. He was a particularly fine close-in fieldsman, noted for taking catches off the bowling of

Hedley Verity Hedley Verity (18 May 1905 – 31 July 1943) was a professional cricketer who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, Yorkshire and England national cricket team, England between 1930 and 1939. A Left-arm orthodox spin, slow left-arm orth ...

. The Yorkshire cricket journalist John Bapty said of Mitchell's fielding: "His skill became such, and his fame mounted so that there were times when it was said he had missed a catch that never would have been accounted a chance had he not made it one."John Bapty, "Arthur Mitchell", ''Cricket Heroes'', Cricket Writers Club, London, 1959, 164–72. Mitchell's

Test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...

career might have consisted of just three matches on the 1933–34 tour of India, when he performed without distinction in what was, in effect, an England second eleven. But an injury to

Maurice Leyland Maurice Leyland (20 July 1900 – 1 January 1967) was an English international cricketer who played 41 Test matches between 1928 and 1938. In first-class cricket, he represented Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1920 and 1946, scoring ove ...

just before the

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

Test against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in 1935 led to Mitchell being summoned, literally, from his back garden. With scores of 58 and 72, he retained his place for the final Test, and played once more, against India in 1936. His first-class career lasted from 1922 to 1945. Mitchell was appointed county coach to Yorkshire after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and remained in the job until 1970. Bill Bowes, "Arthur Mitchell", ''

The Cricketer ''The Cricketer'' is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county, club and schools cricket. Overview The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cric ...

'', February 1977, p. 21. He died in December 1976 in

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

, Yorkshire, at the age of 74.Arthur Mitchell
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2023-01-26.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Arthur English cricketers England Test cricketers Yorkshire cricketers Players cricketers People from Baildon Sportspeople from the City of Bradford Cricketers from West Yorkshire 1902 births 1976 deaths Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 20th-century English sportsmen H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers North v South cricketers