Billy Ashley Godleman (born 11 February 1989) is 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 one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...
er who plays for
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...
.
He is a left-handed
batsman
In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, th ...
and a right-arm
leg-spin
Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...
bowler who played for
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...
and
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
before joining Derbyshire in 2013.
He served as the club captain (2016-2023) before he was replaced by Leus du Plooy.
Godleman previously represented the England under-19 team.
Early life
Godleman was raised in
Islington
Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ...
where he attended Islington Green School. His father is a London cab driver. During 2004, Godleman was named Bunbury Under-15 player of the year. David English rated him as the best English Under-15 batsman for at least 10 years, and said that he would put money on Godleman playing Test cricket for the
England cricket team
The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) since 1903. Eng ...
. Godleman went on to play in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
's Under-16 tour to South Africa.
Early Middlesex career
Godleman played for the Middlesex second XI in 2003 (aged 14) and 2004. He made his first-class debut for
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...
Fenner's
Fenner's is Cambridge University Cricket Club's ground.
History
Cambridge University Cricket Club had previously played at two grounds in Cambridge, the University Ground and Parker's Piece. In 1846, Francis Fenner leased a former cherry orch ...
. Also making his first-class debut in the match was Steven Finn (born 4 April 1989). Finn and Godleman became the two youngest first-class debutants for the county, beating the record set by 16-year-old
Fred Titmus
Frederick John Titmus (24 November 1932 – 23 March 2011) was an English cricketer, whose first-class career, mostly for Middlesex with a shortish stint for Surrey, spanned five decades. He was the fourth man after W.G. Grace, Wilfred Rhod ...
in June 1949. Godleman did not bat in the first innings, but opened the batting in the second innings, scored an unbeaten 69. He continued to play for the Middlesex second XI in 2005 and 2006, and also played for Middlesex in four Twenty20 matches in 2006.
He played in three Under-19 Test matches against the Indian side that toured England in 2006, and in five Under-19 ODIs in Malaysia in early 2007.
Godleman played his second first-class match for Middlesex against Oxford UCCE at
the Parks
The Oxford University Parks, commonly referred to locally as the University Parks, or just The Parks, is a large parkland area slightly northeast of the city centre in Oxford, England. The park is bounded to the east by the River Cherwell, thoug ...
in April 2007, scoring 55 after opening both innings. He played his third first-class match in Middlesex's first match of the
2007 County Championship
The 2007 County Championship season, known as the LV County Championship for sponsorship reasons, was contested through two divisions: Division One and Division Two. Each team plays all the others in their division both home and away. The top two ...
, against
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
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in
Taunton
Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by t ...
. Batting at number 5, he made 113*, sharing a fourth-wicket partnership of 80 with
Owais Shah
Owais Alam Shah (born 22 October 1978) is a former England cricketer. A middle-order batsman, he played for Middlesex from 1995 to 2010 and Essex from 2011 to 2013 before announcing his retirement from first-class cricket. He played Twenty20 ...
(193) and then an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership of 193 with
wicket-keeper
The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. T ...
David Nash (100*), with the team declaring on 600–4. Somerset responded with a mammoth score of 850–7 declared, including a triple century for
Justin Langer
Justin Lee Langer (21 November 1970) is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer. He is the former coach of the Australia men's national team, having been appointed to the role in May 2018 and leaving in February 2022. A left-handed ba ...
, and the match was drawn.
In his next game, Godleman top-scored in the first innings, reaching 77 against
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
at Lord's. At that point he had passed 50 in all five innings he had played in first-class cricket, but his run came to an end in the second innings when he was lbw to Jason Brown for 40.
England Under-19s
His form dropped slightly as he continued to make 40s and 30s but failed to convert to 50s and larger scores. He was given a chance to regain this lost form when Pakistan U19 toured England in August 2007. Godleman opened the innings with Alex Wakely and the two shared a relatively slow but prolific opening partnership which ended at 198 when Wakely departed for 112. Godleman fell soon after for 71 but England went on to amass 532 all out. Pakistan U19 were then bowled out for 214 and 260 resulting in England winning by an innings and 58 runs. The second test saw another good opening partnership of 95 and this time Godleman went on to make a U19 Test Match century, eventually being caught out on 115. He was out in the second innings however for a duck as Pakistan went on to win the second test by three wickets and level the series at 1–1.
The U19
One Day International
A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World Cup ...
series provided Godleman an opportunity to prove that he could score quickly as well as slowly, as he had batted in the Test series. He made a brisk 32 * in the first ODI as rain intervened and the match was abandoned as a no result, he then made a rather slow 29 runs off 43 balls in the low scoring second match, which saw Pakistan finish a remarkable game chasing 161 by just 1 wicket having recovered from 99–8.
The third ODI proved another disappointment for Godleman as he once again made it to the high 20s and once again got out. The fourth match proved to be his day however as he became the highest U19 run scorer for England in ODIs, passing names such as:
Michael Vaughan
Michael Paul Vaughan (born 29 October 1974) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who played all forms of the game. He served as England captain for the test team from 2003 to 2008, the one-day international team from 2003 ...
,
Alastair Cook
Sir Alastair Nathan Cook (born 25 December 1984) is an English cricketer who plays for Essex County Cricket Club, and played for England in all international formats from 2006 to 2018. A former captain of the England Test and One-Day Internati ...
Marcus Trescothick
Marcus Edward Trescothick (born 25 December 1975) is an English former cricketer who played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club, and represented England in 76 Test matches and 123 One Day Internationals.Adam Lyth and himself took England to a massive score of 313–7.
Move to Essex
Having moved to Essex on loan after losing his place in the Middlesex side, Godleman signed a three-year deal with the county in August 2009.
Playing in his debut innings in a County Championship match against
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
, Billy scored 92 off 146 before being bowled by
Danny Briggs
Danny Richard Briggs (born 30 April 1991) is an English cricketer who currently plays for Warwickshire County Cricket Club, previously playing for Hampshire County Cricket Club and Sussex County Cricket Club. Briggs is a right-handed batsman w ...
. After a disappointing start to the 2011 season when Billy averaged just 19, he was dropped from the LV County Championship team. On his recall, he made 39 and 130 at Grace Road vs
Leicestershire County Cricket Club
Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the coun ...
in July 2011.
At the start of the 2012 season Billy made 130 against
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Gloucestershire. Founded in 1870, Gloucestershire have always ...
, but then was dropped from the first XI in May after failing to reach 30 in eight championship innings.
Derbyshire career
At the end of August 2012 Billy was released by Essex, and joined newly promoted first division side Derbyshire, on a two-year contract. In April 2013, he scored what is believed to be the slowest half-century in the history of the County Championship.
Whilst playing for Essex, Godleman played his club cricket for Wivenhoe Town CC and helped coach at Colne Cricket Academy. In 2015 season he crossed 1,000 Championship runs in a season for the first time in his career. He also made centuries in three successive innings as well as impressed with his stand-in captaincy in three games.
In March 2016, he was named captain of
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Derbyshire. Its limited overs team is called the Derbyshire Falcons ...