James Archibald "Snowy" Atkinson (4 April 1896 – 11 June 1956) was an

Australian rules Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

footballer and first class

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er.

Family

The son of Michael James Atkinson, and Margaret Atkinson, née Markland, James Archibald Atkinson was born in Fitzroy North, Victoria on 4 April 1896. He married Mary Agnes McLoughlin in 1919.

Football

Atkinson played his football with Fitzroy in the

VFL The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

from 1917 to 1925. He was a defender, and in 1922 was a member of Fitzroy's premiership side as well as winning their Club Champion award. Atkinson was club captain in 1924 and 1925. He moved to Tasmania in 1926 and finished his footballing career with Lefroy. He represented Tasmania at the interstate football carnival in Melbourne in 1927. He broke "virtually every bone in his body" during his career, and his injuries finally forced him out of the game in 1930.

Cricket

In cricket, Atkinson played 26 first-class games for Victoria and Tasmania between 1921–22 and 1933–34. "Probably Tasmania's greatest cricket captain" in the years before it entered the Sheffield Shield, he led the team in 19 first-class matches from 1928–29 to 1932–33. An opening batsman, in 1927-28 he carried his bat for 144 not out against Victoria, and in 1929-30 he did it again, with 104 not out. Nevertheless, Tasmania lost each time. In the two matches against the touring MCC in 1928-29 he scored 17, 47, 20 and 30, the last three innings of which were Tasmania's top scores. Against the South Africans in 1931-32 he scored 90, 1, 48 and 55, again top-scoring three times. ''The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket'' described him as an "uncompromising opening batsman, capable of thunderous hooks and drives, as well as delicate late cuts, and a fine close-to-the-wicket fieldsman". In Tasmania's victory over Victoria in Melbourne in 1928-29 he took seven catches – five in the first innings and two in the second – as well as scoring 54, the second-highest score in the match.

Tasmanian Cricket Association record

Playing with the South Hobart Cricket Club in the Tasmanian Cricket Association (TCA) competition he scored 1,000 runs in four seasons out of five, including 1,000 runs in three successive seasons.

Publican

After he retired from senior club cricket in 1935 he became a publican in Launceston.

Death

He died at

Beaconsfield, Tasmania Beaconsfield is a former gold mining town near the Tamar River, in the north-east of Tasmania, Australia. It lies 40 kilometres north of Launceston on the West Tamar Highway. It is a rural and residential locality in the local government ar ...

on 11 June 1956.Legal Notices, ''The Age'', (Monday, 27 May 1957), p. 9.
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Footnotes

References

O'Neill, Pat, "When 'Snowy' Atkinson Got Even With Douglas Jardine", ''The Sporting Globe'', (Saturday, 20 May 1939), p. 6.

External links

* *
Jim Atkinson, at ''Boyles Football Photos''.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atkinson, Jim 1896 births 1956 deaths Fitzroy Football Club players Fitzroy Football Club Premiership players Mitchell Medal winners Lefroy Football Club players Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame inductees People from Fitzroy, Victoria Cricketers from Melbourne Australian cricketers Victoria cricketers Tasmania cricketers Australian rules footballers from Melbourne One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players