William Leonard Chamberlain (15 January 1889 – 21 March 1956) was an Australian

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

Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams representing the six states of Australia. The Sheffield Shield is named after Henry Holroyd, 3rd Earl of Sheffield, Lor ...

cricket for

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. He was also an

Australian rules football 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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er for Norwood in the

South Australian Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as th ...

(SAFL). An

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

, Chamberlain got his first called up to the South Australian team in the 1907/08 cricket season, when he played against the touring

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

in a first-class fixtures. Chamberlain, who dismissed Test player Jack Crawford for his maiden wicket, made his Sheffield Shield debut three weeks later. He participated in South Australia's 1912/13 Shield winning campaign, scoring 166 runs and taking eight wickets from his three matches. His wickets tally was the third highest for South Australia but perhaps his best moment came with the bat when he came in at five and amassed 103 in just 130 minutes against

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Adelaide Oval The Adelaide Oval is a stadium in Adelaide in the state of South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Parklands, parklands. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby league, ...

. Chamberlain was a member of Norwood's 1907 premiership team, in his first season at the club. He kicked 27 goals for the year to top their goal-kicking. The following season he was joined at Norwood by his brother

Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, incl ...

and they played together in the 1908 Challenge Final, which Norwood lost by just three points. Chamberlain was controversially denied a free kick in front of goals in the dying seconds, which would likely have given Norwood back to back premierships. He topped Norwood's goal-kicking on two more occasions, with 19 goals in 1910 and 23 goals in 1912. After spending 1913 in

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 ...

, Chamberlain returned for one final season in 1914 before again leaving the state, this time to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

.''The Advertiser'',
The Football Season
, 17 April 1915. p. 19

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamberlain, Leonard 1889 births Australian rules footballers from South Australia Norwood Football Club players Australian cricketers South Australia cricketers 1956 deaths Cricketers from Adelaide 20th-century Australian sportsmen