William Robertson (Canterbury cricketer)

William Robertson (4 March 1864 – 5 April 1912) was a New Zealand cricketer who played first-class cricket for Canterbury from 1894 to 1901 and played in New Zealand's first representative matches.

An off-spinner who opened the bowling, on his first-class debut for Canterbury against Auckland in January 1894 Robertson took 8 for 59 then, bowling unchanged throughout the second innings, 6 for 48.[1] In his next match he took 6 for 72 (unchanged again) and 2 for 72.[2] Selected for New Zealand's first representative match in February 1894, he was New Zealand's outstanding player, taking 6 for 76 and 4 for 73 in a 160-run loss to New South Wales.[3] He then took seven wickets against Otago and eight against Hawke's Bay to give him 47 wickets in five matches at an average of 12.12. He was New Zealand's leading wicket-taker for the season.[4]

After taking only one wicket in the first match in 1894-95, he then took 4 for 65 and 9 for 98 against Wellington,[5] 6 for 54 and 5 for 40 against Fiji,[6] and four wickets against Otago, to finish with 29 wickets at 14.00. He was New Zealand's joint leading wicket-taker for the season.[7]

He played only one match in 1895-96, for New Zealand against New South Wales, when he took three wickets and made his highest score, 15, in a tenth-wicket partnership of 67 with Arthur Fisher that gave New Zealand a sufficient lead to enable them to go on to their first victory.[8] After a gap of five years he returned to the Canterbury side in 1900-01 for his final two matches, and took six wickets.

Dick Brittenden said of Robertson: "He spun the ball either way a prodigious amount ... Small and slender, he suffered much ill-health, and asthma ended a brilliant career cruelly early." An accident in his youth had resulted in the loss of two fingers of his left hand.[9]