Billy Bestwick

William (Billy) Bestwick (24 February 1875 – 2 May 1938) was an English cricketer who played for Derbyshire between 1898 and 1926. He was a demon medium-fast bowler who took over 1400 wickets for the county, including 10 in one innings. From his wild temperament and reckless behaviour, he was known as a "bad boy" of cricket.

Bestwick was born at Tag Hill, Heanor, Derbyshire the son of a miner and worked at Coppice Pit from the age of 11. He debuted for the Derbyshire team in 1898, as a professional although still working in the mine in winter. He is one of only two bowlers to have hit ten wickets in a single innings for Derbyshire, a feat he achieved in June 1921, the other being five-time Test cricketer Tommy Mitchell. He was a true tailender batsman, who never averaged above eight with the bat in a single season for Derbyshire, and did not once reach twenty in his last two hundred and eighty first-class innings, a run of batting failures equalled only by Eric Hollies between 1939 and 1954. This extreme weakness as a batsman (and also in the field) was probably why Bestwick never managed to gain a single Test cap.

Though Bestwick finished with the second-weakest average of his debut season, he proved himself capable with best bowling figures of an expensive but successful 4–163. While Derbyshire were bottom of the 1899 Championship table, the team were looking for an upturn in fortunes. A season average of six would not initially indicate this, however, thanks to the best single batting performance of his career, an innings of 39 against Surrey, Derbyshire bested Leicestershire and the winless Hampshire in the season's championship table.

Derbyshire played host to a team of South Africans in 1901, as the young Test nation played a series of eleven warm-up matches against English county sides prior to a Test series against the English cricket team. However, a publicity boost such as this only served to panic an ever-spiralling Derbyshire team into once again finishing in bottom place in the table. The following year, 1902, was slightly more encouraging for Derbyshire, as, boosted by the appearance of long-time Warwickshire player Thomas Forrester, after three years out of the game, Derbyshire finished in their highest position since the beginning of Bestwick's career, finishing the season in tenth place. Bestwick bowled very well in a summer when pitches were almost always too wet to suit a bowler of his pace, and was probably the second best fast bowler in county cricket after William Lockwood.