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Obituary: Jonathan Atkinson
Somerset are mourning the sad loss of Jonathon Atkinson who passed away on October 29th at the age of 57.
Jonny, as he was known, was born at Butleigh on July 10th, 1968, and was the son of former Somerset CCC Captain, Colin Atkinson.
From an early age Jonny’s all round sporting talents were recognised, and he excelled at hockey, rugby and cricket where he played for Millfield School First XI for five years, captaining the side for his last three seasons. Among his contemporaries in the Millfield team were Paul Bail, Harvey Trump and Rob Turner.
Jonny made his debut for Somerset Second XI shortly after his 16th birthday and a number of impressive performances gained him a reputation as a hard hitting right-handed batter and fast-medium right-arm bowler.
In early August 1985 Jonny made his First XI debut against Northamptonshire at Weston-super-Mare, the day after he’d taken five wickets for Somerset Colts against Wiltshire at Chippenham.
When Jonny walked to the wicket to join Ian Botham the scoreboard read 194 for six. His seventh wicket partnership with the captain garnered 177 runs with Jonny going onto make 79.
In the following match against Middlesex, also at Weston, batting in a helmet he borrowed from Colin Dredge, he made 25 in a partnership with Vic Marks against an attack that included Wayne Daniel and Norman Cowans.
On the strength of his Somerset performances Jonny was selected to play for England Under 19s against Sri Lanka at Chelmsford in 1986.
He spent three years at Cambridge University studying for a degree in economics where he was awarded his cricket blue in 1988, 1989 and 1990, when he captained the side, and played alongside Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton.
In his 26 First Class games for Cambridge University he scored 880 runs at an average of 20.95.
Jonny returned to play four County Championship games in 1989, and made his last First Class appearance for Somerset against Gloucestershire at Bristol in September that year. Upon graduating Jonny opted for a career in the insurance business.
Between 1985 and 1990 he played in 14 First Class matches for Somerset, scoring 422 runs an average of 28.13 and took four wickets. He also appeared in eight List A games.
Vic Marks, who played in the same team as Jonny in several of his matches for Somerset, said: “Professional cricket was not for Jonny in the long term, but he often dazzled when he did play especially in that debut match at Weston.
“My recollection of his stand with Ian is that his batting was so captivating that his partner started to bat with unusual caution for a while because he wanted to witness Jonny’s strokeplay from the best possible viewpoint, at the other end!”
