Born at 6 Villa Road, Nottingham on 26 February 1873, William Bennett Goodacre was a free-scoring elegant right-handed batsman who attended Nottingham High School. He began his important cricket with Nottingham Castle CC. Although he did not appear in the Colts match, Goodacre played v Yorkshire Colts at Trent Bridge in May 1898 and scored 31 out of a total of 94 all out. His Nottinghamshire debut came in a fixture in June 1898 v Staffordshire at Stoke, when he top scored with 43. His First-Class debut came later that month v Lancashire at Old Trafford, his only First-Class game that season - though he did play later v Northants, Durham and Worcester. In 1899 he hit three First-Class fifties in nine matches. During 1900 Goodacre made 14 first XI appearances, but his success was based on two innings - a chanceless 104 not out v Yorkshire at Scarborough in 135 minutes and 67 v Derbyshire at Chesterfield when he added 73 in 65 minutes with James Iremonger after 5 wickets had fallen for 41. Although playing in a further 19 Notts matches in the next three seasons, Goodacre never made any other notable scores and his final First-Class match was v Lancashire at Old Trafford in August 1903.
In 43 First-Class matches he scored 1,169 runs @18,85, and took 12 wickets @36.66 with his best bowling 3-30 v Lancashire at Old Trafford in 1900.
Goodacre, who latterly played club cricket for Forest Amateurs and Notts Amateurs, died aged 75 years at Manor Farm, Sproxton in Leicestershire on 29 June 1948.
May 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 255
See William Goodacre's career stats here