[1] Professionally Battersby worked as a noted groundsman and caretaker in Invercargill, and was responsible for the development of the cricket pitch at the city's Rugby Park ground to first-class standard.
In difficult periods, Battersby has been the life and soul of his club, while the work he has done in bringing on the younger players is deserving of the highest praise".
His work preparing pitches was noted by October 1912, with The Southland Times saying that the "turf wickets at the Park will lie in a condition far ahead of anything experienced on the occasion of opening games in past seasons".
[31] Despite conditions in Invercargill where wet weather was commonplace, especially during the early months of the cricket season, The Southland Times praised the preparation of the Rugby Park pitch for an inter-provincial match against Wellington in January 1914, saying that the wicket was a "splendid testimony to the capabilities of Caretaker Battersby"[32] and that he had prepared a pitch "on which the batsmen should have made lots of runs".
[33] Ahead of the match against Canterbury the following month the paper again called his pitch preparation "splendid" and praised the "billiard-like surface" in the outfield,[34] while The Southern Cross reported that "the wicket is in fine order, thanks to the care of Mr Battersby, who is a real live custodian and enthusiastic cricketer".
[35] In the event, rain meant that play was only possible for three hours on the first day of the match, but The Southland Times reported that Battersby, who it said "had laboured hard to provide an excellent wicket ... had succeeded" in producing a pitch that "played so well during the three hours that batsmen and bowlers were defying each other and its surface was in itself an excellent testimony to the qualifications of the caretaker to work up a wicket of standard".
[36] In July 1916 Battersby resigned his position as caretaker at Rugby Park in order to enlist in the New Zealand Army, being granted a leave of absence to do so.
[3] After a time spend at the New Zealand Depot at Codford in Wiltshire, Battersby was posted to France in May 1917 and spent five months on the Western Front on active service.