Famous Cricketers No 79 - Richard Hadlee

Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Test matches 121.1 31 270 13 5-84 20.76 1 - Other tour matches 159.3 41 444 28 7-77 15.85 1 1 County Championship 202.1 44 521 36 6-39 14.47 4 1 Other Notts match 14.2 4 34 1 1-34 34.00 - - Season (6b) 497.1 120 1269 78 7-77 16.26 6 2 Career (6b) 979.2 210 } 7680 323 7-23 23.77 14 4 (8b) 1287.5 175 1978/79 Although Canterbury had a most disappointing season, finishing bottom of both the Shell Cup and Shell Trophy competitions, and in the process failing to win any of their games, the Hadlee brothers, Richard and Barry, were outstanding: in seven first-class games for the South Island side Richard took 32 wickets at only 15.46 each (and made some useful runs) while Barry scored 555 runs at 42.69. In the opening fixture against the Central Districts Richard (6-28) made short work of the visitors’ batting, only Ian Smith (60) resisted for long, while Barry (67 and 51) provided the runs. Richard also showed what a useful all-round cricketer he could be in the games against Wellington and Northern Districts. In the first of these games at Christchurch, Canterbury were 82 for 6 in their second innings before Richard (79* with 14 fours) and Vaughan Brown (58*) came to the rescue with an unbroken stand of 143 in just 138 minutes. At Tauranga, coming in at No.10, Hadlee (53*) frustrated the Northern Districts’ bowlers by staying 87 minutes and hitting two sixes and five fours and with his captain, Maurice Ryan (73), put on 74 for the 9th wicket in only 77 minutes. In these two games Richard also captured eleven wickets while Barry made 96 against Wellington but they still found themselves on the losing side on each occasion. In the remaining games in the Shell series, Barry, with 160* at Eden Park, and Richard, with 5 for 50 at Lancaster Park, were seen to advantage in the games against Auckland. New Zealand lost the 3-match Test series to Pakistan 1-0 but Hadlee had a good series, taking 18 wickets at 23.00 each. This was a record aggregate for a New Zealand bowler in a Test series at home, overtaking the performances of Dick Motz against the West Indies in 1968/69, and of Richard Collinge against Australia in 1973/74; both took 17 wickets. In the process Hadlee became the fourth bowler for New Zealand to take a 100 wickets in Test cricket – R.C.Motz, B.R.Taylor and R.O.Collinge were the others – and for the first time during a Test series he captured five wickets in an innings on two occasions, taking 5 for 62 at Christchurch and 5 for 104 ( and scoring 53*) at Auckland. In addition to all his achievements at Test level, this was the first time Hadlee had taken 50 wickets in a New Zealand first-class season – a feat he was to achieve three times. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 85. Canterbury v Central Districts, Christchurch, December (15), 16, 17 (Match drawn) did not bat - 151-3d 13.2 4 28 6 R.A.Pierce c P.E.McEwan 126 M.H.Toynbee b I.D.S.Smith b T.B.Horne lbw D.R.O’Sullivan b B.P.Bracewell lbw not out 10 125-5d 5 1 14 0 64-2 86. Canterbury v Otago, Christchurch, December 26, 27, 28 (Otago won by five wickets) c P.R.Facoory b B.L.Cairns 18 229 18 5 37 3 P.R.Facoory c P.E.McEwan 303 W.L.Blair lbw W.K.Lees c D.W.Stead b S.L.Boock 0 162 8 1 21 0 91-5 87. Canterbury v Wellington, Christchurch, December 30, 31, January 1 (Wellington won by two wickets) c and b E.J.Gray 15 200 17 3 55 3 B.A.Edgar lbw 164 J.V.Coney c V.R.Brown E.J.Chatfield b not out 79 225-6d 14 1 44 2 B.A.Edgar c K.I.Collins 265-8 J.F.M.Morrison lbw 26