Lives in Cricket No 16 - Joe Hardstaff

rain-affected, he played at his own ‘magnificent’ best to score 63, an innings which was reckoned to be one of the finest of the tour. Swanton was very impressed with this innings, saying that Joe ‘batted brilliantly, reminding us how the bowling may be driven when the pitch is taking spin.’ Unfortunately it was not enough: the West Indies only needed 78 for victory and won by seven wickets with a day to spare. The last leg of the tour was to Jamaica. As in Barbados, Trinidad and British Guiana there were two colony matches. Joe played in both matches, scoring 69, 20, nought and 68. In the last of these innings he reached 50 in three quarters of an hour, impressing all with his attractive batting. The final match of the tour was the Fourth Test at Kingston. This time England lost by ten wickets, Joe making nine and 64. MCC now had to wait ten days for a ship home and so the Jamaican authorities arranged a match against St James at Jarrett Park, Montego Bay. This twelve-a-side match ended in an MCC victory by an innings and 24 runs. Joe was top scorer, making 94 before hitting his wicket. It had been a disastrous tour. Not one first-class match had been won. England had been outplayed in the Test matches and most of the party had been out of action at one time or another. Joe himself had scored 619 runs and had averaged 44.21. The Cricketer thought that he was the only batsman ‘who looked as though he could get on top.’ Wisden considered that only he and Hutton (who joined the tour half-way through as a reinforcement) showed their full ability. The Playfair Cricket Annual felt that Joe’s batting was of ‘ephemeral quality: at his best he was positively brilliant.’ Swanton wrote that ‘Hardstaff’s batting was one of the few really satisfying things about our cricket in the West Indies and there is no doubt that he is an even better player since he changed his grip on the handle.’ Unfortunately there was another side to the tour which was far from satisfactory and which was to have unfortunate repercussions in the future: this was Joe’s relationship with Gubby Allen. They had not really hit it off in Australia in 1936/37 when Allen had tried to change Joe’s approach to batting in a way which probably adversely affected his form. It is also highly likely that Joe was not too impressed by Allen’s patrician and, at times, distinctly autocratic approach. After that tour, their paths had not crossed apart from the already mentioned wartime match at Trent Bridge. 100 Post-War Years, 1946-1948