Lives in Cricket No 16 - Joe Hardstaff

innings. Eric Hollies and Doug Wright, both leg spinners, took his wicket ten and nine times respectively. On the other hand it should be remembered that these bowlers made life very uncomfortable for an extremely large number of batsmen. In addition, all who saw Joe or who played with or against him are unanimous that he was an excellent deep fielder, swift to move to the ball and possessed of a fast and accurate return to the wicket. Time and again one has found references to his superb and totally reliable fielding. Above all, however, Joe very much enjoyed the game and its whole ambience, deriving a vast amount of pleasure from being able to play it. To him cricket was a calling. People enjoyed playing with and against him, and players from other counties seem to have liked playing Notts who were good fun on and off the field. John Arlott wrote that he would ‘be remembered as much as anything by those who were his friends for his happy companionable company, his sense of humour and his understanding sympathy Latter Days, 1956-1990 121 Cliff Gillott, the Notts club chairman, receiving a portrait of Joe ‘using the long handle’ from his four children, Pat, Roger, Joe and Helen, in 1991.