Lives in Cricket No 16 - Joe Hardstaff

with batsmen who were having a bad “trot”’. Joe took an interest in other players and went out of his way to encourage the younger ones. Graham Wiltshire, who played for Gloucestershire between 1953 and 1960, first met Joe in 1952 when Notts were playing Gloucestershire at Bristol. Notts did not have a twelfth man and so the 19-year-old Graham had to do the job for both sides. While Notts were fielding Joe had to leave the field because of trouble with his knee and so Graham took his place. He caught Monks – which he recalled was not a good idea as he was relying on him for a lift home – and later he dropped Tom Goddard. Notts won the match and about an hour later Graham was summoned to the Notts dressing room where Joe thanked him for acting as substitute. Joe then took out his wallet and gave Graham a white £5 note which was twice his monthly Gloucestershire wage. Graham said that the fiver kept him going for six months. Tom Graveney recalls playing against him for the first time at the Cheltenham Festival of 1948 and that at the end of the day the players were all having a drink together as was customary in those days. The young Graveney was drinking Mackeson. Joe didn’t think much of this and suggested adding some port. Tom says that after a couple of these he was well away. The combination of port and Mackeson became known in the Gloucestershire dressing room as a half-volley. John Harris of Somerset, who later became a first-class umpire, remembered a visit to Trent Bridge. A ball from Bruce Dooland unexpectedly reared up and caught the young Harris in the throat. He fell on the ground, barely able to breathe. Joe came to his rescue and helped him to his feet, saying at the same time, ’Get back in your crease before these bastards run you out.’ In an interview in The Sunday Times of 3 January 2010, Clive Rice said that the best advice which he ever received came from Joe, who in a discussion about playing spin bowling in one-day cricket suggested standing outside the leg stump on the grounds that the bowler would have to bowl at you. Rice went on to say, ‘When I applied it, my goodness, it worked. Joe never played one-day cricket and yet from the side he gave me the best ever tip on how to play.’ Rice, who played for Notts between 1975 and 1987, scored 13,474 runs in limited-overs cricket, averaging 37.32. So, how good was Joe? The available evidence would suggest that he was very good and only just short of the very highest class. Amongst Nottinghamshire batsmen he stands head and shoulders above them all – apart, perhaps, from Arthur Shrewsbury and 122 Latter Days, 1956-1990