Lives in Cricket No 16 - Joe Hardstaff

first-class cricket for Notts at an average of 30.73, including 22 centuries. The highlight of his career was selection for the MCC tour of Australia in 1907/08. Australian conditions suited him and he scored 1,360 first class runs, averaging 52.30. 2 He appeared in all five Test Matches. The Australian public took to him, nicknaming him ‘Hotstuff’. This turned out to be his only overseas tour, apart from accompanying MCC to the West Indies in 1929/30, when he umpired in all but one of the matches. In 1924 ’Old Joe’ lost form and he was dropped from the county’s first eleven. This was the end of his career with Notts. He was most unhappy about this as he felt that, at the age of 41, he still had plenty of cricket in him. It was also to colour his attitude about ‘Young Joe’ playing for Notts. In 1927 he joined the First-Class Umpires list, remaining on it until he died shortly before the start of the 1947 season. He was a highly respected umpire, standing in 408 first-class matches, including 21 Tests – four of which were in the West Indies in 1929/30 – until selection of ‘Young Joe’ for England brought his Test Match umpiring to an end. He also umpired in seven Eton and Harrow matches. ‘Young Joe’ was not a robust child and had to contend with two sisters – Louise, who was older, and Irene, who was younger. When the family moved to 25 Fishers Street, Nuncargate, next door but two to the Larwoods, ‘Young Joe’ attended the local Kirkby Woodhouse School, 3 but he was not interested in academic subjects. His interests lay outside the classroom. With a professional cricketer for a father and living in the Ashfield area of Nottinghamshire, which had produced over twenty first-class cricketers including Sam and Arthur Staples, Wilf Whysall, Harold Larwood, Bill Voce and Fred Barratt, it was hardly surprising that Joe should show an interest in cricket. From the age of three he had been taught the art of batsmanship, right-handed of course, by his father, who used to bowl to him sometimes for hours at a stretch. As a teenager he would spend hours, perhaps days, taking part in scratch games of cricket on the Early Days, 1911-1928 10 2 At the time this was a record aggregate for a visiting batsman and has since been bettered only by Barnett, Barrington, Boycott, Compton, Hammond and the South Africans Faulkner and Barlow. 3 This school, in those days an elementary school, holds the remarkable record of educating five Nottinghamshire and England cricketers – Wilfrid Whysall, Sam Staples, Harold Larwood, Bill Voce and Joe Hardstaff.