Lives in Cricket No 16 - Joe Hardstaff

was Professional Coach. Not surprisingly it appears that Joe was well-liked and successful. After only one term the school magazine reported that he had delighted them with his batting technique, extensive coaching experience and attractive personality. The magazine also contained not only a fine action photograph of Joe but also a message to the boys which is worth reproducing in full. It reads as follows: ‘After playing for twenty-six years in County cricket, I suppose it is only natural for people to ask me what I consider to be the greatest moment of my cricketing career. Well, strangely enough, it is not a feat of my own which stands out in the memory, but the sight of a mere boy nearing the world’s record Test score – in fact, Len Hutton. Could you have seen this innings, you would probably have recognised the qualities which combined to make the really great batsman: courage, a steadiness which denied to him the use of risky strokes, a wonderful concentration which picked for him the right ball to hit – all these things meant a new world’s record. To all you boys who would play this game of cricket well, I can only ask you to follow the words of advice I have just written. Those qualities, plus the courage to lose gracefully as well as to win triumphantly will give you many hours, indeed, years of enjoyment in this wonderful, yet most irritating and exacting of all games.’ The school played local club sides as well as schools, 73 and so Joe played alongside the boys in the first eleven, with the school magazine recording that he scored 513 runs at an average of 85.50. It also appears that he did a lot of bowling but, sadly, no details survive. Joe returned for the 1954/55 season, but unfortunately the school no longer possesses the magazine for 1955 and so there are no available details of Joe’s doings that season. He was, however, called upon to umpire a Currie Cup ‘B’ Section game between Griqualand West and North Eastern Transvaal at the De Beers Stadium, Kimberley, the only time he officiated in a first-class match. County Cricketer, 1949-1955 113 73 Jack Bond, who coached at the Christian Brothers College in Kimberley in the sixties, recalls playing alongside his pupils on Saturdays when they played in a very competitive league in which the men’s clubs faced the possibility of relegation whereas the schools sides did not.