Lives in Cricket No 16 - Joe Hardstaff

Turner, writing in The Playfair Cricket Annual , gives him his due: ‘The year saw, regretfully, the passing from the scene of that most classical and fluent, graceful and powerful batsman, the great Joe Hardstaff, who announced his retirement in July.’ In his Valete article, Playfair’s editor, Gordon Ross, went further: ‘Joe has been a great player, rich and fluent in stroke, accomplished in all the fine arts of batsmanship. … He always looked a cricketer personified – bronzed in complexion, powerful of shoulder and firm and decisive in his stroke-making’. The Cricketer regretted that he would not be seen as a player again and went on to say that ‘there have been fewer better and more graceful batsmen to watch in the country’. The middle fifties brought about a profound change in the personnel in county cricket and the ‘craftsman’ style of the game’s conduct, which had developed in pre-war seasons. The season of 1955 saw the retirement of many of Joe’s contemporaries – George Cox, Tom Dollery, Charles Grove, Len Hutton, John Langridge, Reg Perks, Winston Place, Andy Wilson and Norman Yardley. Alec Bedser, Denis Compton, Jack Crapp, Bill Edrich, Godfrey Evans, Arthur Fagg, Paul Gibb, Eric Hollies, Jack Ikin, Ray Smith, Cyril Washbrook, Doug Wright and Jack Young would play on for a season or two. At Trent Bridge only Ron Giles and Arthur Jepson remained from the pre-war Notts staff. 76 116 County Cricketer, 1949-1955 76 Norman Hill, who retired in 1968, was the last active Notts player to take the field with Joe.