Lives in Cricket No 16 - Joe Hardstaff

Chapter Four Nottinghamshire and England, 1934-1935 In 1934 Nottinghamshire finished in ninth position in the Championship. This was their lowest position since they had finished tenth in 1914, the year in which A.O.Jones had died and there had been five captains. 12 Larwood had recovered from the foot injury received in Australia during the 1932/33 tour, but he had to be careful, needing frequent rest and scarcely ever bowling at full pace. Nevertheless he did capture 82 wickets. Voce took over a hundred wickets and improved on his 1933 record, but Willis Walker’s season was curtailed by appendicitis and, worse still, Sam Staples, troubled by sciatica, made only two appearances in which he bowled 21 overs and took one wicket which cost him 89 runs. 13 He was forced to retire and subsequently became assistant coach. The worst blow, however, was the heart attack suffered by Arthur Carr during the match against Warwickshire in July. In his oddly insouciant autobiography, Cricket With The Lid Off , Carr describes how, if it had not been for the prompt actions of a chemist in whose shop he collapsed, he would have died. Carr recovered, but it ended his cricket for the rest of 1934. Ben Lilley took over as captain for the remainder of the season. Hanging over all this were the clouds of the bodyline dispute. Larwood and Voce encountered complaints about their bowling tactics, particularly from Lancashire and Middlesex. Matters came to a head in the match against the Australians at Trent Bridge. Larwood had declined to play against the Australians and so did not appear, but Voce did so and in the first Australian innings, bowling with a packed leg-side field, took eight for 66. The Australians were not happy and Voce, allegedly suffering from 27 12 The five captains were four amateurs – A.O.Jones, G.O.Gauld, P.J.S.Pearson- Gregory and A.W.Carr – and James Iremonger, the senior professional. 13 More significantly this was the first season since 1900 that Notts conceded runs in the Championship at a higher rate per wicket than they had scored them.