Lives in Cricket No 16 - Joe Hardstaff

wickets each. Joe appeared in 24 championship matches in which he scored 1,301 runs at 35.16. In addition he scored 154 against the visiting South Africans. Joe was now beginning to be recognised as an up-and-coming batsman. The 1935 season saw him make his debut for England at Headingley and his first appearances in the Gentlemen and Players matches at Lord’s and Folkestone. At the end of the season he played for the Rest of England against the champion county, Yorkshire, at The Oval. In all matches he scored 1,689 runs at 39.27: in the averages for batsmen who played more than twenty innings (including six of the South African tourists) Joe was nineteenth. It was not a heavy run-scoring summer. No one reached 3,000 runs and only Hammond, Sutcliffe, Wyatt, Barber and Woolley passed the 2,000 mark. In contrast three bowlers took over 200 wickets – Verity, Freeman and Goddard. The final accolade for Joe was his selection as a member of the MCC tour to New Zealand, under Errol Holmes, during the following winter. The First Test against South Africa was at Trent Bridge. Scheduled for three days, it started on Saturday 15 June. This year the selectors were Pelham Warner (chairman), Percy Perrin and Tommy Higson. They chose twelve players – Wyatt as captain, Robins, Peebles, Mitchell-Innes, Sutcliffe, Leyland, Verity, Hammond, Ames, Nichols and Iddon, with Joe as twelfth man. Denis Smith of Derbyshire had originally been selected but had withdrawn because of a cracked rib and Iddon took his place. Of the side that had faced Australia at The Oval in the previous August, Walters, Woolley, Allen, Clark and Bowes were missing. The Cricketer , still reporting that Joe had been born in 1913, featured his photograph with a caption describing him as ‘the son of an old Test match player and one of the best young batsmen in the country’. After omitting Peebles England batted first and declared at 384 for seven, with Wyatt top-scoring with 149. On the second day South Africa were dismissed for 220, Nichols taking six for 35. Forced to follow on, South Africa were 17 for one by the close. Rain prevented any play on the last day. Reports do not show whether Joe had to field as substitute at any stage of the match, but he would not have been rushing on to the field with a crate of drinks every time a wicket fell. Nottinghamshire and England, 1934-1935 33