Lives in Cricket No 16 - Joe Hardstaff

Joe was not selected for the Second Test at Lord’s. Of the twelve summoned to Lord’s, the Northamptonshire fast bowler, Clark, was left out and presumably acted as twelfth man. This was the match which, thanks to the batting of Mitchell and the bowling of Balaskas, saw South Africa win a Test in England for the first time. As it turned out, this victory also won her the rubber for the first time in England as the three remaining matches were all drawn. After their triumph at Lord’s the South Africans went straight to Taunton where they beat Somerset by 51 runs. The Nottinghamshire match followed. Heane won the toss and decided to bat. Keeton fell to Crisp at eight and Walker followed at 34. Joe, in his now customary position at four, joined Charlie Harris and together they added 173 in 140 minutes. Joe, eventually bowled by Xenophon Balaskas, made 154 in 219 minutes, hitting 19 fours. In his autobiography, Cricket In The Blood , Dudley Nourse had this to say: ‘Hardstaff made 154 runs against us. He might have stepped right out of a cricket book on batting, so absolutely correctly did he play every stroke. It was a model innings by a player we felt sure we were bound to meet again. In that we were not disappointed.’ The South Africans replied with 512, giving them a lead of 200. In their second innings Notts reached 312 for nine. Joe made 35 before being caught at the wicket by Williams off the bowling of Mitchell. The match ended in a draw. The selectors made a number of changes for the Third Test, at Headingley. With Sutcliffe unavailable through injury, Farrimond, Holmes and Tommy Mitchell dropped, the thirteen players chosen were Wyatt, Clay, Leyland, Verity, Barber, Hammond, Ames, Nichols, Clark, Denis Smith, Hardstaff, James Langridge and Hollies. By the time the match began on Saturday, 13 July, a number of changes had been forced upon the selectors. Clark was injured after being tripped up by Bakewell in the Northampton dressing room and, thanks to the foolish antics of Reg Santall, Hollies had ricked his neck. Finally, on the morning of the match, at 10.30 am, Leyland reported that he was stricken with lumbago. In the event Clay was not selected, James Langridge became twelfth man, Sims replaced Hollies and Bowes replaced Clark. Fortunately Yorkshire did not have a match so Brian Sellers, the Yorkshire captain, who happened to be on the ground, drove off and collected Arthur Mitchell who, when Sellers arrived, was busy gardening. So at 11.00 am, along with fellow first-timers Denis Smith, Wilf Barber and Jim Sims, Joe made his debut for England, Nottinghamshire and England, 1934-1935 34