Lives in Cricket No 16 - Joe Hardstaff

Chapter Five With MCC to Australia and New Zealand, 1935/36 This was primarily a tour of New Zealand, but six matches were played in Australia. The itinerary was similar to the tours of 1922/23, when Archie MacLaren’s MCC team had played four matches while on its way to New Zealand and three on its way home, and 1929/30, when the team led by Harold Gilligan played five matches in Australia. MCC had originally asked Wyatt to captain the side, but he declined and Errol Holmes was chosen instead, with Charles Lyttelton, later a Governor-General of New Zealand, as vice-captain. The rest of the team of fourteen, a young side, consisted of John Human, Norman Mitchell-Innes, ‘Billy’ Griffith, Adam Powell, A.D. ‘Sandy’ Baxter, Holcombe Read, Wilf Barber, James Langridge, Jim Parks, Jim Sims, Denis Smith and Joe. Mainly to keep costs down, there were eight amateurs and just six professionals. The batsmen were Barber, who was appointed senior professional, Smith, Hardstaff, Human, Holmes, Lyttelton and Mitchell-Innes. Parks was an all-rounder, but could easily have been played merely for his batting. With the exception of Lyttelton, the other batsmen were all in contention for regular England places. As we have seen Mitchell-Innes, Barber, Hardstaff, Smith and Holmes had all appeared against South Africa. In spite of the curious selection criteria, success on this tour would enhance a batsman’s England prospects. In his autobiography, Flannelled Foolishness , Errol Holmes recounted how he was told by Billy Findlay, the MCC secretary, that after the problems produced by the Bodyline tour of 1932/33, this was to be ‘a good-will tour and that the results … did not matter overmuch.’ Everything possible was to be done ‘to avoid the Bodyline controversy’. Everyone was to be cheerful and pleasant and the game was to be played in the proper spirit. Findlay also told Holmes that each member of the team had been carefully selected ‘not only for his cricketing abilities but also for his 38