Lives in Cricket No 16 - Joe Hardstaff

Chapter Six Towards a Regular England Place, 1936 Returning home from New Zealand in early April, Joe reported for duty at Trent Bridge. George Heane was now sole captain as Rhodes was no longer available and was devoting his attentions to Sir Julien Cahn’s XI. Notts did well in the first three months of the season and in July were at the top of the championship table. At the beginning of August they beat Derbyshire, the eventual champions, at Ilkeston and were second with every chance of winning the title. It was not to be: no more matches were won and Notts finished in fifth place. This was to be their highest position until they were fifth in 1954. Not until 1968 did they achieve a higher place and they did not really look like being the champion county until 1980. For Joe, however, there was the prospect of winning a regular England place against All-India against whom there would be three Test Matches; beyond this there was the goal of selection for the team seeking to regain the Ashes which had been lost at The Oval in 1934. At this point it is pertinent to look at the batting talent available to England. In 1934 England had used nine specialist batsmen – Sutcliffe, Walters, Hammond, the Nawab of Pataudi, Leyland, Hendren, Wyatt, Keeton and Woolley. Of these, Pataudi, Keeton and Woolley had only appeared once. Pataudi had played instead of the injured Wyatt at Trent Bridge and Keeton had been a substitute for Sutcliffe at Leeds. Woolley had been selected for The Oval and, in the final line-up, had taken the injured Hendren’s place. Of this trio only Keeton could be seriously regarded as a future prospect. Woolley had been selected as a counter to Grimmett and O’Reilly, but he was aged 47 and in the event had a miserable match, 24 and Pataudi played very little county cricket after 1934. 25 44 24 He scored four and a duck and had to keep wicket in place of the injured Ames, taking one catch but conceding 37 byes. 25 After 1934 he made only five more appearances for Worcestershire – two in 1937 and three in 1938.