Lives in Cricket No 16 - Joe Hardstaff

For the 1934/35 tour to the West Indies the batsmen were Wyatt, Hammond, Hendren, Leyland, Iddon, Errol Holmes, David Townsend and W.E.Harbord, the Rutland-born Yorkshire player. The latter two probably owed their selection to being amateurs who received only their expenses. 26 Holmes, on the other hand, was very much in the running for an England place, was Wyatt’s vice-captain and, as we have seen, captained the 1935/36 team to New Zealand. By the summer of 1935 the selectors had discarded Hendren, who was replaced by Mitchell-Innes of Oxford University and Somerset in the first two Test Matches. In the event Mitchell-Innes only appeared once, having to drop out of the Second Test because of hay fever, being replaced by Holmes. Smith, Barber and Joe all made their debuts at Leeds, where Mitchell reappeared for the first time since the Indian tour of 1933/34, as did Bakewell who had also been on that tour. The field for the summer’s Test Matches against India and the subsequent tour to Australia and New Zealand was thus wide open. In May 1936 the only certainties, as far as the batting was concerned, were Hammond and Leyland. Wyatt too would have been in the front of the selectors’ thoughts, although they were already on their way to replacing him as captain with Allen. Once again, Joe’s season began against Sussex at Trent Bridge. In a drawn game he scored seven and 50. He followed this with 145 with 17 fours in three hours against Gloucestershire, helping his great friend Charlie Harris add 266 for the third wicket in 180 minutes. All this set up a ten-wicket win for Notts. Joe made 76 against Cambridge University at Fenner’s, but the next four matches were not so productive and he managed only 94 runs in five completed innings. As far as Test ambitions were concerned, it was not to matter. He had done enough to be selected for the Test Trial at Lord’s starting on 13 June. This Test Trial was between the North and the South. The other batsmen selected were: for the North, Wyatt, Leyland, Arthur Mitchell, Keeton and Bakewell; and for the South, Turnbull, Fishlock, Holmes, Barnett and Gimblett. Hammond was missing. Having suffered with throat problems for the last two seasons, he had recently had his tonsils removed. He had returned to Towards a Regular England Place, 1936 45 26 The rationale behind the selection of amateurs for MCC touring teams of this period is worthy of more detailed investigation.