Lives in Cricket No 16 - Joe Hardstaff

fours. The incentive for Joe in this innings was to catch the 5.45 pm train to London with Charlie Harris! The match ended at 5.00 pm. Notts had won by five wickets and their 311 for five had come in three hours, during which time Kent had bowled 68 overs, just under 23 overs per hour. Writing in The Daily Telegraph , Thomas Moult said that ‘veterans could not recall a more beautiful innings’. Charles Bray of the Daily Herald described Joe as ‘a human tornado with a cricket bat’ and H.J.Henley of the Daily Sketch made it clear that it was ‘scientific’ fast-scoring rather than sheer hitting and referred to perfect timing and an admirable technique. E.W.Swanton recalled the innings on more than one occasion. In Sort Of A Cricket Person he described how he sat under the old tree at the top of the St Lawrence Ground, listening to the band of the Buffs and watching Joe, with generous back lift and both hands held high on the handle, driving the ball into the pavilion geraniums at one end and up to the tents at the other. In As I Said At The Time, in a section entitled ‘Nostalgia’, he described Joe’s innings as ‘wonderful stuff which one watched entranced, sitting in the shade with a bag of cherries – and listening to the band.’ Leslie Ames, watching from closer quarters – behind the stumps – called it a ‘hectic, yet brilliant display of powerful hitting’, and one of the finest innings he saw. In the winter of 1937/38 Joe went to India with Lord Tennyson’s team. This was a private tour arranged by the Cricket Club of India in part to inaugurate their Brabourne Stadium in Bombay. In addition to Tennyson himself the touring party consisted of Bill Edrich, Gibb, Gover, Hardstaff, Tom Jameson, James Langridge, McCorkell, Jim Parks, Peebles, George Pope, Peter Smith, Wellard and Yardley. Chapman, Goddard and Hammond were invited but declined, and Yorkshire refused to allow Leyland to go. Nevertheless it was a good mixture of youth and experience. As usual the team journeyed to India by boat. During the voyage on the RMS Viceroy of India, Lord Tennyson, who had played only one first-class match in the 1937 season, arranged a net practice on the boat deck in very hot weather. This was none too popular with the players who were enjoying a relaxing voyage after the rigours of the recently finished season. All were delighted when Joe contrived to hit the only practice ball through a hole in the netting into the ocean. Regular England Player, 1937-1939 69