Lives in Cricket No 16 - Joe Hardstaff

contrary to all expectations England had now won the first two Tests – one more victory would regain the Ashes. Christmas followed. Sandwiched between the Second and Third Tests was another minor match which this time was against a New South Wales Country XI at Newcastle. Yet again Joe played. The two-day match was ruined by rain and did not start until after lunch on the second day. Joe made 20. Fagg, who was about to be left out of the Test team in favour of Worthington, made 67. The Third Test, at Melbourne, began on New Year’s Day 1937 and was also affected by the rain, but this time it was England who suffered. Bradman won the toss, but by the end of the first day Australia had reached only 181 for six. Rain held up play on the second day and Bradman declared at 200 for nine. Well and truly caught on the wet wicket England struggled to 76 for nine when Allen declared. Only Hammond, who made 32 and, to a lesser extent, Leyland, who made 17, were able to cope. Joe managed three before being bowled by O’Reilly. Australia then batted on a wicket that, thanks to a strong southerly breeze, had completely recovered. Thanks to 270 from Bradman and 136 from Fingleton, Australia reached 564, thus leaving England 689 to win. Apart from an unbeaten 111 from Leyland, 61 from Robins and 51 from Hammond, no one else achieved very much and England lost by 365 runs. Joe made 17 before being caught by Frank Ward off the slow left-arm spin of Fleetwood-Smith. MCC moved on to Tasmania. If Joe was hoping for a rest he did not get it. Tasmania were beaten in two days by an innings and four runs at Launceston. It would appear that Joe had finally given up trying to keep the ball on the ground and had made up his mind to ignore his captain’s orders. (Allen was absent from this match, staying in Melbourne ‘on business’.) Going in at No.6, Joe made 55 hitting two sixes and four fours in a sixth-wicket partnership of 115 in 69 minutes with Les Ames. As there was a day to spare a one-day match was arranged against a Tasmanian XI. Joe did not play and so had his first rest from active cricket since the tour began. At this point he had appeared in eleven first-class games and three minor matches as well as the game in Ceylon. On one of the rest days earlier in the tour, when the MCC players were lounging around the swimming pool at their hotel, Les Ames saw Joe standing at the edge of the pool at the deep end, so he crept up behind him and pushed him in. Moments later, when it 58 Australian Test Tour, 1936/37