David Hourn (born 9 September 1949) is a former Australian
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
er.
He played 44
first-class matches for
New South Wales
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, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
between 1970/71 and 1981/82.
Hourn spun the ball sharply, especially when he bowled his
wrong 'un, and could beat the best batsmen.
[ His best seasons came in 1977-78 (49 wickets at 21.97) and 1978-79 (42 wickets at 31.71). Even though Australia's spin stocks had been depleted by defections to ]World Series Cricket
World Series Cricket (WSC) was a commercial professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 which was organised by Kerry Packer and his Australian television network, Nine Network. WSC ran in commercial competition to establishe ...
, Hourn was not picked for any Australian teams, the selectors preferring Tony Mann, Bruce Yardley
Bruce Yardley (5 September 1947 – 27 March 2019) was an Australian cricketer who played in 33 Test matches and seven One Day Internationals between 1978 and 1983, taking 126 Test wickets.
Known to his teammates as 'Roo', Yardley was an off-sp ...
, Jim Higgs
James Donald Higgs (born 11 July 1950) is a former Australian leg spinner who played in 22 Test cricket, Test matches between 1978 and 1981. In the words of Gideon Haigh "Jim Higgs was Australia's best legspinner between Richie Benaud and Shane ...
and Peter Sleep
Peter Raymond Sleep (born 4 May 1957) is a former Australian cricketer who played 14 Test matches for Australia between 1979 and 1990.
Nicknamed "Sounda", Sleep made his national debut during the World Series Cricket period, and although hi ...
.
Hourn took 629 wickets at an average of 19.56 in first-grade cricket for Waverley, a club record.[
]
Career
Hourn made his first class debut in 1970-71 against South Australia taking 0-69. He played in 1971-72 and took one wicket against Queensland.
Hourn's next first class game was in 1974-75. He took 3-69 against the touring English side, then next played in 1975-76 when he took 5-68 and 3-58 against WA. There were no wickets against South Australia, 2-61 against the West Indies, then 4 for 65 and 5 for 60 against Victoria.
In 1976-77 Hourn took 3-41 and 5-67 against Queensland and 6-84 against Tasmania.
Hourn injured his hand early during the 1977-78 season, but had a successful summer, taking more wickets than anyone else in the Sheffield Shield
The Sheffield Shield (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Marsh Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Sheffield Shi ...
, 48 wickets at 20.72, including figures of 4-93 against Queensland, 6-67 in another game against Queensland, 4-61 and 3-35 against WA, 7 for 71 and 5 for 42 against South Australia, and 7-80 and 2-40 against Tasmania.
The following season, he took 9 for 77 in the first innings against Victoria. He took 42 wickets for the summer, but was not picked to tour India.
Ian Chappell
Ian Michael Chappell (born 26 September 1943) is a former cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. He captained Australia between 1971 and 1975 before taking a central role in the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation. Born ...
wrote in a 1977 article about Hourn and fellow spinner Jim Higgs: "in my opinion neither of them are real cricketers. By that I mean they are only bowlers, not cricketers. They are both well below standard as fieldsmen and batsmen." Poor eyesight and knee injuries later in his career did not help Hourn's batting and fielding.[
His later career was also affected by problems with his bowling rhythm which led to his chronically over-stepping the crease.][''The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket'', Oxford, Melbourne, 1996, p. 254.] In one first-grade match for Waverley Waverley may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Waverley'' (novel), by Sir Walter Scott
** ''Waverley'' Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel
* Waverley Harrison, a character in the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Stree ...
he bowled 26 no-ball
In cricket, a no-ball is a type of illegal delivery to a batter (the other type being a wide). It is also a type of extra, being the run awarded to the batting team as a consequence of the illegal delivery. For most cricket games, especially a ...
s.Jack Pollard
Jack Ernest Pollard OAM (31 July 1926 – 25 May 2002) was an Australian sports journalist, writer and cricket historian.
Early life
Born in Sydney on 31 July 1926, Pollard began his journalism career in 1943 as a copy boy at Sydney's ''Daily ...
, ''Australian Cricket: The Game and the Players'', Hodder & Stoughton, Sydney, 1982, pp. 507–8.
See also
* List of New South Wales representative cricketers
This is a list of male cricketers who have played for New South Wales in first-class, List A and Twenty20 cricket. It is complete to the end of the 2017–18 season. The list refers to the sides named as "New South Wales" and does not include pl ...
References
External links
*
*
2021 Interview with Hourn on 2sm Radio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hourn, David
1949 births
Living people
Australian cricketers
New South Wales cricketers
Cricketers from Sydney