Harry Leslie Higgins (24 February 1894 – 19 September 1979) was an English

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

er who played 98 matches in the 1920s. All but one of these were for

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

; the exception was a

Gentlemen v Players Gentlemen v Players was a long-running series of English first-class cricket matches. Two matches were played in 1806, but the fixture was not played again until 1819. It became an annual event, usually played at least twice each season, exc ...

game in 1922 in which bad weather meant that Higgins (playing for the Gentlemen) did not get to bat. He stood in as Worcestershire captain for one game in 1923, and acted as

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

for a single match — in which he scored 99 — in 1921. Higgins made his debut for Worcestershire against

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

in June 1920; he made 0 and 33 in a heavy innings defeat. He played a further 10 games for Worcestershire that season, but Higgins' only half-century during the year was the 64

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

he hit against

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

in July: a game in which only 80 overs were possible. The other nine games in which Higgins played were all lost by one of the weakest of all Worcestershire sides; these defeats included the innings-and-340-run demolition by

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

that remains Worcestershire's heaviest first-class defeat. He was a regular in the county side in 1921 and 1922, and in both years he made over 1,000 first-class runs. In 1921 he hit a career-best 1,182 runs at 28.82, including two centuries. The higher of these, 133 against

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

Leyton Leyton () is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River L ...

, came in a somewhat unusual match. Essex, batting first, had been dismissed for 90 (

Preece Preece is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Andy Preece, English footballer and manager * David Preece (footballer born 1963) * David Preece (footballer born 1976) * Isaac Arthur Preece (1907-1964), British biochemist * Jenny ...

taking a career-best 7-35) but had nevertheless run out easy winners thanks to the all-round talents of

Johnny Douglas John William Henry Tyler Douglas (3 September 1882 – 19 December 1930) was an English cricketer who was active in the early decades of the twentieth century. Douglas was an all-rounder who played for Essex County Cricket Club from 1901 to ...

, who made 123 * and took 14 wickets. Higgins made his career best score of 137* in May 1922 at New Road against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, but again Worcestershire lost, this time by an innings. In 1923 and 1924, Higgins appeared in 15 matches each season, but suffered a severe loss of form, scoring only 728 runs in 55 innings, and with just a single fifty each year. After that he never played regularly again, although he turned out on a handful of occasions from 1925 until his final retirement in 1927. His last game was against Warwickshire at Worcester: in a drawn match, Higgins scored 11 in his only innings. Higgins was born in

Bournville Bournville () is a model village on the southwest side of Birmingham, England, founded by the Quaker Cadbury family for employees at its Cadbury's factory, and designed to be a "garden" (or "model") village where the sale of alcohol was forbidd ...

(then in

, now

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

); he died at the age of 85 in

Malvern Malvern or Malverne may refer to: Places Australia * Malvern, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide * Malvern, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne * City of Malvern, a former local government area near Melbourne * Electoral district of Malvern, an e ...

. His older brother

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

played more than 100 times for Worcestershire, and umpired one

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Higgins, Harry 1894 births 1979 deaths English cricketers Worcestershire cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Cricketers from Birmingham, West Midlands