John Stirling Howarth (born 26 March 1945) is a former English county cricketer who played for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club. A right-arm

fast-medium bowler Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. ...

of some success, he is believed to hold the unfortunate record of most first-class matches played without scoring a run. Howarth was born in Stockport, Cheshire and played for Notts in the 1966 and

1967 English cricket season 1967 was the 68th season of County Championship cricket in England. India and Pakistan both toured England and played in three-match Test series. England defeated Pakistan 2–0 and India 3–0. Yorkshire retained the County Championship title. ...

s. In 13 first-class games he took 19 wickets at an average just below 34. He is, however, best known for his remarkable record of scoring no runs in this time. A career of 13 first-class matches without a run is the world record. However, Howarth only batted seven innings in these matches (out of a theoretical maximum of 26, had he batted in two innings per game). In those he was dismissed four times for a

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ...

, and finished

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 ...

without scoring on three other occasions, giving him a career best score of 0*. According to Lynch, the record for most innings in a career without scoring a run appears to belong to Seymour Clark, who played for Somerset County Cricket Club as a

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. ...

in the 1930 season. In five matches he batted nine innings, with seven ducks and two scores of 0*. Howarth, who also played for

Minor Counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

, had success in his

one-day cricket Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket or white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty ...

career, although he was limited to 5 List A matches spread from 1967 to the 1977 season. He took 8 wickets at the low average of 18.12, with a strike rate of 35 balls per wicket and an

economy rate In cricket, a bowler's economy rate is the average number of runs they have conceded per over bowled. In most circumstances, the lower the economy rate is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare b ...

of just 3.08 runs per

over Over may refer to: Places *Over, Cambridgeshire, England *Over, Cheshire, England *Over, South Gloucestershire, England * Over, Tewkesbury, near Gloucester, England ** Over Bridge *Over, Seevetal, Germany Music Albums * ''Over'' (album), by Pe ...

. His best bowling figures were 3/30, coincidentally identical to his first-class best. Howarth also had (slightly) more success with his right-handed batting, being dismissed only twice in four innings for a total of nine runs at an average of 4.50. His highest score was 5.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Howarth, John English cricketers Nottinghamshire cricketers Cheshire cricketers Sportspeople from Stockport 1945 births Living people Minor Counties cricketers