Roy Ivan Harford (born 30 May 1936) is a former

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

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 who played in three

Tests Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

against India in 1967–68. He played

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 ...

in New Zealand from the 1965–66 season to the 1967–68 season.

Cricket career

Born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, Harford was a wicket-keeper who played club cricket for

Mitcham Mitcham is an area within the London Borough of Merton in South London, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross. Originally a village in the county of Surrey, today it is mainly a residential suburb, and includes Mitcham Common. It ha ...

in Surrey before emigrating to New Zealand in 1961. He represented

Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runawa ...

in the

Hawke Cup The Hawke Cup is a non-first-class cricket competition for New Zealand's district associations. Apart from 1910–11, 1912–13 and 2000–01 the competition has always been on a challenge basis. To win the Hawke Cup, the challengers must beat t ...

in 1962–63 and 1963–64 before moving to

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, where he was selected to play

Plunket Shield New Zealand has had a domestic first-class cricket championship since the 1906–07 season. Since the 2009–10 season it has been known by its original name of the Plunket Shield. History The Plunket Shield competition was instigated in Octob ...

cricket for

in 1965–66. Harford played all four representative matches for

against the Australian team in 1966–67, and toured Australia on the brief non-Test tour of 1967–68 as the only keeper. He then played the first three Tests in the home series against India. In the Third Test he became the first New Zealand wicket-keeper to take five catches in a Test innings; he also conceded no

byes In cricket, a bye is a type of extra. It is a run scored by the batting team when the ball has not been hit by the batter and the ball has not hit the batter's body. Scoring byes Usually, if the ball passes the batter without being deflected, th ...

in the match. However, he was replaced by John Ward for the Fourth Test. His three Tests were his last first-class matches. Although he was a competent keeper, who played 13 of his 25 first-class matches for the national team, Harford's left-handed batting was so unproductive that, unusually for a wicket-keeper at any level of the game, he usually batted at number 11. He made his top first-class score of 23 for Auckland against

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

in January 1967 when, batting at number 10, he added 75 for the ninth wicket with

Bob Cunis Robert Smith Cunis (5 January 1941 – 9 August 2008) played 20 Test matches for New Zealand as a pace bowler between 1964 and 1972, and was later coach of the New Zealand national team from 1987 to 1990. His son Stephen played cricket for Can ...

after Auckland had been 165 for 8. He was not related to

Noel Harford Noel Sherwin Harford (30 August 1930 – 30 March 1981) was a New Zealand cricketer who played eight Test matches in the 1950s. In domestic cricket he played for Central Districts from 1953 to 1959 and for Auckland from 1963 to 1967. Career A ...

, who played for New Zealand in the 1950s. Both played in the Auckland team in 1965–66 and 1966–67.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harford, Roy 1936 births Living people Cricketers from London English emigrants to New Zealand New Zealand Test cricketers New Zealand cricketers Auckland cricketers Wicket-keepers