Ken Higgs
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Kenneth Higgs (14 January 1937 – 7 September 2016) was an English fast-medium bowler, who was most successful as the opening partner to
Brian Statham John Brian Statham, (17 June 1930 – 10 June 2000) was an English professional cricketer from Gorton, in Manchester, who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club from 1950 to 1968 and for England from 1951 to 1965.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 ...
in the 1960s. He later played with success for
Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...
. Cricket writer, Colin Bateman, noted, "Higgs was a fine medium-fast bowler with an impressive pedigree, who suddenly went out of fashion with the selectors after one Test of the 1968 Ashes series".


Early life and career

In his junior days concentrating on
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
with
Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...
, Higgs did not take seriously to cricket until his late teens. He was signed to the club from July 1954 to 1959, but never made a first team appearance. Making progress during military service, he began playing for his native county,
Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
, taking 46 wickets for 13.13 each in 1957.
Jack Ikin John Thomas Ikin (7 March 1918 – 15 September 1984) was an English cricketer, who played in eighteen Test cricket, Test matches from 1946 to 1955. A "calm, popular left-hander who also bowled leg spin", Ikin played most of his cricket for Lanc ...
, a Staffordshire native, recommended Higgs to Lancashire and he began playing for them in 1958.


Lancashire

Higgs caused instant notice taking 7 for 36 against
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
in his first
County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...
match. He took over 100 wickets in each season from 1959 to 1960, but was one of the few cricketers to take 100 wickets in a season at over thirty runs each in 1961, and he ceased to be an automatic choice. In 1965, a wet summer, he took 102 wickets in County Championship matches, and formed a formidable partnership with Statham. His best performance was 7 for 19 against Leicestershire. He was selected for the last
Test 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), ...
at
The Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...
and took 8 for 143 against a formidable South African batting line-up, and was selected for MCC tour of Australia in 1965-66, where he had a modest time, but took 17 wickets (9.24) in three Tests in New Zealand.


Test selection

In 1966, against the
West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
, Higgs established himself as England's first-choice opening bowler with 24 wickets for under 26 runs. At the
Oval An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one or ...
Higgs, only a tail-end left-hand batsman, made 63, then his highest first-class score and helped England effect a recovery from 166 for 7 to 527 all out. His partnership with
John Snow John Snow (15 March 1813 – 16 June 1858) was an English physician and a leader in the development of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered one of the founders of modern epidemiology, in part because of his work in tracing the so ...
for the tenth wicket of 128, was a record for England at home. It also was the all-time Test match record partnership between batsmen 10 and 11. Despite injury keeping him out of two Tests against India, Higgs had a good season in 1967, taking 95 wickets at 16.92. He was named one of the
Cricketers of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...
by ''
Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
''. In that year, he took 17 wickets in the Test series against
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. Despite this, he did not play in England's next Test series, their tour to the West Indies. He was later selected for one match of the Ashes series the following year, but was never selected again. According to the cricket writer Peter Mason, Higgs "was entitled to wonder why he had not been picked more often for his country". Higgs retired from County cricket at the end of the 1969 season, and played for
Rishton Rishton is a town in the Hyndburn district of Lancashire, England, about west of Clayton-le-Moors and north east of Blackburn. It was an urban district from about 1894 to 1974. The population at the census of 2011 was 6,625. History Its ...
in the Lancashire League. In the twelve seasons for Lancashire Higgs took 1,033 wickets, a figure which had then been exceeded by only eight players.


Second career with Leicestershire

After two years in the Lancashire League, the Leicestershire captain,
Ray Illingworth Raymond Illingworth CBE (8 June 1932 – 25 December 2021) was an English cricketer, cricket commentator and administrator. , he was one of only nine players to have taken 2,000 wickets and made 20,000 runs in first-class cricket.Arnold, Peter ...
called Higgs out of first-class cricket retirement because of
Graham McKenzie Graham Douglas McKenzie (born 24 June 1941) – commonly known as "Garth", after the comic strip hero – is an Australian cricketer who played for Western Australia (1960–74), Leicestershire (1969–75), Transvaal (1979–80) and Austral ...
's expected unavailability with the 1972 Australians. Higgs played regularly until the end of the 1979 season, for which he was appointed
captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
. He was the fifth-highest Englishman in the bowling averages that season at the age of forty-two. In one-day cricket, Higgs played in Leicestershire's 1972 and 1975 successes in the
Benson & Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...
, also taking a
hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...
in the unsuccessful 1974 final. He was also part of Leicestershire's County Championship-winning side in 1975. All together, Higgs took 308 List 'A' wickets for his adopted county. He was also, on his day, a solid and reliable tail-end batsman, who scored over 300 runs in a season six times. His highest first-class score of 98 was part of Leicestershire's record 228 run last wicket partnership with Ray Illingworth against
Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
in 1977. After 1979, Higgs seldom played in first-class cricket, and he retired from one-day cricket after 1982. In 1986, he returned at the age of 49, taking 5 for 22 against
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
. He played once more, 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_ ...
, without taking a wicket. In all he took 100 wickets in a season five times, and over 90 twice. He took 42 List A wickets in both 1975 and 1977.


Coaching career

Higgs later coached both
Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...
and
Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...
. He also umpired several Second XI fixtures.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Higgs, Ken 1937 births 2016 deaths England Test cricketers English cricketers Lancashire cricketers Leicestershire cricketers Leicestershire cricket captains English footballers Association football midfielders Port Vale F.C. players People from Kidsgrove Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Staffordshire cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers