Over and Over

Brian Statham made his debut for Lancashire in 1950 at the age of 20. He was the first pace bowler the county had produced for years, and certainly since the county game began again in 1946. Statham has a wonderful record for the county and, with more than 1,800 wickets at a tick over 15 runs each it will never be approached. Yet it might have been better. For years there was no real support, so the Old Trafford groundsman had to have more heed to Lancashire’s great strength, her spinners, rather than the side’s strike bowler.

In 1957 Statham took 100 wickets for the Red Rose, at 12.47. The next most successful seamer was an amateur, Colin Stansfield Smith, who was never going to be a full time cricketer and went on to become a noted architect. Smith played eight times and took 29 cheap wickets and apart from him only opening batsman Alan Wharton, a medium pacer, got more than a handful, his 24 wickets coming in 25 matches. Four others were tried from time to time, but they managed just 15 wickets in a dozen appearances, and with Smith unlikely to be available in 1958 and Wharton turning 35 the county looked further afield for reinforcements.

Lancastrian eyes turned towards the Potteries where a 20 year old Ken Higgs had taken 46 wickets for Staffordshire in the Minor Counties Championship at just 13.13 and the youngster was signed. The Cricketer described him then, and this was to remain an appropriate summary of Higgs for the rest of his long career, as lithe but strong, with a comparatively short run of ten paces, but this helps him to maintain his stamina and he has the reputation of being able to bowl steadily for long spells. He swings the ball either way and he gives promise of developing into a valuable stock bowler.  

There was to be no gentle introduction for the newcomer, who was straight into the first team at the start of the 1958 season. Had he not had an injury towards the end of the season and missed nine Championship matches he might have joined the select band who have taken 100 wickets in their debut summer, as it was he had to be content with 62 at 21.77. There was a sensational start too. Higgs’ first Championship match was at Old Trafford against Hampshire. The visitors were bowled out for just 50 in their second innings, Higgs and Statham bowling through unchanged and, rather surprisingly, most of the damage being done by the junior partner who took 7-38.

For the next three seasons Higgs took his hundred wickets each summer and proved beyond doubt that he was the foil for Statham that the Red Rose had lacked for so long. He worked hard at his game and, amidst what could be a long tail, started to make a few useful runs and he also turned himself into a useful fielder. Statham’s continued presence, which continued for all but the final season of Higgs career, meant that he seldom got choice of ends, so his achievements being ‘uphill and into the breeze’ made them all the more admirable.

Even at this early stage of his career Higgs was talked up as an England player of the future, and a new star in the making, but his next debut in 1962 was of the less desirable sort. There was a loss of penetration and he finally made a late bow for the second eleven, where he spent several games trying to recapture his form without any notable success. The following two summers yielded similar rewards, his tally of wickets being down to 60 or 70 at a cost approaching 30 runs each.

The problem was eventually diagnosed when Northamptonshire visited Old Trafford in 1964 by, perversely, the Northants coach, Jack Mercer. An old friend of the then Lancashire team manager, former Test opening batsman Cyril Washbrook, Mercer had enjoyed considerable success as a seamer before the war. He noticed that Higgs had taken to bowling from wide on the crease, and his increasing reliance on his natural inswing meant that batsman could comfortably play him into the leg side and pick off runs regularly without having to take any risks. Higgs was sceptical at first, reporting back to teammate David Green; They want me to swing it away kid, and they reckon I do that by getting in close and showing the batter my arse when I follow through. Despite his misgivings Higgs worked at what he had been taught, and indeed the full body turn during his delivery did give him the pace of the pitch and the movement away from the right hander that meant that it in a year’s time, when his great partner Statham played for England for the last time, it would be Higgs who would share the new ball with him.

For years England had had Statham and Fred Trueman to lead their attack, but their era was at an end. Neither went to South Africa in 1964/65. England won the series, but thanks to their spinners. None of the pace bowlers, Ian Thomson of Sussex, David Brown of Warwickshire and John Price of Middlesex were in the least impressive. When the New Zealanders toured in the early part of 1965, not a strong side by any means, Trueman was recalled, and played his last two Tests. Other seamers tried were Derbyshire’s Fred Rumsey, Northants’ giant Scot Dave Larter and one who was to last the test of time, John Snow. The second half of the summer saw the South Africans providing much sterner opposition. The selectors began with Larter, Rumsey and Brown, but shuffled their pack in the second Test, retaining only Larter and bringing back Snow and medium pacer Tom Cartwright. England lost that one and for the third and final Test the selectors, their hands forced in part by injuries to Larter and Cartwright, changed their attack again. Out too went Snow and in came Brown as well as the more interesting decisions, the return of Statham for a last hurrah, and a debut for Higgs.

Had the rain kept away that Oval Test might be remembered still, but as it was the clouds closed in with England 91 short of a target of 399 with six wickets and 70 minutes to go. Despite that disappointment it was a heartening match for Lancastrians. Statham went out with a five-fer, and Higgs chipped in with four in each innings. It was enough to earn a place in the 1965/66 Ashes party where Higgs was expected to do well until a stomach problem, and what Wisden described as muscular ailments, conspired to keep him out of the side after the first Test. He did much better on the New Zealand leg of the tour however, taking 17 wickets at 9.34 in the three Tests, all of which were drawn.

England’s footballers won the World Cup in 1966, so some of the gloss was taken off the cricket season. That is a shame because Garry Sobers was at his brilliant best as his West Indies side tightened their grip on the Frank Worrell Trophy by winning a fine series 3-1. There were three centuries for Sobers, who averaged a Bradmanesque 103.14 with the bat, and if ten catches in the field were not enough of a bonus there were 20 wickets at 27.25 as well. Clearly the England bowlers had a few problems, and in three of the Tests only two front line pace bowlers were selected. Brown, Snow and Glamorgan left armer Jeff Jones (father of Simon) all had a go but Higgs topped the averages with, in the circumstances, the very fine return of 24 wickets at 25.45. No other Englishman was ever-present throughout the five match series.

That 1966 summer also represented a major advance with the bat for Higgs. He had always been capable of scoring useful runs for Lancashire, but at Test level his highest score after eight Tests was just 13, the mark of a true rabbit. The change started in the fourth Test. Higgs efforts when he came in at 83-6 with Colin Milburn retired hurt were never going to change the course of the game after West Indies had posted a first innings of 500, but the 49 he contributed to a stand of 96 with Basil D’Oliveira at least showed what could be achieved. There was an element of traditional tail end hitting as Higgs struck two sixes and five fours, but he spent more than two hours at the crease. It was his longest and highest First Class innings in his ninth season, but he didn’t have to wait too long to improve on it.

Their innings defeat in the fourth Test was England’s third of the series, and spelt the end of another spell as captain for Colin Cowdrey. The man chosen to turn England’s fortunes round was Brian Close. The match started pretty well for Close as West Indies were dismissed for 268, but when England’s seventh wicket fell with the deficit still more than 100 he appeared not to be the saviour after all. But Tom Graveney and wicketkeeper John Murray had other ideas and at 399-9, the score when Higgs joined Snow, a recovery had been made. It was half an hour before lunch and the crowd would have been expecting a bit of entertainment before watching England’s opening pair have a pre-lunch burst at the West Indies openers. In the event it was not until shortly before tea, two runs short of the world record last wicket stand of 130, that Higgs gave a return catch to the leg spin of Sobers’ cousin, David Holford. He had scored 63 against an attack that included Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith and Lance Gibbs as well as Sobers. This time it was Close’s England who enjoyed an innings victory.

There was a compliment from the great man himself, Sobers’ comment being this wasn’t a case of a couple of tailenders having a go, sparking off a firework display before they went back to their own jobs, as bowlers. These were two men who put their heads down and began batting most intelligently. I cannot praise their display too highly. As for his bowling Higgs’ performances certainly didn’t attract the praise they deserved. Of his 24 victims 17 were front line batsmen, and in six of the visitors eight innings he made at least one early breakthrough, yet Brian Scovell’s reflection on the series was typical; England’s main weakness was in the fast bowling department. We have yet to find an opening pair in the Statham and Trueman mould. Higgs was straight and used the ball well, but he is not a speed merchant. He doesn’t terrify anyone.

There was no overseas tour for England in 1966/67 so for 1967 Higgs was still the man in possession and would doubtless not have expected to be dropped after just a single disappointing Test against India, but that is what happened. It was Lancashire’s gain as after being left out of the side for the Lord’s Test Higgs, with a point to prove, took 10 Nottinghamshire wickets. He was back for the Pakistan series in the second half of the summer and was back to his best. He took 17 wickets in the three matches, more than twice as many as his nearest challenger, and paid just 14.64 runs each for them, topping the averages.

England were in the Caribbean the following winter and Higgs was a member of the touring party. He did well on the trip as a whole only Snow, in the series when he came of age as an international bowler, heading him in the tour averages. But Cowdrey, restored to the captaincy in place of Close, preferred raw pace for the Tests, and Higgs had to defer to Snow, Brown and Jones in the big matches.

Back in England 1968 was Higgs’ benefit season, and he chose the August Roses match at Old Trafford. There was not enough time for either side to force a win but Statham rolled back the years in the Yorkshire first innings as he and Higgs dismissed the old enemy for only 61. Earlier in the season he had played in the first Test against Australia. He took a couple of wickets in England’s defeat but although he clearly remained in the selectors’ thoughts for the rest of that summer, he was left out of the squad picked for the final Test at the Oval when Basil D’Oliveira put in the performance that brought the issue of South Africa to a head. That Old Trafford Test proved to be the end of the road for Higgs’s international career. He had taken more Tests wickets in 1966 than any other England bowler, and in his fifteen Tests had taken 71 wickets at a cost of just 20.74 runs each. To put that in context the only post war English pace bowler with a similar number of victims or more who can better that average is Frank Tyson.

In 1969 England began the summer with Brown and Snow opening their attack and Leicestershire all-rounder Barry Knight as first change. When they were rested in the latter part of the summer another out and out speedster, Derbyshire’s Alan Ward, replaced them and when Knight missed out on the final Test of the summer Surrey’s Geoff Arnold took the stock bowler’s place. Higgs was 32 and with his track record cannot have been out of the selectors’ thoughts completely, but at the end of the season he announced his retirement and left the Lancashire staff. Why did he go? It certainly cannot have been because he was concerned at young quicks Peter Lever and Ken Shuttleworth being preferred to him in the Lancashire side, although that was suggested. The reality was he couldn’t agree terms with the club, and in the end chose to spend his time running a hotel business he had invested in in Blackpool and playing as a professional for Rishton in the Lancashire League.

In the Lancashire League Higgs showed he still had plenty left of cricket left in him as in 1970 he took 91 wickets at 9.84 and was only marginally less effective the following summer when 86 victims came his way at 10.83. He received several offers to return to county cricket and eventually chose to accept one from Leicestershire. The Foxes had always been, as indeed they are now, one of the weakest sides in the Championship but in the late 1960s, under the dynamic off field leadership of Mike Turner, the county came to life first under the captaincy of Tony Lock and then Ray Illingworth. They were already on the way up by the time Higgs joined but he was one of the key players in the successes of the 1970s. He was originally signed as cover for the formidable Australian paceman “Garth” McKenzie who, still only 30, was assumed to be a certainty for the 1972 Australian touring party. In the event for some reason the selectors preferred the untried raw pace of Jeff Hammond, so Higgs linked up with his old rival, and Leicestershire won the first trophy in their history, the 55 overs per side Benson and Hedges Cup, and they were runners-up in the 40 over John Player League as well.

Higgs was a fixture in the Leicestershire side for the next seven summers. They were seasons which brought the club its first County Championship, in 1975, as well as two John Player Leagues and another Benson and Hedges Cup. The veteran was a model of consistency throughout this period and his last full Championship season, by which time he was 42 brought his best return for the Foxes, 47 wickets at 18.55. It was hardly surprising that the county were happy to retain him as a regular for their one day side for another three summers.

During his time with Leicestershire Higgs’ batting was not to be relied upon and he became a traditional number eleven, rarely venturing even into double figures. There was however one remarkable effort against Northamptonshire in 1977. Leicestershire won the toss and Illingworth decided to invite Northants to take first use of the Leicester wicket. As the visitors were dismissed for 172, Higgs 5-51, his decision was vindicated. But the batsmen undid all the good work and when Higgs joined Illingworth at the crease the county were in dire straits at 45-9. The Northants attack contained three Test players, the sometimes excitable Pakistani paceman Sarfraz Nawaz as well as his compatriot Mushtaq Mohammad and the great Bishen Bedi. The back up seamers Jim Griffiths and Alan Hodgson were decent bowlers as well so on a wicket that was by no means the easiest the odds on the last wicket pair adding 228 must have been inordinately long. But that is just what they did before Higgs was run out for 98. It has been said that he ran himself out over concerns as to the potential size of his bar bill, though that seems a little harsh. Certainly though Higgs was no drinker and also had a reputation for not being overly keen on parting with his money. He was a good card player however and legend has it that in one card school, after relieving the Nawab of Pataudi of all his money, the former Indian captain decided to put his title on the line and lost again. Higgs was, for a while, known as the ‘Nawab of Kidsgrove’.

Once he stopped being part of the Championship side at Leicester Higgs became a member of the coaching staff at Grace Road. He maintained his fitness and still helped out when injuries caused problems and he appeared in three Championship matches in 1980 and one in 1982. By August 1986 he was looking forward to his fiftieth birthday when he was asked to step into the breach again against Yorkshire. West Indian George Ferris and the England pair of Phil De Freitas and Les Taylor could do nothing to stop fringe England players Ashley Metcalfe and Richard Blakey building an opening partnership of 96. Higgs then came on as second change and soon sent them both, together with number four Phil Robinson back to the pavilion. None of them had been so much as a twinkle in their parents’ eyes when Higgs made his First Class debut. Having shown the youngsters how to do it Higgs then took a deserved rest before coming back to help out again and end up with the remarkable figures of 5-22. Higgs was never truly quick, and probably never even fast medium but he had the priceless ability, shared by all successful medium pacers, to bowl a ‘heavy’ ball and that was a talent he clearly retained, even at 49.

When in 1966 Ken Higgs took more wickets than any other England bowler and fame beckoned publishing house Pelham, who produced plenty of rather ordinary ghosted autobiographies of sportsmen in those days, quickly signed him up and his story soon appeared in the forthcoming titles list. No doubt because of the brevity of his career thereafter the book never actually appeared, but the title seemed most appropriate which is why, almost half a century later, this feature bears the title ‘Over and Over’.