Giffen Walter Image 1 South Australia 1887

Description

Norwood, Adelaide, South Australia born Walter Giffen made his first class debut for South Australia in the 1882-83 Australian cricket season. Giffen lost the tops of two fingers when he got his left hand trapped between a pair of cog wheels at work in 1886, but this didn’t prevent him continuing his cricket career. Considered a sound batsman with a solid defence, Giffen’s strength was his fielding in the deep and he “possessed a capital return to the wicket”.

Giffen made his Test debut for Australia against England at Sydney in February 1887 and was involved in a controversial event when Giffen, batting, hit the ball back to the bowler George Lohmann, who knocked the ball on the half volley to W.G. Grace at point. Grace then claimed the catch, and the unsighted umpire gave Giffen out. Giffen has been called “one of the worst Test batsmen of all time” with scores of 2, 0, 3, 3 and 2 and it was alleged that Giffen played Test cricket only because his brother George, the star of Australian cricket in the 1880’s, refused to play unless Walter was also selected.

The Australian media was particularly scathing of Giffen’s national selection, with The Bulletin publishing a poem ridiculing him and stating “The big black spot on the selection of the Australian Eleven for England is Walter Giffen, whose proper place is in a second eleven. He is simply the brother of George Giffen and that is all.”

In 1891 Giffen played for South Australia against the touring English side, making 65 in a total of 562, South Australia’s then highest ever score. George Giffen later recalled “Walter’s innings ended in a most curious, if not an unique manner. I drove a ball straight back with all the force I could put behind the bat, and, before he could get out of the way, the ball struck the fingers of his right hand which were clasping the handle of the bat, so crushing them that he was unable to continue his innings.”

Giffen featured in three Test matches, all against England, also playing at Sydney in January 1892 and at Adelaide the same March. In a 1894-95 match against the touring English side, Giffen and Clem Hill added 192 for the eighth wicket, which remained the record South Australian first class eighth wicket stand until February 2002-03 when Brad Young and Mick Miller added 222 against Queensland.

In 47 first class matches between 1882-83 and 1901-02, he scored 6 half centuries with a highest score of 89, scoring 1,179 runs at an average of 15.93, also taking 23 catche

Giffen also played alongside his brother at Norwood Football Club, where he was a member of the 1879 Norwood premiership team in the South Australian Football Association.