Hall Alf Image 1 Transvaal 1931

Description

Bolton, Lancashire born left-arm fast-medium bowler Alf Hall’s appearances in first class cricket were limited by his movement between South Africa and his native Lancashire due to business commitments, but he played nine times as a professional for his native County in 1923 and 1924, despite controversy as to whether he was eligible given that he had played for South Africa. However, because Hall’s bowling was developed on the matting pitches then used in South Africa, he was not successful in England apart from his first two games when he took a total of sixteen wickets against the two University teams, though he did bowl with deadly effect in Lancashire League games for East Lancashire and Todmorden.

Hall could gain a lot of spin from matting pitches, as shown in the 1926-27 Currie Cup where he set a record of 52 wickets in six matches, including 14 wickets for 115 runs against Natal and 11 for 98 against Border. With Buster Nupen he formed a deadly attack that allowed Transvaal to sweep the Currie Cup that year and the win five of six games in 1925-26. Hall first played for Transvaal in 1920-21, and established himself the following year by being the equal leading wicket taker with 36 in the 1921-22 Currie Cup. In seven seasons for Transvaal he took 128 wickets in Currie Cup fixtures.

Though a strain prevented him playing in the First Test against F.T. Mann’s England team in 1922-23, delaying his Test match debut to Cape Town in January 1923, Hall bowled extremely well in the four remaining Tests of the tour and was unlucky not to be rewarded with a series win: with England needing 173 to win Hall took a Test best 7-63 in the second innings of that Second Test to record match figures of 11-112, and despite despite a stand of 68 by Mann and V.W.C. Jupp England only won by one wicket was carried from the field shoulder-high. After that, Hall did not return to South Africa until after his ill-fated attempt to become a member of the powerful Lancashire eleven and then he bowled well without challenging Nupen against a team sent by S.B. Joel in 1924–25.

Business commitments (he worked in the textile industry) again removed Hall from first class cricket after England’s next tour of South Africa in 1927-28, when he bowled very well in one of the two Tests he could spare time for to take match figures of 9-167 at Johannesburg in January 1928. Hall only reappeared briefly during England’s 1930-31 tour, when with the gradual shift to turf pitches in South Africa he was not successful. In his 7 Test appearances for South Africa he took 40 wickets for 22.15 runs each.

Despite his skill as a bowler, Alf Hall stands as one of the very worst “rabbits” in the history of first class cricket. Among Test players, only Bhagwat Chandrasekhar has a higher ratio of wickets to runs in first class cricket, and only Hopper Read a lower first class batting average. Hall reached double figures only three times in his 57 first class innings, averaging less than 2.

In 46 first class matches Hall took 234 wickets at 19.23 apiece with a best return of 8-80, including 21 five wicket hauls and 6 ten wicket matches.

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