Jack Walsh

Jack Walsh, one of the most baffling left-arm spin bowlers the game has known, died in May in his native New South Wales. He was 67. Playing for Sir Julien Cahn's XI before the war, he became associated with Leicestershire as an amateur; but in 1946 he joined the staff as a professional, and by his retirement in 1956 he had taken 1190 first-class wickets at 24.56, which included the astonishing number of 98 instances of five or more wickets in an innings. Spinning the 'chinaman' and a hard-to-detect googly a great distance, he was considered by some to be a better bowler than Fleetwood-Smith. When he was on a length he could be played with comfort by no batsman in the world. Nor could wicketkeepers relax. Godfrey Evans, when he first kept to Walsh in the 1947 Gentlemen v Players match, was hard put to 'read' him. Seven times from 1946 to 1953 he took 100 wickets in a season, missing much of 1951 through illness. His biggest haul came in 1948, when he took 174 wickets at 19.56, 15 of the wickets coming at Hove for 100 runs in his best Championship match performance. His best innings analysis was 9 for 101 for Cahn's XI v Glamorgan at Newport in 1938, but his most remarkable spell came at Trent Bridge in 1946, when he took five wickets in nine balls on his way to figures of 8 for 69, one of nine 'eight-fors' for Leicestershire. With fellow Australian allrounder Vic Jackson, he helped make the county a force in the land. As a stylish lower-order batsman with a keenness for the big straight-drive, he twice reached a hundred, and in 1952, in his 40th year, he did the double: only Wilfred Rhodes had done so at a greater age. In all first-class cricket Walsh scored 7247 runs at 17.76. His benefit match in 1955, which returned him just over £3000, is remembered for the amazing bowling of his captain, Charles Palmer, who intended to bowl one over to change his bowlers' ends and finished with 8 for 7, the eight Surrey wickets falling without cost to him in 64 balls. For a couple of years, Walsh was assistant coach at Leicester and captain of the second XI. Having coached in Southern Rhodesia, he took assignments in Scotland and Tasmania before returning to Newcastle, where he was coaching until recently.
Wisden Cricket Monthly