Full name Herbert Wilfred Taylor
Born May 5, 1889, Durban, Natal
Died February 8, 1973, Newlands, Cape Town, Cape Province (aged 83 years 279 days)
Major teams South Africa, Marylebone Cricket Club, Natal, Transvaal, Western Province
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm bowler
Relation Father - D Taylor, Brother - D Taylor
Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | 100 | 50 | 6s | Ct | St | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tests ![]() |
42 | 76 | 4 | 2936 | 176 | 40.77 | 7 | 17 | 7 | 19 | 0 |
First-class | 206 | 339 | 26 | 13105 | 250* | 41.86 | 30 | 64 | 75 | 0 |
Mat | Inns | Balls | Runs | Wkts | BBI | BBM | Ave | Econ | SR | 4w | 5w | 10 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tests ![]() |
42 | 11 | 342 | 156 | 5 | 3/15 | 4/53 | 31.20 | 2.73 | 68.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
First-class | 206 | 1185 | 560 | 22 | 4/36 | 25.45 | 2.83 | 53.8 | 0 | 0 |
Test debut | Australia v South Africa at Manchester, May 27-28, 1912 scorecard |
Last Test | New Zealand v South Africa at Christchurch, Feb 27-Mar 1, 1932 scorecard |
Test statistics | |
First-class span | 1909/10 - 1935/36 |
Herbert Wilfred Taylor, who died at Cape Town on February 8, aged 83, was a great batsman on the matting pitches of South Africa, and a very fine one on those of England and Australia. He played over a span of twenty years for his country, beginning with the Triangular Tournament of 1912 and bowing out with the tour to Australia of H. B. Cameron's team of 1931-32 when he was rising 43.
He took part in ten series in all, leading South Africa in four of them, and in 42 Test matches made 2936 runs with an average of 4077. In terms of length and distinction of performance it could be said that no-one ever served South Africa better. Herby Taylor made seven hundreds in Test cricket, six of them on matting pitches, and it was on the mat that he first established himself, in 1913-14, as the youthful captain of a South African side that was considerably out-gunned
by the full strength of England at a vintage time. The confrontation between Sydney Barnes, who took the record bag for any rubber anywhere of 49 wickets, and Taylor, who averaged 50 in his ten Test innings against him, is always
remembered as one of the classics of history. 'The English cricketers were unanimous that finer batting than his against Barnes at his
best they never hoped to see,' says H. S. Altham, while Ian Peebles, who as a young man played two rubbers against him in South Africa, wrote of him in The World of Cricket that he was `the ideal model for all aspiring batsmen'. Perhaps his most extraordinary triumph was at Durban on that 1913-14 tour in the only game in which MCC were beaten. Natal made 153 and 216, and Taylor, keeping Barnes's bowling to himself as much as he could, contributed 91 and 100. The basis of his play was the straightest of straight bats, nimble footwork, and an almost unfailing judgment of length. His method was so sound that he remained a beautiful player when nearer fifty than forty, and it was in this autumn of his career that I met him and played a little with him. He was an inexhaustible cricket talker, and despite his own playing orthodoxy propounded unusual theories. One recalls him holding genial court under the oaks at Newlands, and
at Lord's during frequent visits to England. He was a man of much charm and that modesty regarding his own achievements which is so often a virtue of the great. Growing up in the aftermath of the Boer War, he belonged to a generation devotedly loyal to England, and won the Military Cross in the war of 1914-18.
EW Swanton, The Cricketer
Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1925