Wisden
 

Obituaries index: F-J

A-E - F-J - K-O - P-J - T-Z

Fawcus, Harold James, who died on July 13, 2002, aged 83, succeeded his father as honorary secretary of the Cryptics in 1949 and held the office for 50 years, combining it in the 1980s with a five-year stint as the club's president. The Cryptics were founded in 1910 by J. G. Fawcus, Harold's father, and three fellow undergraduates at New College, Oxford. One of the club's original aims, which still survives, was to encourage cricket in schools, hence the high proportion of schoolmasters among its members. For many years Harold Fawcus's meticulous organisation, backed up by letters written in his own hand, was fitted into an already busy life as headmaster of Dunchurch-Winton Hall.

Finlayson, Alan Gordon, died in Port Elizabeth on October 28, 2001, aged 101. He was the second South African cricketer to reach 100 and, as far as is known, the ninth first-class cricketer; the others are listed on page 176 of Wisden 2000. A right-handed all-rounder, Alan Finlayson played twice for Eastern Province in the 1921-22 Currie Cup, scoring 40 runs at 10.00 and taking one for 19. His younger brother Charles, who died aged 50 in 1953, played four games for Eastern Province. Fullerton, George Murray, died in Cape Town on November 19, 2002, aged 79. He toured England twice with South Africa, keeping wicket in two Tests in 1947 and playing three as a batsman in 1951, when he hit 1,129 runs at 31.36 in his 20 first-class games. In between, he kept in the last two Tests against the 1949-50 Australians and made a Test-best 88 at his native Johannesburg to help avoid the follow-on. George Fullerton made his first-class debut in December 1942 for the Rest of South Africa against an Air Force XI at Johannesburg. He was just 20, and there would be three years of naval service before he played for Transvaal, impressing with his alert glovework and making a maiden century before the summer was through. He was one of three wicket-keepers taken to England in 1947 and, after Doug Ovenstone broke his finger, the only option when South Africa dropped Johnny Lindsay at Headingley. Wisden noted his driving, cutting and quick footwork during the tour. However, Fullerton could play only three games for Transvaal over the next two seasons and Natal's Billy Wade, unable to tour in 1947, resumed as South Africa's keeper until 1949-50, when Fullerton came back. Russell Endean took over as Transvaal's wicket-keeper in 1950- 51 and Fullerton played as a batsman. Averaging 66.20, helped by 112 and 94 against Western Province, he played a significant role in their Currie Cup victory. His good form continued in England, where he hit a career-best 167 against Essex at Ilford. Business commitments allowed him no more first-class cricket after the tour. In 63 games he had scored 2,768 runs at 31.10, held 64 catches, made 18 stumpings and taken three wickets at 35.66. In seven Tests he scored 325 runs at 25.00, held ten catches and made two stumpings. His younger brother Ian also represented Transvaal.

Gardner, Charles Allan, who died in Melbourne on December 9, 2001, aged 93, was a former blacksmith who played twice for Victoria against Western Australia in February 1934, making 78 on debut. WCAA.

Gautam, Narayanan, who died of cancer in Chennai on May 7, 2002, aged only 34, was a tall, elegant batsman whose stylish strokeplay and unflappable temperament in the No. 3 spot helped Tamil Nadu reach the final of the Ranji Trophy in 1991-92. There, they were beaten on first innings by Delhi. That Tamil Nadu had a class player in the making was apparent from the way Gautam scored his 23 on debut against the touring New Zealanders in November 1988. Though another two years passed before his first Ranji Trophy game, in 1990-91, he graced it with 101 as Tamil Nadu amassed 548 against Hyderabad. The following season he made a career-best 190 against Uttar Pradesh in a Ranji quarter-final. Timing, fluent driving and effortless square-cuts were the outstanding features of his batting, but when the timing unaccountably deserted him the runs dried up. Gautam's final Ranji Trophy season, 1994-95, found him playing as a professional for bottom-of-the-zone Goa. He made 1,007 runs in a 23-match career; an average of 30.51 hints at what he might have achieved.

Glerum, Herman Wilhelm, died in The Netherlands on August 24, 2002, four days before his 91st birthday. Involved with de Flamingo's club since he was 16, Bill Glerum represented Holland 30 times between 1928 and 1957 and was for many years a driving force behind Dutch cricket. He played a few games for the British Empire XI and the RAF while serving in England during World War II, and in 1957, aged 45, had a first-class game for Free Foresters against Oxford University. His medium-pace bowling captured three cheap wickets, including the Oxford captain Chris Walton for 95. Batting in the middle order, Glerum scored nought and one. "Bill made you feel cricket was worth playing simply by being around him," said the former MCC secretary Jack Bailey, who recalled coming across him on a club tour to Brazil, where Glerum was working for Fokker, the Dutch aircraft manufacturer.

Gunn, Brian George Herbert, died in Cairns on September 3, 2001, aged 79. Kent had won none of their first five games in 1946 when they drafted Gunn, a 24-year-old Dartford batsman, into their middle order for the match against Nottinghamshire at Gillingham. His 39 was the second-highest score in the first innings - only the captain, Bryan Valentine, made more runs for Kent in the match - and the 233-run win brought Kent's first Championship points of the season. At Gravesend a fortnight later, however, Gunn's was the second of three wickets in one over for Gloucestershire's startlingly quick bowler George Lambert. He then shared in Kent's home-and-away wins against Warwickshire, taking the catch that put paid to the threat Peter Cranmer was posing at Edgbaston, but his 105 runs in those four games, at an average of 15.00, constituted the sum of his first-class experience. Gunn played Sydney grade cricket after emigrating to Australia in 1951 and later worked in journalism in Queensland.

Gupte, Subhash Pandharinath

Hafiz, Nezam Ahmed, died in the terrorist attack on New York's World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, aged 32. He worked on the 94th floor of Tower One. Hafiz had played six times for his native Guyana as a middle-order batsman between 1988- 89 and 1990-91, making 40 runs at 10.00 with a highest score of 30 against the Leeward Islands at Georgetown in 1988-89. After moving to New York he captained the American Cricket Society and the Commonwealth League and represented New York in regional tournaments. He played for the USA in the 1998-99 Red Stripe Bowl in the Caribbean and toured England with them in 2000.

Harburg, Clive Henry, who died in Brisbane on July 21, 2002, aged 90, was founding editor of the ABC's Queensland sports service and a commentator whose resonant voice was compared to that of the former prime minister Sir Robert Menzies. It was Harburg who told radio listeners about the dramatic closing moments of the first tied Test, between Australia and West Indies at the Gabba in December 1960. The match had looked set for a draw, so the ABC's premier cricket broadcaster, Alan McGilvray, caught an early flight home to Sydney, leaving Harburg and Michael Charlton to do ball-by-ball commentary. The rest, as they say, is history.

Harrison, Edward Ernest, who died on December 12, 2002, aged 92, made a lifelong contribution to Sussex cricket. Eddie Harrison "bowled with indefatigable persistency" for Sussex in wartime matches according to Wisden, and he played nine first-class games for them in 1946 as an amateur. Though now 36, he took the new ball as often as not and his 17 wickets cost 29.30 apiece. He joined the Sussex committee in the 1940s, later served as chairman of the cricket committee and was elected a vice-president. He had played for Sussex Martlets since leaving Harrow in the 1930s, was their secretary from 1950 to 1985 and then president, and also played for the Duke of Norfolk's XI, subsequently becoming a vice-president of the Friends of Arundel Castle. Harrison played squash for England and twice won the amateur doubles championship.

Hazlerigg, 2nd Lord (Arthur Grey Hazlerigg), MC, DL, died at Noseley, Leicester-shire, on September 30, 2002, aged 92. Leadership became him, whether on the cricket field or the field of battle. The cool head and organisational powers he displayed when captaining Cambridge in 1932 and Leicestershire in 1934 were equally in evidence when he won the Military Cross in Italy in 1944.

Arthur Hazlerigg captained Eton in 1929 and represented the Lord's Schools before going up to Cambridge. He opened the batting and bowled off-breaks, and it was the potential of his bowling rather than his batting, now in the middle order, that gained him a Blue as a freshman in 1930. He had done little in the build-up to Lord's, but on familiar ground he came good spectacularly with four for 17 and three catches in Oxford's second innings as Cambridge won by 205 runs. A year on, he took a career-best six for 27 against Nottinghamshire at Fenner's, conceding 17 singles, two twos and a six. He finished with 39 wickets at 23.92 that term, and played a few games for Leicestershire afterwards. He had made his debut for the county at Fenner's in 1930 and thus followed in the footsteps of his father, also Arthur Grey, who captained Leicestershire from 1907 to 1910.

Hazlerigg's year in charge of Cambridge began with any university captain's nightmare. His best bowler, Freddie Brown, failed to meet the examiners' satisfaction and was rusticated. Nor did matters improve once the cricket was under way. Alan Ratcliffe, the previous year's hero after hitting the first double-hundred in a University Match, was in such dreadful form that Hazlerigg dropped him down the order. The responsibility of opening he took on himself, and the switch could not have worked better. Ratcliffe scored runs again, making another century against Oxford, and Hazlerigg found himself on course for a thousand with 836 runs at 44.00 after 12 games. An invitation to join the Gentlemen at Lord's and five matches for Leicestershire took him to 1,010 at 36.07. This included three hundreds, all for Cambridge, with a career-best 135 against the Free Foresters. That could easily have wound up his serious cricket, but when Leicestershire hit rock bottom in 1933 he accepted the challenge of getting them back on track. He was available for only two-thirds of the programme, but his leadership was such that Leicestershire rose to 12th. This concluded his first-class career at the age of 24. In 66 matches he had scored 2,515 runs at 25.92, held 75 catches and taken 112 wickets at 31.03. A man of old-world charm and courtesy, he became a chartered surveyor after the war, and, in due course, Leicestershire's oldest surviving player.

Heldsinger, Kenneth Malcolm St John, died in Rosebank, Cape Town, on June 25, 2002, aged 75. He had nine games for Western Province between 1956-57 and 1960-61. While Ken Heldsinger's left-handed middle-order batting produced 63 against Transvaal at Newlands in 1959-60 and one other half-century, a first-class average of 17.87 from 286 runs gives little hint of the aggressive displays in club cricket that won him his provincial cap.

Helfrich, Cyril Desmond, who died in East London on March 23, 2002, aged 76, was the third of four brothers who represented Griqualand West. Basil, the eldest, had made two half-centuries against the 1935-36 Australians while still at school but died two years later at 18 from enteric fever. Cyril Helfrich made his first-class debut at 21, scoring 72 against Orange Free State at Bloemfontein in 1945-46, and went on to play for Griquas until 1957-58. Bloemfontein also witnessed the first of his six hundreds, 101 in November 1947: his highest was 165 against Eastern Province at Kimberley in January 1951, when his brother Ken made a career-best 87. Cyril's attacking half-centuries against MCC in 1948-49 and the Australians a year later brought back memories of Basil, once rated one of South Africa's brightest prospects. In 47 first-class matches Helfrich scored 2,611 runs at 31.84, took 29 wickets at 47.55 and held 34 catches.

Hollioake, Benjamin Caine

Howard, Geoffrey Cecil

James, David Harry, died in Margam on February 22, 2002, aged 80. While on the Glamorgan groundstaff in their Championship-winning season of 1948, he was drafted in to strengthen the seam bowling on an easy-paced pitch at Trent Bridge. He was not called on in Nottinghamshire's first innings, but his 17 runs helped extend Glamorgan's lead. Charlie Harris then saved the home side with a five-hour century; James caught and bowled him just before a thunderstorm put paid to further play. His one wicket in 24 overs cost 59 runs. However, he was the Second Eleven's leading wicket-taker in the Minor Counties Championship that year, with 26. This apart, his all-round skills were best appreciated in club cricket by Briton Ferry Town and Briton Ferry Steel.

Jones, Gavin William, died in Benoni on July 17, 2002, aged 47. His all-round contribution in his first two seasons played a significant part in Northern Transvaal heading the Castle Bowl table in 1977-78 and 1978-79, which resulted in promotion to the Currie Cup elite. It was a big jump, not only for Northerns, who finished last without a win, but also for Jones, who dropped out of first-class cricket for two seasons until Northern Transvaal entered a "B" side in the Bowl in 1982-83. That gave him three more summers. In 22 first-class games he scored 856 runs at 26.75 and took 30 wickets at 40.36 with his medium-fast bowling. His best figures were against Griqualand West in 1978-79: 67 at Kimberley and five for 78 at Pretoria.

Joseph, Arthur Frederick, died in Briton Ferry on January 2, 2002, aged 82. His one first-class game was Glamorgan's innings defeat by Derbyshire at Chesterfield in 1946. Bill Copson bowled him for a duck in the first innings; in the second he managed eight as Glamorgan slumped to 21 for seven. With his middle-order batting and useful leg-breaks, Joseph featured prominently in club cricket in South Wales either side of World War II, when he played services cricket in the Middle East, and post-war he also had some Second Eleven games for Glamorgan.

© John Wisden & Co