Gerald 'Gerry' Charles Hardstaff (born 4 February 1940) is a former English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er. Hardstaff was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm medium pace

Seam bowling

Seam bowling is a phrase used for a bowling technique in cricket whereby the ball is deliberately bowled on to its seam, to cause a random deviation. Practitioners are known as seam bowlers or seamers....

. He was born in Crewe

Crewe

Crewe is a railway town within the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the urban area had a population of 67,683...

, Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

.

Hardstaff made his debut for Cheshire

Cheshire County Cricket Club

Cheshire County Cricket Club is one of the county clubs which make up the Minor Counties in the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Cheshire and playing in the Minor Counties Championship and the MCCA Knockout Trophy...

 in the 1960 Minor Counties Championship against the Warwickshire Second XI

Warwickshire County Cricket Club

Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. Its limited overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears. Their kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor...

. Fisher played Minor counties cricket for Cheshire from 1960 to 1978, including 89 Minor Counties Championship matches In 1964, he made his List A debut against Surrey

Surrey County Cricket Club

Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...

 in the 1964 Gillette Cup

1964 Gillette Cup

-Second round:-----------------------------Quarter-finals:-------------Semi-finals:-----Final:-External links:* from CricketArchive...

. He played three further List A matches for Cheshire, the last of which came against Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire County Cricket Club

Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northants Steelbacks. The traditional club colour is Maroon. During the...

 in the 1968 Gillette Cup

1968 Gillette Cup

The 1968 Gillette Cup was the sixth Gillette Cup, an English limited overs county cricket tournament. It was held between 27 April and 7 September 1968...

. In his four List A matches for Cheshire, he scored 45 runs at a batting average

Batting average

Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...

 of 11.25, with a high score of 45. With the ball he took 5 wickets at a bowling average

Bowling average

Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...

 of 24.40, with best figures of 4/31.

Hardstaff also played two List A matches for Minor Counties North in the 1972 Benson & Hedges Cup

1972 Benson & Hedges Cup

The 1972 Benson & Hedges Cup was the first competing of cricket’s Benson & Hedges Cup. The competition was won by Leicestershire County Cricket Club.-Midlands Group:-Northern Group: -Southern Group:-Western Group: -Quarter-Finals:...

 against Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...

 and Lancashire

Lancashire County Cricket Club

Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...

. In his two matches for the team he scored 19 runs and took 4 wickets at an average of 13.25, with best figures of 3/39.

External links

• Gerry Hardstaff at ESPNcricinfo
• Gerry Hardstaff at CricketArchive
  CricketArchive
  CricketArchive is a website that aims to provide a comprehensive archive of records relating to the sport of cricket. It claims to be the most comprehensive cricket database on the internet, including scorecards for all matches of first-class cricket , List A cricket , Women's Test cricket and...