Ken Higgs

[harsh.ag]

@JBMAC: Just to further seek your opinion, if a bowler doesn't look impressive, should his actual performance and statistics not be given due weight? Higgs took 71 wickets in 27 innings, with an average of 20.74 and strike rate of 57.9 with 6 4-fers and 2 5-fers. Maybe he didn't perform well in that match you mentioned, still doesn't justify him being dropped. And it's not like it was a chance run of form; his 511 match FC career saw him take 1536 wickets @ 23.61 with a strike rate of 58.2.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I've heard one or two suggestions that Kenneth didn't perhaps touch the forelock enough for some of our nobbier selectors' tastes.

 

[stumpski]

He was around at the time of Trueman, Statham, Titmus and Lock; Snow showed up, and the end of his career he was kept out by the younger likes of Botham, Willis, Dilley and co.

Not to mention he was dour as hell, and the 60s were the decade in which world cricket tried to resurrect itself from the boring, Bailey-led 50s.

Not strictly true - he was pushing 40 by the time Botham came along - and I think 1977 was his last full season (in which he made 98 in a big last-wicket stand with Illingworth), so Dilley doesn't enter the equation. His contemporaries were Snow, certainly, David Brown, John Price, Barry Knight, Richard Hutton (the last two medium-fast all-rounders) and towards the end of his career Chris Old, Ken Shuttleworth, Peter Lever, Willis and Alan Ward. So there was a fair bit of competition - and in the 60s it was common for England, even in home Tests, to play two slow bowlers - Derek Underwood and Illingworth or Titmus, which further reduced the scope for places. BB's comment is interesting, I hadn't heard that before, but it wouldn't surprise me. He was a hard taskmaster as Leics coach according to Jonathan Agnew.

 

[Prince EWS]

When I was about 14 I opened the batting for the junior side of the village in Lancashire I lived in against a side from Blackpool for whom Ken Higgs son opened the bowling.

Unlike his Dad Higgs Jnr was distinctly sharp, well he was to us, and they soon had us at 16-9 - almost all of the 16 were byes. If memory serves young Higgs only had one wicket, because none of my lot were prepared to face him and I couldn't lay bat on ball to get off strike anyway.

So we got to what proved to be the final over and he finally sprayed one down the leg side which I just managed to touch, the keeper fumbled it, and it went away for four. The umpire, strangely enough Higgs senior, signalled byes despite the whole of the oppo having moaned at their keeper for dropping it. It was only the intervention of our umpire that got me credited with the runs (which more or less doubled the number that came off the bat and got me off the mark). Next up I missed the ball completely but was given out caught behind by Dad following a raucous appeal from son (and noone else as I had missed it by a country mile) so we were 20 all out.

Which explains that why it is that, despite his being a Lancastrian, I hate Ken Higgs, 'cos he deprived me of the only chance I ever had to carry my bat through an innings..

best story

 

[Top_Cat]

@rvd: Trueman was a god, I get that. But dropping Higgs because he was dour is ridiculous, and I am surprised you don't feel the same way. Should have been picked above Titmus any day, if not above Statham, for sure!

@JBMAC: Just to further seek your opinion, if a bowler doesn't look impressive, should his actual performance and statistics not be given due weight? Higgs took 71 wickets in 27 innings, with an average of 20.74 and strike rate of 57.9 with 6 4-fers and 2 5-fers. Maybe he didn't perform well in that match you mentioned, still doesn't justify him being dropped. And it's not like it was a chance run of form; his 511 match FC career saw him take 1536 wickets @ 23.61 with a strike rate of 58.2.

Do you actually have any relevant info or are you just reading his Cricinfo profile with liberal dashings of Statsguru? Unless you were around at the time and/or have first/second-hand info, you're really in no position to say what the selectors should have done at the time, particularly when some people in this thread who live in the UK and who saw him play are saying otherwise.

 

[harsh.ag]

I didn't watch him play tests. In fact, I didn't even know he had been a test player when I saw him play in a first class match. I am not saying in any way that I am in a better position than the selectors to judge him either. I came here to find out a reasonable reason for having dropped a bowler who played absolutely brilliantly in the 15 tests he was featured in. The only person who has actually given a reason is JBMAC, that he was unimpressive. The other responses just list his contemporaries and rivals, but no reason why he was dropped, when he had put in better performances than all, with the exception of Trueman. So, I was asking around to know what happened back then. I mean, if that happened to a current bowler who had that kind of a record, there would be questions asked, right? I am doing the same. And pray what else do I use apart from statistics if I have never seen him play in tests? Shut myself up? I have come here for first/second hand accounts, but till now haven't got anything reliable/substantial, so am asking around. Is that against the forum mannerisms?

 

[robelinda]

I've had a few requests for Higgs footage, i'll dig some up.

 

[nightprowler10]

Ah yes. Used to love watching him and Ryu Boson bowl in tandem.

 

[Top_Cat]

I didn't watch him play tests. In fact, I didn't even know he had been a test player when I saw him play in a first class match. I am not saying in any way that I am in a better position than the selectors to judge him either. I came here to find out a reasonable reason for having dropped a bowler who played absolutely brilliantly in the 15 tests he was featured in. The only person who has actually given a reason is JBMAC, that he was unimpressive. The other responses just list his contemporaries and rivals, but no reason why he was dropped, when he had put in better performances than all, with the exception of Trueman. So, I was asking around to know what happened back then. I mean, if that happened to a current bowler who had that kind of a record, there would be questions asked, right? I am doing the same. And pray what else do I use apart from statistics if I have never seen him play in tests? Shut myself up? I have come here for first/second hand accounts, but till now haven't got anything reliable/substantial, so am asking around. Is that against the forum mannerisms?

No. But your a-priori conclusion was;

Ken Higgs | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo

How does this player end up playing only 20 tests in the modern era? Then English selectors ought to be ashamed. Anybody know about this bowler and has an explanation?

....based purely on his record. For all you know there are perfectly good reasons for his non-selection. With only the raw stats as your source (a fairly terrible historical guide) you might want to ask about the reasons before bagging the selectors of the time. You've drawn a conclusion and are asking for reasons why your conclusion isn't the case on a forum where the average age of participants sorta precludes finding much info about the time at all, let alone detailed selection reasons. Even then, anecdotally, from some people who are really unlikely to have detailed info themselves directly contradicts what you've already decided.

 

[fredfertang]

Perhaps I should have answered the question rather than just trot out my own petty prejudice against Higgs.

What cricinfo doesn't tell you is that his form dropped right off in 1969 (when he was 32) so much so that Lancashire decided that because they had Lever and Shuttleworth to lead the attack that he was surplus to requirements, so he went off and played as a pro in the leagues for two seasons before returning at Leicestershire

So after his spectacular entry into International cricket he did a bit of a Bob Massie, then had two seasons when he wasn't even on the radar, and by the time he got back in the First Class game he was pushing 35

 

[robelinda]

Ken Higgs forgotten master test bowler 71 wickets @20.74 - YouTube

 

[Spark]

lol'd at 5:14 in the video

 

[Spikey]

we might be able to spot JBMAC in the crowd

 

[Top_Cat]

OH MY GOD BOWLERS BACK THEN WERE SOOO SLOW.

z

 

[Hurricane]

Ken Higgs forgotten master test bowler 71 wickets @20.74 - YouTube

Awesome - loved the leg side shots from the right handers.

 

[robelinda]

OH MY GOD BOWLERS BACK THEN WERE SOOO SLOW.

z

Greg Blewett would've gotten 300 test wickets back then. #fasterthanmcgrath

 

[Top_Cat]

haha, Blewett made sure to mention that when I interviewed him for CW years ago.

 

[Ruckus]

What would people estimate the speed of Higgs actually was in the above clip? Looks like it wouldn't be more than 110kph to me.

PS. You never cease to deliver robelinda, awesome footage! Great clarity as well.

 

[vic_orthdox]

120km/h. Maybe a bit above. He'd have the Husseys of the world covered.

 

[Ruckus]

yeah actually you're probably closer to the mark. Just looked at footage of Copeland bowling (the gold standard of slow bowling comparisons) and it looks pretty similar.