Schofield Haigh, the Yorkshire medium-pacer with a sharp off-break, took 158 wickets at 12.51 in the 1902 county season — a strike rate matched in modern English cricket only by Colin Blythe (1912) and Harold Larwood (1931). Often the third bowler behind Hirst and Rhodes in published accounts, Haigh played 11 Tests for England and was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1901.
Haigh came from a coal-mining background in the Yorkshire dales. He worked as a teenager in the local pit before being signed by Yorkshire in 1895. By 1898 he was a county regular; by 1900 he was an England Test cricketer.
His bowling action was unusual — he had a sharp 'plunge' at the moment of release that was sometimes thought legal-marginal, but he modified it after the 1898 season and was never called.
Haigh was a senior Yorkshire pro by 1902, the year of his finest season.
Schofield Haigh, born in Berry Brow near Huddersfield in 1871, made his Yorkshire debut in 1895 and was a fixture in Lord Hawke's championship-winning sides through the 1900s. A right-arm medium-pacer with a sharp off-break that on damp wickets was almost unplayable, he was the third member of the great Yorkshire bowling trio with Hirst and Rhodes.
Haigh's 1902 season was his finest. He took 158 first-class wickets at 12.51 in just 799 overs — a strike rate of one wicket every 5.05 overs that has been matched in modern English cricket only twice. In 1900 he had taken 163 wickets and helped Yorkshire to their first unbeaten championship season; the May 1908 v Northamptonshire match (Northants 27 and 15) saw him take 6 for 22 alongside Hirst's 12 for 19.
His Test career was less spectacular: 11 matches, 24 wickets at 25.91. He made his Test debut on Lord Hawke's 1898-99 South Africa tour, taking 6 for 11 (bowling unchanged) at Cape Town as South Africa were dismissed for 35. The English selectors, however, generally preferred Hirst, Rhodes and Lockwood to Haigh, and he played his last Test in 1912. He coached at Winchester College after retiring, and died of pneumonia in 1921 aged 49.
1898-99: Test debut in South Africa; 6/11 at Cape Town.
1900: 163 first-class wickets; Yorkshire unbeaten champions.
1901: Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
1902: 158 wickets in 799 overs — strike rate of 5.05.
1908: 6/22 v Northants in the famous 27-and-15 match.
1908: Yorkshire unbeaten champions for the second time.
1912: Last Test for England.
1913: Retires from Yorkshire.
19 March 1871
Haigh born in Berry Brow, Yorkshire.
1895
First-class debut for Yorkshire.
1898-99
Test debut in South Africa; 6/11 at Cape Town.
1900
163 wickets; Yorkshire's first unbeaten season.
1901
Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
1902
158 wickets at 12.51 in 799 overs.
May 1908
6/22 v Northamptonshire in 27-and-15 match.
27 Feb 1921
Dies of pneumonia, aged 49.
“On sticky wickets he was practically unplayable.”
Haigh continued to play for Yorkshire until 1913. After retirement he became cricket coach at Winchester College, a position he held for several seasons.
He died of pneumonia in February 1921 aged 49 — a relatively early death attributed in some accounts to the after-effects of the 1918-19 influenza pandemic.
A bowler whose strike rate was the best in his county for several seasons but whose Test career was limited by the strength of his Yorkshire team-mates. The 1900-1908 Yorkshire dominance was as much Haigh's work as Hirst's or Rhodes's; the published accounts have not always given him equal credit.
Haigh's career first-class wicket total of 2,012 places him among the most prolific English bowlers of the era. His strike rate in 1902 has been bettered in English cricket only twice in over 120 years.
The Yorkshire CCC commemorates Haigh as one of the 'Big Three' bowlers of the Lord Hawke era; the Schofield Haigh Memorial at his birthplace Berry Brow records the local pride in his career.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.