Harry Kelleher

Henry Robert Albert Kelleher (born 3 March 1929), played first-class cricket for Surrey and Northamptonshire between 1955 and 1958.[1] He was born in Bermondsey, London. He is the uncle of the former Kent cricketer Danny Kelleher.

Harry Kelleher

Personal information
Full name	Henry Robert Albert Kelleher
Born	(1929-03-03) 3 March 1929 Bermondsey, London
Batting	Left-handed
Bowling	Righft-arm fast-medium
Role	Bowler
Relations	Danny Kelleher (nephew)
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1955	Surrey
1956–1958	Northamptonshire
FC debut	29 June 1955 Surrey v Worcestershire
Last FC	30 May 1958 Northamptonshire v Warwickshire
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 55 Runs scored 256 Batting average 7.52 100s/50s 0/0 Top score 25 Balls bowled 6,064 Wickets 112 Bowling average 27.65 5 wickets in innings 4 10 wickets in match 1 Best bowling 5/23 Catches/stumpings 45/–
Source: CricketArchive, 8 October 2010

Kelleher was a right-arm fast-medium bowler with a whippy bowling action and a tail-end left-handed batsman. Having played for the second team since 1952 in the Minor Counties, he made a sensational first-class debut for Surrey at the age of 26 in 1955, taking five Worcestershire wickets for 23 runs in the first innings of the match at The Oval and following that up with five for 50 in the second innings for match figures of 10–73.[2] Wisden Cricketers' Almanack noted that he "made fast-medium deliveries lift on drying turf".[3] He never surpassed either the first innings figures or the match figures. But in the strong Surrey side of the 1950s, Kelleher was unable to retain his place and at the end of the 1955 season he left the county and joined Northamptonshire under special registration.

He immediately went into the Northamptonshire first team and retained his place across the damp summer of 1956, often opening the bowling with the England fast bowler Frank Tyson. Wisden noted that he "did well in a year when pitches were not in the main suited to his medium-fast bowling".[4] In all matches, he took 55 wickets at an average of 28.38.[5] As with his Surrey career, his best day was his first one: in the opening match of the season against Nottinghamshire he took five wickets for 85 (and Tyson took four for 59) in Nottinghsmahire's first innings, and these would be the best innings figures of his Northamptonshire career.[6]

The 1957 season, when Northamptonshire finished as runners-up to Surrey in the County Championship, was the most successful in the county's history, but most of the bowling success was down to Tyson, who took 100 wickets in a season for the first time, and the three slow bowlers, George Tribe, Jack Manning and Michael Allen, who took 305 Championship wickets between them.[7] Kelleher took just 44 wickets in 22 matches and his bowling average, 26.90, contrasted with the county's other bowlers, all of whom averaged less than 20 runs per wicket.[5] In 1958, he played in three early matches, but took only one wicket, and lost his place in the attack to Albert Lightfoot, who supplemented his occasional bowling with useful batting, a skill Kelleher never aspired to. He left Northamptonshire at the end of the 1958 season.

References

1. "Henry Kelleher". www.cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
2. "Scorecard: Surrey v Worcestershire". www.cricketarchive.com. 29 June 1955. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
3. "Surrey in 1955". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1956 ed.). Wisden. p. 557.
4. "Northamptonshire in 1956". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1957 ed.). Wisden. p. 477.
5. "First-class bowling in each season by Henry Kelleher". www.cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 8 October 2010.
6. "Scorecard: Northamptonshire v Nottinghamshire". www.cricketarchive.com. 5 May 1956. Retrieved 8 October 2010.
7. "Northamptonshire in 1957". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1958 ed.). Wisden. pp. 482–483.