Herb McGirr

Herbert Mendelson McGirr (5 November 1891, Wellington – 14 April 1964, Nelson) was a New Zealand cricketer who played in two Tests in 1930.

Herb McGirr
Personal information
Full nameHerbert Mendelson McGirr
Born(1891-11-05)5 November 1891
Wellington, New Zealand
Died14 April 1964(1964-04-14) (aged 72)
Nelson, New Zealand
BattingRight-hand bat
BowlingRight-arm medium
RelationsWilliam McGirr (father)
Les McGirr (brother)
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 16)14 February 1930 v England
Last Test21 February 1930 v England
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class
Matches 2 88
Runs scored 51 3992
Batting average 51.00 28.71
100s/50s 0/1 5/23
Top score 51 141
Balls bowled 180 14973
Wickets 1 239
Bowling average 115.00 27.49
5 wickets in innings 0 9
10 wickets in match 0 1
Best bowling 1/65 7/45
Catches/stumpings 0/- 54/-
Source: Cricinfo, 1 April 2017

His father William McGirr[1] played 14 matches for Wellington as an opening bowler from 1883–84 to 1889–90, taking 46 wickets at 11.80.

Domestic career

An all-rounder, McGirr played first-class cricket for Wellington from 1913–14 to 1932–33. He was a middle or lower order batsman who hit the ball hard and a steady medium-paced bowler.

He toured England with the New Zealand cricket team under Tom Lowry in 1927, and scored more than 700 runs and took 49 wickets. No Tests were played on that tour.

His best bowling figures (innings and match) came against Canterbury in 1921–22, when he took 7 for 45 and 3 for 47; he also top-scored in Wellington's first innings.[2] He hit his highest score, 141, against Otago in 1930–31, then scored 101 in the next match, against Canterbury.

International career

In the 1929–30 season, when the MCC side under Harold Gilligan played the first Tests against New Zealand, McGirr played in only the third and fourth Tests, both at Eden Park, Auckland. The third Test was ruined by rain; McGirr did not bat and, opening the bowling, took no wickets. The fourth, arranged hastily to compensate for the washout, fared little better in terms of weather, but McGirr scored a half-century and took his only Test wicket, that of Stan Nichols.

He holds the Test match record for the fewest runs (51) in a complete career to include a half-century.[3][4] He also holds the record as the oldest New Zealand player to make his Test debut: 38 years and 101 days.[5]

Late career

Despite suffering severely from varicose veins for much of his career, "he was always looking at his captain and waiting to be given the ball because he always felt he could take a wicket".[6] "The day was never too hot, nor the score too high, for Herb McGirr to want to bowl."[7]

He was later the cricket coach at Nelson College.[8] McGirr's obituary in Wisden in 1965 records that he played club cricket until he was 67, and gave up then only because "he slipped when taking in the milk" the day after scoring 70.[9]

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References
  1. William McGirr at Cricket Archive
  2. Wellington v Canterbury, 1921-22
  3. Walmsley, Keith (2003). Mosts Without in Test Cricket. Reading, England: Keith Walmsley Publishing Pty Ltd. p. 457. ISBN 0947540067..
  4. "How many bowlers have taken four wickets in five balls in an ODI?". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  5. Wisden 2012, p. 1315.
  6. R.T. Brittenden, New Zealand Cricketers, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1961, p. 107.
  7. Brittenden, facing p. 116.
  8. Brittenden, p. 108.
  9. Wisden 1965, p. 969.
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