Charles Kelleway Passed Away on 16 November 1944 in Lindfield, Sydney

Charle s Kelleway (188 6 - 1944) Australia n Cricketer (1910/11 - 1928/29) NS W Cricketer (1907/0 8 - 1928/29) • Born in Lismore on 25 April 1886. • Right-hand bat and right-arm fast-medium bowler. • North Coastal Cricket Zone’s first Australian capped player. He played 26 test matches, and 132 first class matches. • He was the original captain of the AIF team that played matches in England after the end of World War I. • In 26 tests he scored 1422 runs at 37.42 with three centuries and six half-centuries, and he took 52 wickets at 32.36 with a best of 5-33. • He was the first of just four Australians to score a century (114) and take five wickets in an innings (5/33) in the same test. He did this against South Africa in the Triangular Test series in England in 1912. Only Jack Gregory, Keith Miller and Richie Benaud have duplicated his feat for Australia. • He is the only player to play test cricket with both Victor Trumper and Don Bradman. • In 132 first-class matches he scored 6389 runs at 35.10 with 15 centuries and 28 half-centuries. With the ball, he took 339 wickets at 26.33 with 10 five wicket performances. Amazingly, he bowled almost half (164) of these. He bowled more than half (111) of his victims for New South Wales. • In 57 first-class matches for New South Wales he scored 3031 runs at 37.88 with 10 centuries and 11 half-centuries. He took 215 wickets at 23.90 with seven five-wicket performances, three of these being seven wicket hauls, with a best of 7-39. • He is one of just seven players to score 2000 runs and take 200 wickets for New South Wales. He was the second to perform the feat, after Monty Noble, and is the fastest to reach that mark. He reached it in his in his 55th match. The next fastest was Richie Benaud who did it in his 60th match, followed by Alan Davidson (61st), Johnny Martin (64th), Monty Noble (66th), David Colley (70th) and Greg Matthews (76th). • He and Warren Bardsley put on 397 for the 5th wicket in a Sheffield Shield match against South Australia in 1920-21. It was the New South Wales record for any wicket, and remained so until Steve and Mark Waugh put on 464 for an unfinished 5th wicket partnership, a world record for that wicket, against Western Australia in 1990-91. The Bardsley- Kelleway partnership is still the second highest for New South Wales. • In Sydney first-grade cricket he played for Glebe (1906-07 to 1921-22) and Gordon (1922-23 to 1933-34). In 174 matches he scored 6097 runs at 41.19 with 11 centuries and 31 fifties. He took 459 wickets at 17.15 with 28 five-wicket performances and a best of 9-70. • After a long illness which cut short his cricketing career, Charles Kelleway passed away on 16 November 1944 in Lindfield, Sydney. For a full story, please refer to the following article from cricket historian, Arunabha Sengupta. Source: Colin Clowes, Honorary Research Librarian, Cricket NSW, 2016 Charle s Kelleway A genuine all-rounder who played for Australia on either side of the First World War Charles Kelleway, born April 25, 1886, was a dour batsman and a more than useful medium pacer who played 26 Tests for Australia. Along with Monty Noble and George Giffen, he was one of the finest early all-rounders Australia had produced. Cricket historian Arunabha Sengupta looks back at the life and career of the man who was once called ‘Rock of Gibraltar’ by Wisden. The Rock of Gilbraltar January 1921, Adelaide. The third day of the third Test match ended with the Englishmen on top for the first time in the series. Having batted their way to a 93-run lead, mainly through the efforts of Jack Russell, they had now dismissed three Australians for 71 runs. Harry Howell and Ciss Parkin were looking dangerous. And then Johnny Douglas and his men ran into the stonewalling willow of Charles Kelleway. Throughout the fourth day the New South Welshman presented the full face of the bat, a picture of absolute restraint, grit and composure. At the other end, the huge form of captain Warwick Armstrong slowly grew in confidence. The ground was pierced by thrilling strokes by the big man. And all the while Kelleway batted on. The pair added 194 in 206 minutes, before Armstrong departed for an attractive 121. Johnny Taylor struck the ball sweetly for 38, and then Nip Pellew came in to carve the bowling into submission. By the end of the day, Australia were sitting pretty on 364 for 5, Kelleway still there on 115. By the time he was dismissed on the following day for a seven hour vigil of 147, the Englishmen had been batted out of the game. Wisden announced: “A display that earned him the nickname of ‘Rock of Gibraltar’. This display of solid defence in an uphill struggle for his country ranks with the 90 in five-and-three-quarter hours by William Scotton, who saved England from collapse at the Oval in 1884; the supremacy of M. A. Noble during eight hours and a half for Australia at Manchester in 1899 when he scored 60 not out and 89 in the follow-on, his patience being so controlled that during one spell of three-quarters of an hour he did not get a run; H. L. Collins proved equally imperturbable at Old Trafford in 1921 when 40 runs was his reward for four hours fifty minutes at the wicket. These three were saving efforts that proved effective; Kelleway paved the way for victory by 119 runs on the sixth day.” We must pause here to note that batting constituted only half the job performed by Kelleway. He was a genuine all-rounder who could bat in the top order with all the features of a correct, solid theoretician, and could also run in to send down swerving deliveries on a probing length at a pace well above medium. The South Africans mastered Born in Lismore, New South Wales, Kelleway graduated from the high profile Sydney leagues to the realms of First-Class cricket as a bowling all-rounder. In fact, in his initial couple of seasons following his debut in late 1907, he did little of note with the bat. He did occasionally impress with the ball, though, picking up six wickets against Queensland in the southern summer of 1908-09. It was in early 1910 that Kelleway was promoted to No 6 and responded with a back to the wall 108 against South Australia at Sydney. He followed it up with half centuries against The Rest of Australia and Victoria. This earned him a place in the Australian side to tour New Zealand. He was not called upon to do much on the tour against the weak local sides, but managed a fifty against Auckland, and picked up a few useful wickets. When the South Africans under Percy Sherwin visited in 1910-11, Kelleway was the star performer when the visitors took on New South Wales. He captured five for 60 and two for 42, and hit 37 in the first innings. Finally, he came in at the fall of the fifth wicket in the fourth innings with still some distance to go and held his nerve to carry his state home with an unbeaten 19. This performance ensured a call up to the Test side. He did not have much to do in the Sydney Test on his debut. He batted at No. 8, after Warren Bardsley and Clem Hill had hit the visiting battery of googly bowlers into submission. It was 453 for 6 when Kelleway got a chance to bat and remained unbeaten on 14. It was a similar story when Australia bowled. Tibby Cotter and Bill Whitty did most of the work and the debutant was not really required to do much. In the second innings, he was given a longer bowl and picked up two wickets. In the following match at Melbourne, Kelleway played an important knock in the second innings, holding the lower order together before being last out for 48. However, with the ball he ran into the great Aubrey Faulkner batting at his best in the first innings, and as a result was at the wrong end of some serious stick. With Cotter and Whitty dismissing the Springboks for 80 in the second innings Kelleway was not required to bowl, but picked up three impressive catches in the slips. Kelleway’s full potential was realised in the third Test at Adelaide, when Hill astutely sent the young man to open the innings with Charlie Macartney, in place of the regular openers Bardsley and Trumper. Macartney failed, but Kelleway put his head down and compiled 47, adding 94 with Vernon Ransford. In the second innings he came in at No. 4 and hit 65. The versatile all-round capabilities of the young man were increasingly apparent. He hit a patient 59 in the next Test and was again sent in to open in the second innings. He failed as he opened again in the final Test, but by then his value in the side was established. Kelleway started strongly when England visited in 1911-12. Opening the batting once again, he scored 70 in the second innings of the first Test at Sydney as Australia won by 146 runs.

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