Harry Kelleher

Who is Harry Kelleher?

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

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. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack noted that he "made fast-medium deliveries lift on drying turf". 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". In all matches, he took 55 wickets at an average of 28.38. 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 in Nottinghsmahire's first innings, and these would be the best innings figures of his Northamptonshire career.