Harry Higgins

Who was Harry Higgins?

Harry Leslie Higgins was an English cricketer who played 98 first-class matches in the 1920s. All but one of these were for Worcestershire; the exception was a Gentlemen v Players game in 1922 in which bad weather meant that Higgins did not get to bat. He stood in as Worcestershire captain for one game in 1923, and acted as wicket-keeper for a single match — in which he scored 99 — in 1921.

Higgins made his debut for Worcestershire against Somerset at Taunton in June 1920; he made 0 and 33 in a heavy innings defeat. He played a further 10 games for Worcestershire that season, but Higgins' only half-century during the year was the 64 not out he hit against Sussex at Worcester in July: a game in which only 80 overs were possible. The other nine games in which Higgins played were all lost by one of the weakest of all Worcestershire sides; these defeats included the innings-and-340-run demolition by Warwickshire that as of 2007 remains Worcestershire's heaviest first-class defeat.

He was a regular in the county side in 1921 and 1922, and in both years he made over 1,000 first-class runs. In 1921 he hit a career-best 1,182 runs at 28.82, including two centuries. The higher of these, 133 against Essex at Leyton, came in a somewhat unusual match. Essex, batting first, had been dismissed for 90 but had nevertheless run out easy winners thanks to the all-round talents of Johnny Douglas, who made 123* and took 14 wickets. Higgins's career best of 137* was made in May 1922 at New Road against Lancashire, but again Worcestershire lost, this time by an innings.