Hugh Chilvers
From "Australian Cricket: The Game and the Players" by Jack Pollard (1982)
CHILVERS, Hugh Cecil, 1902 -
First-Class Averages:
Batting, 548 runs at 16.11; Bowling, 151 wickets at 26.39
An outstanding slow leg-break bowler for New South Wales whose skills were cruelly overlooked by Australian team selectors. Between 1929 and 1937 he played 34 first-class matches, 32 for New South Wales and in a decade of brilliant Australian batmanship he repeatedly fooled the best in the land. Bill O'Reilly rated him the best spin bowler never to play for Australia.
Chilvers, born at Sawbridgeworth, England, came to Australia at an early age. He graduated from Pennant Hills club near Sydney to Northern Districts firsts and won State selection in 1929-30. He had a curious bouncing gait that never failed to amuse spectators but such was the whip from the pitch of his leg-breaks and his sustained accuracy he was no joke for batsmen. He took a long time to become a regular member of the New South Wales team despite many fine performances on unresponsive pitches.
In 1929-30 he had a fine double against South Australia with a 4 for 57 and 4 for 38. The next season he took 5 for 68 and 2 for 81 against South Australia and in two matches against West Indies for New South Wales took 15 wickets, 4 for 84, 5 for 73, 3 for 56 and 3 for 53. In 1932-33 against England at Sydney he took 5 for 73 and 3 for 29. He was an excellent fieldsman of a happy disposition and a useful batsman.
He strongly challenged for a position in the 1934 and 1938 Australian teams that visited England. In 1935, when the Australian Board found itself unable to accept India's request to send a team, Frank Tarrant organised an unofficial team to play in India while Australia's Test side toured South Africa. Chilvers was among the players Tarrant invited, but the Board refused to allow Chilvers to tour India on the grounds thathe might be wanted by his State.Famous cricket writer Ray Robinson commented, "The sight of Chilvers continuing to play for Northern Districts until he was 56 should have been an annual reproach to officials who denied this honest toiler his only chance for a trip abroad. In my opinion officialdom has shown no poorer spirit in the past 20 years".
After World War II Chilvers remained a formidable proposition for rising young batsmen in Sydney grade cricket. He reverted to the Pennant Hills team in the Shires competition in his veteran years, by which time he was said to have two types of wrong-un mixed with his leg-breaks.
Page last updated 5 March 2007
