Schofield Haigh
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 England (Eng) |
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| Batting style | Right-handed batsman (RHB) | |
| Bowling type | Right-arm fast-medium | |
| Tests | First-class | |
| Matches | 11 | 561 |
| Runs scored | 113 | 11,713 |
| Batting average | 7.53 | 18.65 |
| 100s/50s | 0/0 | 4/47 |
| Top score | 25 | 159 |
| Balls bowled | 1,294 | 78,817 |
| Wickets | 24 | 2,012 |
| Bowling average | 25.91 | 15.94 |
| 5 wickets in innings | 1 | 135 |
| 10 wickets in match | 0 | 30 |
| Best bowling | 6/11 | 9/25 |
| Catches/stumpings | 8/0 | 299/0 |
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Test debut: 14 February 1899 |
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Schofield Haigh (born March 19, 1871, Berry Brow, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, died February 27, 1921, Taylor Hill, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England) was a Yorkshire and England cricketer who was probably the most lethal bowler on a sticky wicket ever known. He bowled right-hand medium pace, but could vary it with slower or faster deliveries very well, and when the pitch helped him he made the ball spin back from the off so much that not even the most skilful batsmen could play him. Indeed, studying county cricket one notices how no batsman ever mastered Haigh in form on a drying pitch, not even men of such skill as possessed by Hobbs, Abel, J.T. Tyldesley, or MacLaren. The deadliness of Haigh's break-back can also be seen in the over 74 percent of his wickets were gained without assistance from fieldsmen - the highest of any bowler with over 500 wickets.
However, because he was of very slight build, Haigh was not able to undertake arduous spells of bowling and his output of overs was always very low for a frontline bowler. Moreover, he lacked the pace to be other than harmless against top batsmen on a good pitch. This explains why Haigh was never even considered for a tour of Australia, and also why his record in Test cricket - apart from one match on matting in South Africa - was exceedingly poor.
However, the fact that Haigh bowled little on good pitches explains his seemingly extraordinary record in first-class cricket. He has the lowest average of any bowler taking 1000 wickets since 1895 except for Hedley Verity. Haigh was also a determined batsman, who hit 1000 runs in 1904 and scored a hundred before lunch in 1901, and a keen fieldsman.
Strangely, Haigh began with Yorkshire as a distinctly fast bowler with a difficult slower ball. Using such methods, combined with a deadly break-back, Haigh was seen in 1896 as the hard-wicket bowler Yorkshire were looking for. He took 84 wickets for just over 15 runs each and took 8 for 78 on a good wicket against the Australians.
However, the following year the strain on his slight frame of bowling fast began to tell on Haigh, and though his 91 wickets at 18.75 placed him in the top twenty of the national averages, he was already noticed to be less formidable than Yorkshire's other bowlers on firm pitches, but quite unplayable after rain - as in the home games with Surrey and Derbyshire. Although he produced a superb, skilful performance against Middlesex at Lord's on a hard pitch the following year, Haigh did nothing else except on sticky wickets. However, just how irresistible he was under those conditions were shown when his bowling beat Hampshire in a day's cricket with 14 for 43. From that point onwards, Haigh was little more than a reliably deadly force on sticky wickets, though his batting developed so well that he averaged 26 in 1901 and saved Yorkshire from defeat at Worcester in 1900. That year, Haigh took 163 wickets for just over 14 each, and in 1902 he was so deadly that 158 wickets fell to him in only 799 overs.
Called to the Test side with a sticky wicket expected in 1905, Haigh had a surprising off-day and was not picked again until 1909. However, so deadly was his bowling on the many sticky wickets of Yorkshire that he came very close to heading the averages for five successive seasons - being only shaded out by Albert Hallam in 1907, in which year he took 13 for 40 against Warwickshire. In these years, Haigh could be relied on to take four or five wickets for fewer than twenty runs every time there was a bad wicket - but his stamina was so lacking that he could rarely bowl unchanged through an innings except on the very worst pitches. After an amazingly poor season in 1910, Haigh returned to form in 1911 despite unfavourable pitches and was as irresistible as ever in the dreadful summer of 1912. His 96 wickets for 11.41 was decisive in Yorkshire's Championship win, but another unsuccessful Test appearance and the fact that he was already a veteran at forty-one made him decide to move into coaching at the end of 1913. Strangely enough, he retained his place for Yorkshire primarily as a batsman with a long series of useful - though never large innings, whilst his bowling was of no importance even on the relatively few bad pitches.
After 1913 Haigh was a coach at Winchester School, where he was responsible for the emergence of Douglas Jardine. He died prematurely in early 1921 as a result of a stroke.
