Ashley Harvey-Walker

Ashley John Harvey-Walker (21 July 1944 – 28 April 1997) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Derbyshire from 1971 to 1978.[1] He was shot dead in a Johannesburg bar.[2][3]

Ashley Harvey-Walker
Personal information
Full name
Ashley John Harvey-Walker
Born(1944-07-21)21 July 1944
East Ham, London, England
Died28 April 1997(1997-04-28) (aged 52)
Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa
BattingRight-handed
Bowling
  • Right-arm medium
  • Right-arm offbreak
RoleAll-rounder
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1971–1978Derbyshire
FC debut23 June 1971 Derbyshire v Oxford Univ.
Last FC18 July 1978 Derbyshire v Worcestershire
LA debut20 June 1971 Derbyshire v Lancashire
Last LA13 August 1978 Derbyshire v Middlesex
Career statistics
Competition First-class List A
Matches 81 91
Runs scored 3,186 1,829
Batting average 23.95 22.03
100s/50s 3/19 0/8
Top score 117 84
Balls bowled 2,352 418
Wickets 34 9
Bowling average 33.82 34.22
5 wickets in innings 1 0
10 wickets in match 1 0
Best bowling 7/35 4/37
Catches/stumpings 31/– 29/–
Source: CricketArchive, 28 April 2010

Hundred on debut

Harvey-Walker was born in East Ham, London and educated at Strathallan School in Perthshire, where he was in the first XI for five years.[1][4] After school he joined Warwickshire in 1963 and played for the second XI team.[5] He moved to Derbyshire in 1967 where he also played in the second XI.[5] In the 1971 season he made his first team debut.[5] He became the first Derbyshire cricketer to score a century on his debut scoring an unbeaten 110 against Oxford University at Burton-on-Trent.[6][7]

Career

Harvey-Walker was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm off-break and medium-pace bowler.[1] Early in his career he played purely as a top order batsman, though he struggled to hold down a regular place in a weak batting side.[1] His best season was in 1974 when he scored 727 runs at 25.96, and also scored 448 List 'A' runs.[8]

In June 1975, during a match between Derbyshire and Lancashire at Buxton, a highly unseasonal snowstorm took place.[9] To that date, it was the only first-class cricket match in history whereby, 'snow stopped play', in what was one of the hottest summers on record.[9] Shortly after the thaw set in, Harvey-Walker came out to bat and surprised square leg umpire Dickie Bird by asking him to look after his false teeth, wrapped in a handkerchief, because he wouldn't be in for long![9]

Not regarded as a regular bowler much beforehand, he was regularly employed when selected in the 1978 season, taking 10–82, including 7–35 in the second innings against Surrey on the notoriously uncertain wicket at Ilkeston.[2] Despite playing in the 1978 Benson & Hedges Cup Final he was not re-engaged at the end of the season in a general clearout by the County.[10]

Following his release from Derbyshire, he played for Undercliffe Cricket Club in the Bradford Cricket League and then emigrated to South Africa.[2][11] He was working as assistant groundsman at the Wanderers Stadium in Johnannesburg, and only a month before his death had helped to prepare the pitch for the Test against Australia.[2]

Death

On 28 April 1997, at the age of 52, Harvey-Walker was shot dead at a private club in the Berea neighbourhood of Johannesburg.[12] Apparently, a gunman walked into the bar, called out Harvey-Walker's name, and shot him when he responded.[3][13]

See also

References
  1. "Ashley Harvey-Walker". CricketArchive. 2003. Retrieved 16 November 2006.
  2. "Ashley Harvey-Walker - Profile in Wisden Cricketers Almanack". ESPNcricinfo. 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  3. "Wisden - Obituaries in 1997". ESPNcricinfo. 1998. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  4. "International Cricketers" (PDF). Strathallan School. September 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  5. "Teams Ashley Harvey-Walker played for". CricketArchive. 2003. Retrieved 16 November 2006.
  6. "Derbyshire vs. Oxford University, 23–25 June 1971". CricketArchive. 2003. Archived from the original on 1 October 2007. Retrieved 16 November 2006.
  7. "Hundred in first match for Derbyshire". CricketArchive. 2003. Retrieved 16 November 2006.
  8. "Death of a groundsman - the strange case of Ashley Harvey-Walker". www.countycricketnews.co.uk. 26 July 2011. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  9. "Bird still foxed by day snow stopped play". The Daily Telegraph. 22 June 2005. Retrieved 16 November 2006.
  10. 1979 Derbyshire Yearbook
  11. "Club History". Undercliffe Cricket Club. 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
  12. "Cricket: Ashley Harvey Walker found shot dead". The Independent. 3 May 1997. ProQuest 312631660.
  13. "Death by Misadventure" by P Thorn & K.Bartlett. In ACS Journal 2006-8
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