Harold Rowe (cricketer)

Samuel Harold Drew Rowe (5 November 1883 – 29 October 1968) was one of Western Australia's leading cricketers in the years before Western Australia competed in the Sheffield Shield interstate competition. He was later Western Australia's leading cricket administrator and was instrumental in gaining the state team's entry into the Sheffield Shield in 1947.

Harold Rowe
Harold Rowe in 1946
Personal information
Full name
Samuel Harold Drew Rowe
Born(1883-11-05)5 November 1883
Perth, Western Australia
Died29 October 1968(1968-10-29) (aged 84)
Perth, Western Australia
BattingRight-handed
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1905/06–1929/30Western Australia
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 26
Runs scored 989
Batting average 21.04
100s/50s 1/5
Top score 105
Balls bowled 42
Wickets 0
Bowling average –
5 wickets in innings –
10 wickets in match –
Best bowling –
Catches/stumpings 21/0
Source: Cricinfo, 7 July 2017

Cricket playing career

Harold Rowe captained the cricket team at the High School in Perth.[1] He made his first-class debut for Western Australia against South Australia in the 1905-06 season (Western Australia's fourth first-class match and first victory) and played regularly for the state team until his last match, when he captained the state against the touring MCC in 1929-30 at the age of 45.[1]

In 1907-08 he scored Western Australia's first century against an international team when he made 105 against MCC.[2][3] He was the first West Australian to captain an Australian team when he led an Australian XI against the MCC in Perth in 1928-29.[2] Playing first for North Perth and later for Claremont, he set a record of 12,045 runs in the WACA competition which still stands.[2][4]

Other sports

Rowe played 118 games of Australian rules football for West Perth and was a member of their 1905 premiership team.[5] He was also a leading golfer in Western Australia and president of the Western Australian Golf Association.[1][6]

Cricket administrative career

Rowe went on to become chairman of the Western Australian Cricket Association executive from 1931 to 1946, apart from one year when he was president. He also served as a state selector.[1] As Western Australia's delegate to the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket he was instrumental, through his persuasive and persistent lobbying, in achieving the state's entry into the Sheffield Shield in 1947.[2]

He managed the Australian cricket team that toured South Africa in 1935-36. The team went through the tour undefeated. One of the team, Jack Fingleton, said there was "no better or more popular manager", and praised Rowe's efforts during the tour, Australia's first full-length tour of South Africa.[7] The captain, Vic Richardson, said of Rowe after the tour, "A more happy choice could not have been made."[8]

Rowe was awarded the King's Jubilee Medal in 1935 for services to sport.[1] In 2007 he was posthumously inducted into the Western Australian Cricket Association's "Gallery of Greats".[9]

His son Jack was also a prominent cricketer in Perth, and later a state selector and schools coach. Father and son played together for Claremont-Cottesloe in 1929.[10][1]

References
  1. The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket, Oxford, Melbourne, 1996, p. 457.
  2. "Gallery of Greats", The Western Cricketer, 2006-2007, p. 19.
  3. "Western Australia v MCC 1907-08". CricketArchive. Retrieved 8 July 2017.
  4. "Cricket veteran. Fine service for state", The Daily News, 10 March 1928, p. 4.
  5. "Harold Rowe". Australian Football. Retrieved 8 July 2017.
  6. "Harold Rowe, a brilliant all-rounder, 70 today", The West Australian, 5 November 1953, p. 30.
  7. Jack Fingleton, Cricket Crisis, Cassell & Co., London, pp. 215–16.
  8. "Australia to South Africa 1935-36". Test Cricket Tours. Retrieved 8 July 2017.
  9. "Hussey voted Western Australia's best". Cricinfo. 27 March 2007. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
  10. "Traditional service to cricket", The West Australian, 31 October 1951, p. 14.
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