Eric Hollies
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| Full name | William Eric Hollies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
5 June 1912 Old Hill, Staffordshire, England |
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| Died | 16 April 1981 (aged 68) Chinley, Derbyshire, England |
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| Batting style | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right arm leg spin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Test debut (cap 277) | 8 January 1935 v West Indies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Test | 25 July 1950 v West Indies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1932–1957 | Warwickshire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source: Cricinfo, 6 June 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
William Eric Hollies (5 June 1912 – 16 April 1981) was an English cricketer, who is mainly remembered for taking the wicket of Donald Bradman for a duck in Bradman's final Test match innings, in which only four was needed for a Test average of 100. Hollies played all his first-class cricket career for Warwickshire, taking 2,323 wickets at less than 21 apiece.
Cricket writer, Colin Bateman, noted, "Hollies was one of cricket's most extraordinary characters, whose meagre thirteen Tests in no way reflected his contribution to the game. He was a fastish leg-break bowler who rarely had much use for the googly." Bateman added, "loquacious, with a rich seam of Black Country humour, he was an immensely respected and hard-working cricketer".
Hollies was born in Old Hill, Staffordshire. A leg spin bowler, Hollies made his English county debut for Warwickshire in 1932 and debuted for England in 1935, after showing his skill on the generally easy Edgbaston wickets. Hollies did not spin the ball as much as most leg-spinners but he gained in accuracy as a result, and he frequently bowled amazingly long spells for his county, most notably 73 overs in one innings against Worcestershire in 1949. He varied his stock leg-break with a top-spinner and googly that were difficult to detect and gained him many wickets, most famously the one of Bradman in 1948.
He took over 100 wickets for Warwickshire every year between 1935 and 1957, with the exceptions of 1936 (dreadful weather that reduced his normally prodigious output of overs), 1953 (injury) and 1956 (poor form, probably due to him captaining the side). During the war when three-day cricket was impossible due to the labour demands of war production and military service, Hollies bowled for West Bromwich Dartmouth in the Birmingham and District League and his skill was such as to make them invincible. With Hollies taking a total of 499 wickets as their professional, West Bromwich Dartmouth won the league every year from 1941 to 1945 and lost only seven matches during the war period.
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