George Giffen
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| Full name | George Giffen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
27 March 1859 Norwood, South Australia, Australia |
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| Died | 29 November 1927 (aged 68) Parkside, South Australia, Australia |
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| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting style | Right-hand | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right-arm off spin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | All-rounder | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1877–1903 | South Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source: CricketArchive, 7 March 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
George Giffen (27 March 1859 – 29 November 1927) was a cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. An all-rounder who batted in the middle order and often opened the bowling with medium-paced off-spin, Giffen captained Australia during the 1894–95 Ashes series and was the first Australian to score 10,000 runs and take 500 wickets in first-class cricket. He was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame on 26 February 2008.
Giffen was born in the Adelaide neighbourhood of Norwood in 1859 to Richard Giffen, a carpenter and his wife Elizabeth (née Challand). He played cricket with enthusiasm as a boy and attracted the notice of two brothers, Charles and James Gooden, who coached him. He started his cricket career with Norwood Cricket Club, later moving to the West Adelaide club.
Early in 1877 he played for South Australia against a visiting East Melbourne team making 16 and 14, the highest score in each innings, but South Australian cricket was then much below the standard of the two eastern colonies. In November 1877 he made his first-class cricket debut against Tasmania. Giffen made 47 runs and took 4 wickets for 16 runs in the Tasmanian first innings. Tasmania was forced to follow-on (bat twice in a row) and in the second innings Giffen managed to capture another 2 wickets. It was not until November 1880 that the first regular match between South Australia and Victoria took place at Melbourne. Giffen made 3 and 63 and took two wickets for 47 in the first innings. In the follow-up match in Adelaide later that season, Giffen took 5 wickets for 59 runs (5/59); Victoria won the match by 151 runs. He became a regular member of the South Australian team and although he took a few seasons to develop his full powers, if he failed as a bat he usually made up for it with a good bowling performance.
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