Cricket, it is said, is more than a game. It’s a reflection of the human experience some claim, usually with an air of philosophical authority. Joe wasn’t one for observing authority much but he knew this summer obsession like a drunk knows his way home. Like all who are born across the Tasman, his first breath was taken quickly to beat someone else to it and as each summer passed he also knew cricket as a game to be won.Joe joined Waratahs CC in Armidale as spring waned in 1981 and it wasn’t long before wry smiles and wicked off breaks were tormenting the brutes only a chain away. His accuracy was almost as daunting as his double-edged observations and batsmen soon faced him convinced they held fence palings. In his second season he captained a changing side which had farewelled heroes and welcomed youth. Joe, always the teacher, was in his element.
In six seasons, Joe captured 117 wickets at 15.65 but just as important as his strike power was his economy. In a decade of hard hitting red leather thumpers, Armidale’s best could only squeeze a bit more than two an over from the man with funny vowels and an untrained comb over. His pressure meant other bowlers often got Joe’s scalps but he’d smile just as broadly when the batsman left.
To his team mates, Joe Harrison was many things: mentor, teacher, tease, friend, inspiration, joker and most of all, gentleman. None, however, would ever accuse him of being a batsman! “That”, he would often say, “is for you blokes. I’m here to bowl.”
A fine cricketer and a better man, there are many stories to be told of him. If you share them with someone, pass them on with a smile but if you have no one to tell, speak them softly in your heart.
Peter Langston
