12 Facts About Albert Hallam

Albert William Hallam was an English off spin bowler who is primarily remembered, along with Thomas Wass, for giving Nottinghamshire an astonishing win in the County Championship of 1907.

Albert Hallam was a slow bowler with extreme accuracy of pitch who could flight the ball with great skill and turn the ball both ways.

Albert Hallam had few pretensions as a batsman, but his innings of 46 at The Oval against Surrey was critical to Nottinghamshire remaining unbeaten for the season.

Albert Hallam steadily improved, and by 1896 Hallam's slow bowling was already providing Lancashire with a third force in attack.

Albert Hallam actually beat Briggs in the averages and was only a fraction behind Mold, though he did less than half as much bowling as the two established bowlers.

Albert Hallam bowled consistently well and in all matches just reached 100 wickets.

Such setbacks would have certainly finished most cricketing careers, but Albert Hallam worked hard to improve his health during 1900.

Albert Hallam established himself quickly as a steady stock bowler during the following three years, though he was seldom deadly even when the pitches suited slow bowling as they usually did in 1902 and 1903.

In 1904, Albert Hallam was so disappointing when the weather turned fine that he was left out of four matches and did not once take five wickets in an innings, but he rebounded in 1905 with some excellent performances, notably 6 for 46 on a worn wicket at Lord's and a career-best 8 for 63 for North Of England in a festival game in September.

However, it was still a surprise how Albert Hallam declined the following year.

Already forty years of age, it was clear Albert Hallam was not going to recover his form as he had done at least twice before, and after bowling with very moderate success in the early games of 1910 he was left out of the Nottinghamshire eleven for James Iremonger to develop as a bowler.

Albert Hallam played in Lancashire League cricket until World War I and returned to Leicestershire after that, dying there in 1940 at the age of seventy.