Eddie Gilbert (cricketer)

(Note that the 1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of England was not considered first-class.)

In his first season with Queensland Gilbert played five of their six Sheffield Shield games, racking up fifteen wickets in the process.

Gilbert had bowled upward of 141 overs and had a bowling average of 33.46.

His best performance was 4–44.

Gilbert was probably only the fifth Aboriginal Australian to play first-class cricket in Australia, after Twopenny in 1870, Johnny Mullagh in 1879, Jack Marsh in 1900, and Albert Henry in 1902.

Harold Edward Gilbert (1 August 1905 – 9 January 1978), known as Eddie Gilbert, was an Australian Aboriginal cricketer who represented Queensland in the Sheffield Shield.

He was described as an exceptionally fast bowler.

He competed for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield between 1930 and 1936.

Described by Don Bradman as the fastest bowler he ever faced, Bradman said he was “faster than anything seen from (England fast bowler) Harold Larwood or anyone else.”

Gilbert was taken from his home near Woodford at the age of three as part of the Stolen Generations and grew up on farms while living in the Barambah Aboriginal Reserve, now known as Cherbourg, north of Brisbane.

He took up cricket at a young age, initially playing as a slow bowler but quickly developing pace cultivated through a flexible wrist that he said was from years of hard work and practice.

After playing with the State Colts in 1930, Gilbert was selected in the Queensland Sheffield Shield team for 1930/31.

Following on from his first season with Queensland, Gilbert played five of Queensland's six matches in 1931–32.

With the team having had better results than the previous season, Queensland saw Gilbert bowl less and take more wickets (21).

Both of those factors also greatly improved Gilbert's bowling average.

At seasons-end Gilbert had taken the fifth most wickets in the competition and had earned his first five-wicket haul against Victoria (5–67).

As an Aboriginal man living in Queensland in 1931, Eddie Gilbert was bound by the restrictions of the Protection of Aboriginals Act 1897.

This meant that he needed written permission to travel from his Aboriginal settlement each time he played in a first-class match.

Reference to his correspondence survives in the Queensland State Archives.

(QSA A/4736, Home Secretary, Register of Letters Received, 1931, Extracts - Aborigines General).

In Gilbert's third season in the Sheffield Shield (1932–33), he played only two games for Queensland, whom finished last losing all six games.

The first was against Victoria in late October and the first of the season.

In Victoria's first innings, Gilbert, whom only bowled eight overs, finished 0–58.

Teammate and Australia bowler Ron Oxenham finished 4–95.

Victoria's first and only innings was impressive finishing on 552.

Victoria won by an innings and 329 runs, the biggest of the season.

In the second game of the season, against South Australia (27–31 January), Gilbert entered for Queensland's first innings as a tail-ender, finishing the innings 1*, helping Queensland finish their first innings on 129 runs.

Gilbert's bowling proved to be vital for Queensland in South Australia's first innings.

Indeed, it was his best performance of the season.

With Herbert Gamble and Francis Brew dismissing the opening two batsman (caught), Gilbert bowled out top-order batsman Roy Lonergan for 31.

Brew then took another and Cassie Andrews took his first via lbw.

Gilbert then took three wickets in a row to finish the innings 4–58.

South Australia's second innings remained steady (76/1), however and Gilbert's second innings was unsuccessful having not taken any wickets.

Queensland lost by 9 wickets.

In his career, Gilbert played in 19 Sheffield Shield matches, taking 73 wickets at an average of 29.75.

A further 14 wickets were taken off touring MCC, West Indies and South African sides.

In one match against the touring West Indian team, he took 5/65.

Despite his success, it is unlikely that he was ever seriously considered for the Australian Test team due to doubts about his action, his Aboriginality and the fact that he represented Queensland, then a relatively weak team.

Gilbert retired from the game in 1936 due to poor form, whereupon officials in the Queensland Cricket Board and the Aboriginal Protectorate arranged for his return to an Aboriginal settlement.

Overall, in his first season with the team, Gilbert had finished with the 13th best bowling average amongst bowlers whom had bowled more than 15 overs.