page_title: Alan Kippax
section_title: Test regular
hierarchical_section_title: Alan Kippax / International career / Test regular
caption_attribution_description: English: Test batting chart of Alan Kippax. Red columns are the runs in the innings. Blue dots indicate not outs. Blue line is average in the last ten innings. Thanks to Raven4x4x for providing the template.
context_page_description: Alan Falconer Kippax was a cricketer for New South Wales and Australia. Regarded as one of the great stylists of Australian cricket during the era between the two World Wars, Kippax overcame a late start to Test cricket to become a regular in the Australian team between the 1928–29 and 1932–33 seasons. A middle-order batsman, he toured England twice, and at domestic level was a prolific scorer and a highly considered leader of NSW for eight years. To an extent, his Test figures did not correspond with his great success for NSW and he is best remembered for a performance in domestic cricket—a world record last wicket partnership, set during a Sheffield Shield match in 1928–29. His career was curtailed by the controversial Bodyline tactics employed by England on their 1932–33 tour of Australia; Kippax wrote a book denouncing the tactics after the series concluded.
  Kippax was an "impeccably correct and elegant batsman, [with] an upright, easy stance at the wicket; like his schoolboy idol Victor Trumper, he rolled his sleeves between wrist and elbow and excelled with the late cut", who was probably at his peak during the 1920s.
context_section_description: The 1930 tour of England was dominated by the emergence of Don Bradman. Kippax finished second to Bradman in the first-class averages and aggregates, scoring 1451 runs at 58.04. He hit a century in each innings of the match with Sussex. In the Tests, Kippax passed fifty four times in seven innings, without going on to a hundred. He shared two big partnerships with Bradman: 192 in the second Test at Lord's and 229 in the third Test at Leeds. However, Wisden rated his 64 not out on a wet wicket in the first Test at Nottingham as his best effort and summarised his tour thus:
  Essentially a stylist, Kippax was in every sense a great batsman, for he could suit his game to the needs of the occasion. A beautiful driver to the off, he cut at times in delightful fashion, the slower wickets of England affecting his abilities in that direction in only the slightest degree.
  In the 1930–31 home series against the West Indies, Kippax began with what was to be his highest score in Test cricket (146 in under four hours) in the first Test at the Adelaide Oval. This was the first Test century in matches between the two teams. He made 84 in the third Test at Brisbane, sharing a partnership of 193 with Bradman. However, Wisden called Kippax's knock "unsteady" and he failed in his remaining three Test innings. For NSW, he hit two centuries in the Sheffield Shield.
  The next season began badly for Kippax. Playing in a minor match at Parkes (in rural NSW) on a matting wicket, he had his nose broken by a delivery that bounced erratically – it hit a peg accidentally left under the mat when it was laid out. On 6 November 1931, during NSW's first match of the season at Brisbane, he was struck a severe blow to the temple by a rising ball from fast bowler Pud Thurlow. Taken to hospital, he retired from the match, but was selected for the first Test against South Africa, but scored only one run. He missed the second Test through injury, while his replacement Keith Rigg scored an impressive century on debut.
  Kippax came back for the third Test at Melbourne and rewarded the faith of the selectors by scoring 52 and 67, his two highest first-class innings of the season. However, his best knock of the summer came on another rain-affected pitch at Melbourne in the final Test. He batted "serenely" to top score with an elegant 42. The entire South Africa team only managed 36 and 45 in their two completed innings on a "treacherous" wicket. As compensation for his lack of runs, Kippax led NSW to victory over Victoria in late January, which clinched the Sheffield Shield title for the state. During the winter of 1932, Kippax joined a private team that toured Canada and the USA, a tour organised by ex-Test bowler Arthur Mailey. Teammates noticed that his confidence was shaken by the blows to the head, and he no longer employed his famous hook shot.
caption: A graph of Kippax's Test batting performance.
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