Herbie Collins

Herbert (Herbie) Leslie Collins played for Australia in the nation’s test cricket team from 1920 to 1926. During his span of cricketing career, he played for 19 test matches in total. Collins was an all-rounder for his team who also captained his side in 11 test matches. He won 5 of those 11 matches while losing only 2.

Due to the World War I, Collins’ debut for test cricket was delayed. Despite that, he managed to score a total of 1,352 runs and averaged 45.06 on his batting. He hit 4 centuries and 6 half-centuries while playing test cricket. His bowling average for test matches stands at 63 with his best bowling at 2 wickets for 47 runs.

Before joining the test cricket squad for his country, Collins started playing first class cricket matches from 1909. He has played a total of 168 first class matches and acquired 9,924 runs from them. His batting average is recorded as 40.01 and his bowling average was 21.38. Collins has hit 32 hundreds and 40 fifties during his first class cricketing career.

Collins played a full season with the NSW (New South Wales) team from 1912 till 1913. During the ten matched played for NSW, he scored 598 runs with an average of 42.71. He scored his career best of 282 runs against Tasmania at the end of the season.

Due to his luck with fortunes, Collins was often called “Horseshoe” or “Lucky”. He was also known by other nicknames like, “Maudy” for his left-handedness, “Nutty” for being a hard nut to crack. His colleagues even named him “The Squirrel” for his ability to see better at night.

Career Highlights

In 1987, Shepherd was honored as an MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for his service towards the world of cricket.

Shepherd was named the President of the County Club at Devon in 2006.