[2] A 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) right arm fast medium bowler,[3] he took 276 wickets at an average of 24.84, with a best of 7 for 32 for Gloucestershire against his native county.
Initially McHugh was a distinctly fast bowler who came into the Yorkshire team with a major injury to Ron Aspinall who was heading the bowling averages early in 1949.
[5] McHugh then went to Gloucestershire and upon qualifying he quickly found that his accuracy could only become of county standard when he moderated his pace.
[note 1] 66 of his 111 innings were scoreless (he was dismissed for a duck 38 times), and he reached double figures on only four occasions.
It was probably the liability of his batting that caused Gloucestershire to discard him in favour of David Smith for the 1957 season: McHugh had suffered from illness during 1956,[6] and did not play after June, but had bowled so well in his last-ever game with eleven wickets for 112 runs that he was expected to continue in 1957.