Joseph Hardstaff Jr (3 July 1911 – 1 January 1990)[1] was an English cricketer, who played in twenty three Test matches for England from 1935 to 1948.

One of the most elegant middle order batsman of the 1930s, a rich era for English batsmanship, Hardstaff first played for Nottinghamshire at the age of nineteen, and made his name with 1,817 runs in 1934, which led to his Test selection against South Africa the following year.

The experience spurred him to further buttress his defensive technique and this, allied with his natural stroke play, led to a fine season at home in 1937, when he posted over 2,500 runs including three double hundreds.

He won the Walter Lawrence trophy for the fastest century of the season, in scoring an unbeaten 117 in under an hour, to help defeat Kent in a frenetic run chase and was duly named one of Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1938.

He was surprisingly omitted from the 1938/9 tour to South Africa, but averaged 50 in 1939 and played against the West Indies in the last Test series before World War II.