Being faster than Rhodes or Blythe,[3] Hargreave was very difficult to hit and his steadiness made him valuable on the generally very plumb wickets that characterised Edgbaston in fine weather during that era.

However, he rose very quickly to a permanent place in 1900, and in the following year, in a summer all against bowlers especially on so good a ground as Edgbaston provided in fine weather, Hargreave bowled so well under all conditions that he was in the top ten of the first-class averages.

Hargreave’s form had him selected alongside George Thompson as one of two professionals on a tour to New Zealand under Lord Hawke where he would be somewhat disappointing,[7] in addition to being utterly ineffective owing to his wholly mechanical style in three matches played in Australia.

[8] Hargreave gained revenge for Surrey’s mastering of his bowling in 1903 on a sticky Oval pitch, when in the best-known and biggest feat of his career he took fifteen for 76 after being initially left out as he was returning home with Thompson, Bernard Bosanquet, and Toddles Dowson on the Oroya ship and then overland from Paris.

[9] Because the first day was blank Hargreave could take his place in the Warwickshire team,[10] and during that season every Warwickshire victory was produced by Hargreave’s deadly bowling on rain affected pitches: Heading the County Championship bowling averages (at least among those who bowled a reasonable number of overs) and taking more first-class wickets than anybody except Rhodes, Blythe and Ted Arnold, Hargreave would ordinarily have been chosen as a Cricketer of the Year by Wisden, but the choices of Blythe, John Gunn and Walter Mead left no room for a fourth finger-spin bowler.