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Described by Wisden as a model of dependibility but often a weariness of the flesh for spectators - his value to the side is great but one Kelleway in the side is enough ..... two or three would be intolerable.

Charlie Kellaway was a fine all round cricketer who played in 26 Tests between 1910 and 1928. Capable of batting for long periods, he used swing and seam bowling delivered at above medium pace to knock over batsmen.

He debuted against South Africa in 1910/11 averaging 42 with the bat over the five Tests and took 7 wickets.

Selected for the Ashes tour of England in 1911/12 he had moderate success against a very strong England team captained by Plum Warner. In that series, he played in four Tests, taking only 6 wickets at 41.50 and averaging just 22 with the bat.

However, on his return to England in the Triangular tournament of 1912 he was more successful and made 360 runs in six Tests, with 114 at Manchester and 102 at Lord's, both against South Africa. He also had best bowling of 5/33 in an innings.

He served as a Captain in the 1st Battalion in the 1st AIF, being wounded twice. After the war he remained in England and was the first captain of the Australian Imperial Force Cricket XI. After six matches he was replaced as captain by Corporal Herbie Collins, apparently on the orders of Field Marshal Birdwood, GOC Australian Forces. Birdwood recognised that Kelleway was a fine player but considered him quarrelsome. Kelleway attempted to take the field in the next match but team-mates refusded to join him, and he went home on the next boat. His six matches with the AIF team yielded 505 runs including two centuries at an average of 56. He also took 18 wickets at 30.44 each.

Returning to cricket after the war, he enjoyed a most successful series in 1920-21 against England in Australia. A series Australia dominated, winning all five Tests. Charlie Kelleway played a significant role in Australia's success, scoring 330 runs at an average of 47 and taking 15 wickets at 21 runs a piece. He recorded his highest Test score of 147 in the Third Test at the Adelaide Oval.

A complex character, noted cricket author RC Robertson-Glasgow wrote of him: 'Awkward but indomitable, deaf of opininion, contemptuous of style except as the servant of effect, Kelleway will stand as one of the most individual and formidable cricketers ever seen. His runs were made and for the most part received, without observable emotion. He was not interested in spectators. If they were mute, so was he; if abusive, let them waste their breath; and their winged factiousness bounced off the granite and teak that fused in his making.'

His career was interupted by bouts of ill health, although he played his last test at the age of 42. To his credit he never gave Herbie Collins any trouble after his sacking as the 1st AIF team captain, playing under Collins for NSW and Australia on the best of terms.

 He died after a long illness in Lindfield, New South Wales in 1944.