Albert William Hallam (12 November 1869 – 24 July 1940) was an English off spin bowler who is primarily remembered, along with Thomas Wass, for giving Nottinghamshire an astonishing win in the County Championship of 1907. They did not lose a single match and managed to win fifteen out of nineteen games in which a ball was actually bowled. This is the highest proportion of wins by an undefeated side and the third highest proportion of wins in County Championship history – and the two higher figures were in very dry summers with almost no rain interruptions. Hallam was, at Nottinghamshire, the successor to the more famous Alfred Shaw and William Attewell. He was a slow bowler with extreme accuracy of pitch who could flight the ball with great skill and turn the ball both ways. He had few pretensions as a batsman, but his innings of 46 at The Oval against Surrey was critical to Nottinghamshire remaining unbeaten for the season. Early years Like so many Nottinghamshire-born men, Albert Hallam took to cricket at an early age. However, as he developed, he was not seen as good enough for a regular place in the Nottinghamshire eleven and, already residing in Leicestershire, played for them for a number of years in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Though these matches were not first-class, Hallam acquired a good enough reputation for Lancashire, desperate for support for the seemingly irrepressible Mold and Briggs, to encourage Hallam to qualify. He steadily improved, and by 1896 Hallam's slow bowling was already providing Lancashire with a third force in attack. He actually beat Briggs in the averages and was only a fraction behind Mold, though he did less than half as much bowling as the two established bowlers. The following year, these three bowlers, together with the newly imported Willis Cuttell, gave Lancashire a deadly attack on any helpful wicket and they won the County Championship. Hallam bowled consistently well and in all matches just reached 100 wickets. Nevertheless Wisden and many batsmen thought he was not nearly so good as the other three bowlers because he was too regular on dry pitches and helped batsmen to play themselves in. Illness and move home The triumphs of 1896 and 1897 were followed by disaster for Hallam, however. Always a sensitive figure of slight build, his health broke down so badly that he could not play