safe pair of hands

safe pair of hands (plural safe pairs of hands)

1. (sports) The ability to catch and keep hold of (the ball, etc.)
   • 1919 Charles Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham; quoted in eds Charles Douglas-Home, 12th Earl of Home; George Harris, 4th Baron Harris; Sir Home Gordon, Bt. The Memorial biography of Dr. W.G. Grace (London, M.C.C.) p.34:

     His fielding in the outfield in the early part of his career impressed me, if anything, more than his batting or bowling, for he was a beautiful thrower. ... He could run like a deer and had a very safe pair of hands.

   • 1922, D. R. Gent, Rugby Football, London: Allen, page 75:

     A Safe Pair Of Hands [section title] The stand-off half who hasn't hands like a good fielder in the slips had better change his position, for he is comparatively useless if he cannot take all sorts and conditions of passes, and, in nearly every case, whilst well under way.

2. (metonymically) A player who has this ability.
   • 2010 Eric MacKinnon "I'll bounce back insists Livi keeper Tony Bullock after debut to forget" (West Lothian Courier) 29 July 2010:

     the veteran shot-stopper has proved to be a safe, capable pair of hands over the years

3. (figuratively) An experienced person (especially a leader) who can be trusted to do a decent job and not to make serious mistakes; often in relation to a task which is difficult and important; often suggesting blandness or a contrast to someone brilliant but erratic.
   • 1998 Thody, Philip Malcolm Waller The Fifth French Republic: Presidents, Politics and Personalities (Routledge) p.34 →ISBN

     The solid, reliable Monsieur Pompidou was there, as safe a pair of hands as the most timorous bourgeois could wish for

   • 2011 Charles Bremner Wham, bam, no thank you MAM (The Austrialian, reprinted from The Times) 8 February 2011

     […] Sarkozy appointed the no-nonsense Alliot-Marie in November to straighten out the Quai d'Orsay, as the ministry is known, after the shambolic three-year stint there of Bernard Kouchner, the glamorous humanitarian doctor. [...] She was a safe, uninspiring pair of hands who acquired a name as an enforcer.

   • 2024 January 10, Christian Wolmar, “A time for change? ... just as it was back in issue 262”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 60:

     [Alistair] Darling was considered a safe pair of hands, although I was sceptical […] .

• (sports): good hands
• (experienced person): old reliable; steady Eddie