Thoughts on the coaching structure changes

There are, in life, two types of people in relation to change. Goodness knows, in a thirty-year and counting career I have seen enough tweaks to systems, processes and personnel to write a book on it.

Some people - and understandably - feel threatened by it. When you're told, as I've been on a couple of occasions, that you have to re-apply for your own job, it's a long way from fun. The uncertainty is everywhere and for all of those involved it is a nerve-wracking time.

Then there's others who embrace it and see it as an opportunity to stake a claim, or make a statement; perhaps reinforce and underline the job they do and how well they do it.

There are a few comments flying around tonight, as there always are, but largely the contributors elsewhere miss the point. It is no more the role of Karl Krikken to 'sort' the coaching set up than it is a head of department in any organisation. Such a duty falls to the directorate and so it is in the cricket club structure.

Let's not jump to conclusions here. We may end up with the same personnel at the end of the process that we have now, but is it really 'chaos' as one correspondent elsewhere points out elsewhere? No, it is a long way from it. What we have are experienced professionals checking that the personnel and structure that is in place at OUR cricket club is the best that it can be. They are, in short, doing their job and carrying out their committee role as they are expected to do.

It would be easy to sit back, look at the current coaching staff and wear a contented smile. Derbyshire lads all, doing a job that we're fairly happy with. We battled well last year and there were a good few positives to come from the summer.

Yet we were relegated, let's not forget that. Why not take stock of the situation and see who else might be out there, someone who may have a genuine interest and track record in a strategic role at the club? It might be there's no one better qualified, more able or more suited than the current personnel. Then again, there could be someone who would be simply perfect to take us on to the next level.

This hasn't been a knee-jerk reaction. The club has done its homework; it has consulted with the current coaching and playing staff and has done its research on best practice elsewhere - not just in cricket, but in other sports.

It strikes me that there are parallels with recent events at Derby County. Like many other fans, I was disappointed to see Nigel Clough depart, a man who had done a good job, stabilised the club and put together a good bunch of players.

Was he getting the very best out of them? On the basis of recent weeks under Steve McClaren, no. At the end of this process, we may have the same or a very similar set up to that we have now, or it could be radically different. We may have some of the current personnel, or we may have none of them.

My heart goes out to all of those involved in the process, as it isn't fun. Yet for all those who purport to want only the best for Derbyshire cricket, tell me this isn't the right thing to do and I'll need to accuse you of a few porky-pies...

Because it is.

An Interview with Harold Rhodes - part three

At what point in your development did you realise that you could make it in first class cricket?

I suppose it was in my first season. I took over seventy wickets at a low cost in that summer and I bowled consistently throughout. At the end of the summer, Cliff announced his retirement and said that I would be an excellent replacement. I couldn't have wished for a greater commendation than that, really.

The County Ground was always high on the list of disliked grounds for players at that time. What was it like?

It was just a big open space. There was an old wooden pavilion and a concrete stand - that was it. There might have been an occasional ice cream van and a stall selling refreshments, but there was little more to it. 'Bleak' describes it pretty accurately...

When I first joined the ground staff, one of my jobs was to help put out the forms (benches) and portable tiered seating that went between Derby and Chesterfield. They didn't even give me a pair of gloves for the job. Although you were there to learn your trade on the pitch, sometimes it felt like I had taken out an apprenticeship as a groundsman.

On my first morning at the club, I was welcomed by coach Denis Smith and shown in to the dressing room, where he gestured towards a hook and told me that it was my gear.

It was a boiler suit!

How did you find Denis Smith – he was apparently a hard taskmaster as coach?

Denis was tough and some people didn't get on with him because they found him uncouth - he told it as he saw it and didn't mince his words. But he knew his cricket and was instrumental in me getting some good quality league cricket for Frickley Colliery in the Yorkshire Council League. It was a high standard and brought my game on a lot when I was 14 or 15.

As a former batsman himself, he had a lot to offer as a coach, but he could bowl decent seam and spin and he kept everyone on their toes. He justified his gruff manner by saying that no one could hold your hand out in the middle – and he was right..

He had a very dry sense of humour. On one occasion a young quick bowler turned up for a trial. He was pretty quick but sprayed it around and Denis wasn't impressed. At the end of the day, he drove away at some speed in a noisy old car and Denis quipped: “If he drives like he bowls, he won't hit owt...”

How good was that 1950s side? What did we need to have become county champions?

It was very good, but we lacked a couple of batsmen of genuine quality. Arnold Hamer was a very fine opening batsman and often gave us good starts, while Donald Carr was a good player whose availability declined as the 1950's progressed. Derek Morgan was a fine player, but he had a lot of bowling to do. Derek also had several appearances for England as twelfth man, on account of his fielding, which was absolutely brilliant.

As a side, we were prone to big collapses though and that cost us more than a few winning positions. Surrey were dominant in that decade, but we gave them some good games and with another couple of batsmen – who knows?

The attack was as good as any side had, with the possible exception of Surrey.

People often talk about the modern era as having great fielders, but that Derbyshire side had a strong reputation in the field?

It was different in many ways, but there were people with brilliant hands and the likes of Alan Revill, Donald Carr, Arnold Hamer and Derek Morgan dropped very little and held some catches that other sides wouldn't have even considered as chances.

There was no sliding and little diving though – we wouldn't have had the time or money to wash the kit anyway, but we fielded as you did at the time – we used the 'long barrier' and stopped the ball with our feet if it was the best method available.

There was no expectation that the bowlers should throw themselves around, as they were too precious to winning prospects. Both Cliff and Les were good fielders though, especially in the gulley and Les was as good a fielder off his own bowling as I have seen. On numerous occasions he ran batsmen out by moving quickly towards mid-off or mid-on from his follow-through, picking up quickly and throwing down the stumps.

Nearly every side had a specialist (and very good) cover point – both John Kelly and Laurie Johnson were outstanding in that position for us over the years.

Who were the biggest characters in the side?

Cliff was one, for sure! He always had something to say about most subjects, while both George Dawkes, an outstanding wicket-keeper, and Arnold Hamer were usually involved in the fun that we had on a regular basis. They were great days and a lovely bunch of blokes to share a dressing room with.

You played in one of our most remarkable games, when the Hampshire game at Burton ended in one day in August 1958. What do you most remember about that match?

It lasted one day and twenty minutes – we'd lost a wicket in the little play possible on the previous day. The most memorable thing for me was that I got my cap at the end of the game.

The Hampshire skipper, Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie, took his team for a brewery tour the day before, so I'm not sure if they were necessarily at their best! It had rained heavily and, with wickets uncovered in those days, it made for a very difficult batting track.

We won because Les and I were considerably quicker than Derek Shackleton and Malcolm Heath on a wicket where the ball moved around a lot and the bounce was erratic. The only bowling change was when Derek Morgan replaced me and cleaned up the tail in their second innings. I was shattered by that stage, mentally as much as physically.

As the 1960s dawned, our fortunes gradually declined as top quality players failed to be replaced. That must have been a difficult time?

It was. Arnold Hamer retired, Cliff had gone, Donald Carr's availability was an issue and the batsmen who came in simply weren't up to the same standard.

Brian Jackson (no relation to Les) came in and did a terrific job with the new ball for a few seasons, but we struggled because we hadn't enough good players and – of course – money was tight.

It always seemed like we could have done with another fifty runs to play with. Sometimes we got them, but it was a constant battle to take wickets while not conceding runs, setting close fields without giving away runs down to third man. 

To be continued

Midweek Musings

The second Test starts down under tonight and I am sure I am not the only one who expects an improved England performance, after the debacle of the first match.

There's been enough newsprint generated by the performance, the sledging, Jonathan Trott and the breakdown of Anglo-Australian relations (nothing new there) to destroy a rain forest of reasonable size. I'd make just three comments on it.

First, when will we realise that international teams need more than four or five days of practice in foreign climes to be ready for the serious stuff? Not all that long ago, teams arrived and played five or six warm-up games which gave all concerned an opportunity to acclimatise. The players aren't better today - they still need time to get used to the light, heat, bounce, movement, find the length to bowl and get the feet moving. All the nets in the world won't get you match fit, if you don't play matches. That's several tours running now that we have been rolled over in the first match and with the expense put in to tour preparation, one would hope that someone in a position of power might have said "hang on...we need more time in the middle before we start".

Second, what happened to poor old Jonathan Trott was a dreadful shame, but he was but the latest in a long line of cricketers who have suffered from what appears to be depression. While most of us would have loved the opportunity, the pressures of first-class cricket, especially at the top, cannot be underestimated. For anyone in a relationship, it must be incredibly difficult. You play all summer, often away on the road, then have a week or two at home before heading out on tours for the winter. Yes, it will be a good life, I'm sure, but if you're missing the wife and kids AND struggling for form, it will be a difficult one.

Especially when everyone watching knows what's wrong with your game and tells you how to sort it. They'll likely all be different ideas too, but when you're not thinking straight because you're pining for home, sorting it out might be a step too far.

It reinforces my long-held and oft-stated opinion that supporters should be wary of what they write and how they do so. It is naive - no, make that stupid - to think that players and their families won't see what is written and won't care. They will, even if the comment is made by someone with little or no appreciation of the niceties of the game and its demands. Shrugging it off is easy when you're in or near form, but cricket is perhaps unique as a team game where the individual is left exposed and challenged. When the difference between the middle and edge of the bat is around three inches, there's little margin for error...

Finally, I still think we erred in the selection of bowlers. It was a point covered by Harold Rhodes when I interviewed him and I'm concerned that we've picked tall bowlers who will get steepling bounce, without necessarily having the requisite skill to put the ball in the right areas. I think Steve Finn a good bowler, but he is young and prone to bad days, while neither Tim Tremlett nor Boyd Rankin, for me, are consistent enough in line and length to challenge the best.

I feel that Graeme Onions should have been ahead of the latter two and I just hope we don't live to regret the omission of the best day-in, day-out bowler in the county game.

Closer to home, I'm pleased to see the Derbyshire players working hard towards next summer at this early stage. Not all that long ago, you'd see the committed sides returning to pre-season in January, ready to work off the Christmas excesses. It's a different game today and the level of fitness of these lads is quite extraordinary.

I'm also enjoying the advent calendar on the club site. Sadly there's no chocolates (now that would be a good trick!) but the idea and the content is excellent. All concerned are to be commended for both the idea and the implementation.

Finally tonight, a couple of answers to recent e-mails. Don't I think supporters have a right to know what happened with Dan Redfern? No. Whatever has happened is between the employer and employee, as it is in most organisations. I'm sure few of you would want the reasons for your departure from a job aired to all and sundry, so why should this be any different?

Do I think that we've finished with winter signings? Again, no. I think we will still be in the hunt for an experienced batsman, especially an opener, while the issue of cover for Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the summer, should he be selected for the West Indies summer Test series against New Zealand and Bangladesh - five Tests in all - needs to be addressed.

The good news is that the schedules for both Australia and South Africa are fairly clear for the English summer of 2014, so good-quality cover might be more readily available than last year.

Something to think about on these long winter nights...

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - P is for Pope: George Pope

There have been some very good cricketers whose name begins with the letter P in Derbyshire colours.

The earliest was George Porter, a fast-medium bowler of considerable talent whose availability to the Derbyshire side between  1881 and 1896 was severely limited by ill-health, together with the realisation that he could make more money as a league professional . When he was able to play, he regularly took wickets, as 130 wickets at just 21 each suggests. A chimney sweep to trade (not many modern equivalents, I'll wager) he was only 46 when he died in 1907.

Fast forwarding a few decades, one of the more attractive Derbyshire batsmen of the late 1960s onwards was Mike Page. From 1968-1973 he was a very consistent performer, largely at number three, and once set had a wide range of strokes and an un-Derbyshire (for the time) willingness to play them freely.

A Lancastrian by birth, Page reeled off his thousand, or near it, every season and a fine summer in 1970, when he scored over 1300 runs at 41 saw him come close to national consideration. It was not to be though and he left the game in 1975 at the age of just 34, following a testimonial that raised £3,500.

Most supporters will retain a soft spot for James Pipe, whose wicket-keeping between 2006 and 2009 was of a very high standard, fitting neatly into the great Derbyshire lineage. He was also an explosive batsman, capable of scoring very quickly once set and usually contributing five hundred-plus valuable lower-order runs a season.

He has subsequently forged a fine career as club physiotherapist, where his skilled work, no doubt aided by his cricket experience, has ensured that players have the best possible support in getting back to full fitness after injury.

Yet the best player in this category has to come down to a choice between two brothers.

Alf Pope was a very good seam bowler and handy tail-end 'clumper' in the great Derbyshire side of the 1930's. His breakthrough season was in 1934, when fifty wickets suggested a bowler with something to offer. There were 87 wickets in 1935, then 99 in the championship summer of 1936, taken at just 18 runs each. By the time the Second World War came along, Alf had taken 555 wickets at just 22 each, impressive pickings when one considers that Bill Copson, Tommy Mitchell and his brother were also testing and troubling the country's batsmen.

He was thirty when war broke out and didn't reappear afterwards, though he remained a fine bowler in the leagues for many years.

Good a player as he was, he has to take second place to his brother, George.

I never saw George Pope play. In fact, he'd retired 11 years before I was born. He is, however, one of my favourite players because of his deeds and the legion of stories about him. Another of that tough breed of ex-mining industry players, George was, by any standards - even Brian Close standards - a tough nut. He did, after all, counter the short bowling of Larwood and Voce by chesting them down - remember, this was in an era before chest pads, thigh pads and various protective accoutrements became de rigeur for the professional batsman.

Excellent judges maintain that the two best all-rounders in the world just after the Second World War were Keith Miller and George Pope. George taught Miller how to bowl the outswinger when they played on opposing teams in the Victory Tests of 1945, just as he taught the leg-cutter to Alec Bedser, the one that he had learned himself from the great Sydney Barnes. Bear in mind that at this time George was 34, and had lost his peak years from 1939 to the global conflict.

He was a crucial cog in the wonderful Derbyshire side of the 1930's. A batsman who could either sell his wicket dearly or hit the ball to all corners, depending on the needs of the side, he averaged 28 with the bat. That's not so impressive, you might say, but the success of that side was in scoring enough - just enough and quickly enough - to give the bowlers a chance to bowl out the opposition twice. Sometimes a quick 30 or 40 was needed, and George did the business before holing out. His highest score came in his final season, 1948, when he hammered Hampshire to all parts in an unbeaten 207. His premature retirement at just 37 was down to his wife's ill-health and he was still a fine player, achieving the double. A hundred wickets at seventeen each, 1152 runs at 39..quite a player.

His bowling was typical Derbyshire, movement both ways, grudging every run and bristling with aggression. 677 wickets at just under 20 speaks of a very fine bowler, and those who faced George (and his brother Alf) knew they were in for a torrid time. Some said he wouldn't take wickets abroad, but his one real foray overseas, to India in 1937-38, saw him take 58 wickets at 15, figures that for anyone would be seemed outstanding. He wasn't quick, but kept batsmen on their toes and moved it just enough to get the edge of the bat, or beat it. You can see him in action in this clip on the excellent British Pathe website, at one minute, eight seconds.

Stories about him abound. Like the one where the all-conquering Yorkshire side of the 30's were scenting victory and the field crept ever closer. Skipper Brian Sellers at short leg had to duck to avoid two lusty blows by George.

"I say Pope, I believe you're trying to hit me" said the Yorkshireman.

"Aye, and if you stay theer any longer you'll be in no bluddy doubt" came the reply...

The cut and thrust of the border battles against Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire often brought out the best in him, and his bald head would glisten with sweat as he pounded down ball after ball of relentless probing fast medium for the batsman. He had many great days, but his only reward from the Test selectors of the time was one match against South Africa in 1947 - shades of the later treatment of Les Jackson.

His greatest day? Derbyshire v Somerset at Chesterfield in June 1947. Somerset 68 all out. Pope 21-11-34-6. We then thrashed a quick 231, then put them back in after tea.

They were all out for 38. George took 7-16 in nine overs and the game was done in a day.

Not bad for a man worth one Test. If he were around today, he'd be making a fortune in the IPL.

And be worth every penny...

Redfern departure not a surprise

It is always sad when a cricketer of genuine potential fails to realise it.

For every top player, in any sport, there are dozens more who might just have got there but for some intangible factor that legislates against their development. For some it is a technical issue, for others mental, while some are simply incapable of the self-discipline to make the most of their talent.

I've played with a few over the years, including one lad who got himself wrecked on booze the night before an important regional trial, where he had every chance of selection. He failed miserably and he never made it past the "highly talented, but..." grouping in which he found himself.

To that grouping - at least for now - must be added the name of Dan Redfern.

Dan can play cricket, without doubt. He can make batting look the easiest thing on earth and as someone who saw his maiden century for the club, I can vouch for how good he looked at his best. The drives were a delight and the ball was despatched with the degree of elan that is the preserve of the very best. His technique looked organised and compact; he looked, in short, a player.

That was two seasons ago, when the long-awaited breakthrough finally arrived - or so we thought. The summer of 2013 should have been the one in which Redfern announced himself as a genuine contender in county cricket's highest tier. Yet it didn't happen, nor indeed did it ever look likely to do so.

It was quite disappointing to see a batsman of such talent reduced to a bit-part role as a T20 spinner, firing it in briskly at the batsmen's feet. The bowling looked OK, but the batsman we knew and respected simply wasn't there. Occasional gritty innings that usually failed to develop into anything substantial were among far more where cavalier shots, often inappropriate for the match situation, resulted in an early demise. All players go through such phases, but one had only to walk around the ground to hear stories that did the player few favours.

These stories are alluded to by Mark Eklid in today's Derby Telegraph and today's news came as no surprise to me, especially after the engagement of Scott Elstone a few weeks back. Elstone is a very similar player, capable of batting and fielding brilliance, together with useful bowling.

There will, as it is the nature of the supporter 'beast', be those who blame the club and say that more should have been done, but I disagree.

When a player with the natural talent of Daniel Redfern is allowed to leave, two years before the end of his contract, things must have broken down way past the point of rescue. Confidentiality clauses will dictate that we may never know the full extent of the issues here, nor are we entitled to; such is the way with employer/employee relations.

What is sad is that a player of potential has failed to realise his talent, nor justify a decade of investment in it by the club. Time will tell if he does so elsewhere, or becomes another of those "highly talented, but..." statistics.

The ball is firmly in his court now. As for Derbyshire, we move on.

An interview with Harold Rhodes: part 2

How did Les Jackson and Cliff Gladwin help you develop? I presume they had more to do with your development than Denis Smith, who was a batsman?

It wasn't so much coaching, as assimilating what you saw and heard. At Wellingborough, in my first season, Frank Tyson steamed in for Northamptonshire and bowled a bouncer first ball to John Kelly. It went over his head, on a rock hard track, then over the head of Keith Andrew, who was keeping wicket twenty yards back. It hit the middle of the sight screen on the full – quite extraordinary!

I turned to Cliff, who was sat alongside me on the pavilion balcony. “Did you see that?” I said.

“Aye” said Cliff, “What a waste of a new ball...”

You had to learn from such people, they just knew so much. It was the same around the circuit and I listened to the likes of Brian Statham at Lancashire, who liked a pint at the end of a hard day. “They miss and I hit” was his motto – and he usually did!

Tell me about them as people. How did you find Cliff and Les, on and off the pitch?

Cliff was short-tempered and could be unbearable at times if he got his dander up. You dreaded dropping a catch off his bowling, as you'd be called all sorts of stuff. He was a wonderful senior professional though and the discipline when he played was first-class. That kind of thing is often overlooked in its importance.

He bowled big in-swingers but cultivated a leg-cutter that kept batsmen guessing. He was the opposite of Les, who was really laid-back and just shrugged his shoulders if the ball was dropped. He'd usually just say “Catch next 'un” and carry on.

Les was a seam bowler and moved it off the seam. Even on flat wickets he got movement and he should have played for England for years. No one liked facing him, but his 'slinging' action had no fans among the purists at Lords. They preferred to pick blokes who had nice actions but got far fewer wickets and were less rated around the county circuit.

When I made my Test debut, Fred Trueman said that I had done well, because you needed to be at least ten per cent better than anyone else to get a game for England when you played for Derbyshire. That's what counted against Les. He was a wonderful bowler and a lovely man. It was a privilege to be in the same team.

For the benefit of younger fans, who in the modern era were they like from a pace perspective?

Les was quick and awkward. He'd have been bowling at top 80's mph. He got remarkable pace and lift from what was a kind of round-arm sling. Batsmen were always getting hit on the hands or inner thigh and his bouncers, such as they were, used to spear in at batsmen's ribs and chest. He wasn't easy to play and I suppose you'd say that he was around the pace of the likes of Anderson and Broad today. When you'd faced Les on a green top you certainly had the bruises to prove it!

Cliff was a good bit slower, maybe bowling around 70mph, but he got late movement and was backed up by some wonderful fielders in the leg trap. They held some amazing catches, as Cliff darted it around. On a helpful track he fancied his chances of getting anyone, either in that leg trap, or in the slips as he moved one away off the seam.

Why didn't Les play more games for England?

Snobbery. That's it in a nutshell. The big-wigs at Lords didn't like his action and assumed that he wouldn't take wickets at international level because of it, which was stupid. Year in, year out, Les took over a hundred wickets. They said that he only took them on Derbyshire green tops, but the statistics showed that he took as many, if not more, away from home.

Trueman, Tyson and Statham were all fine bowlers throughout the 1950's and the quickest bowlers on the circuit, but they knew that whatever they could do on a county wicket would be replicated by Les. The likelihood was that he'd have done exactly the same in international games.

He should have played many more times for his country, but it was the usual anti-Derbyshire bias.

What was life like for a professional cricketer in the '50s?

Very different! I started as a junior professional, of course and we usually travelled to away matches by train. My job at that time was to get the bags to the station – which required two taxis – and then needed two trolleys at the station to get them on to the platform and then on to the train. You needed to keep change handy for tipping porters and then ensure that everything came off the train at the other end. I'm proud to say that I never lost a bag!

When we played in Essex or Sussex, there could be two or three different trains to catch, so you can imagine it was a lively time. We used to play cards on the train and no one ever bothered us, even if we were recognised. To be fair, few people did recognise you at that time, as it pre-dated the current 'celebrity' culture.

There were relatively few cars on the road at that time and only a few old ones among the team, The only time we travelled by car was for the local games at Nottingham, Leicester and Birmingham. We used to get £8 a night expenses for away games, which covered your room and meal. We used to travel home each night, so at the end of the match we were £24 better off and lived like millionaires for a few weeks!

Peakfan note – the purchasing power of £24 in 1957 is around £450 today...

At what point in your development did you realise that you could make it in first class cricket?

I suppose it was in my first season. I took over seventy wickets at a low cost in that summer and I bowled consistently throughout. At the end of the summer, Cliff announced his retirement and said that I would be an excellent replacement. I couldn't have wished for a greater commendation than that, really.

To be continued...

Scarborough at last...

The fixtures are out and we have a cricket week at Chesterfield, more than a few games that look winnable on paper and a fifty-over game at Scarborough...

Oh, be still my beating heart! All things being equal, I hope to see our lads take on the Yorkies at my favourite ground outside of the county. I can close my eyes and hear the sea right now, the only thing to check being how the date ties in with the school calendar and whether it is a solo trip or a family one.

I think that game, together with the four-day fixture at the Cheltenham Festival, will see good Derbyshire away support and I'm pretty happy with the way its been drawn up. I'm still not convinced that counties will find it easy to get overseas stars for the drawn-out T20, but perhaps that will lead to a levelling of the playing field, if not an increase in the crowds to see the bigger names.

The more I have thought about it, the less I am convinced  that the English T20 should try to compete with the IPL. It will never have the appeal of the latter, nor the mass audience to engender the atmosphere that the IPL alone manages to do. Even the capacity crowds against Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire last summer were on a different scale, akin to comparing the voices of Bjork and Maria Callas.

Our T20 is what it is; a harmless diversion for those who have neither the time nor inclination for the real thing, the proper game...the four-day game.

There's plenty of time to discuss our chances in the respective competitions, but while I'd share in the general enthusiasm should we win another one-day title, nothing matches success in the four-day game. To come out on top after 64 days of championship cricket, you have to be a very good side playing fine cricket. You can't win the one-days without doing that, but there are less stringent demands.

Never mind. The countdown starts now. By the weekend, there'll be a countdown timer on the blog...

Weekend warmer

Thank you for all of your kind e mails and comments on the opening part of the interview with Harold Rhodes. If you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed chatting to him and writing it up, I will be a happy man!

It is all fairly quiet on the cricket front right now, although the imminent release of the 2014 fixtures in the coming week is something to whet the appetite. I understand, from a contact on the Gloucestershire side (thank you, my friend!) that Derbyshire will play their away game against them in the delightful environs of the Cheltenham Festival. Assuming that is the case, that should be a 'must' for those planning the away trips, as it is one of the most scenic spots for first-class cricket, as well as being well-attended.

I also understand that there have been comments on another site about Shivnarine Chanderpaul  not returning in 2014. Sadly, this fits into the 'making a story out of nothing' category, as the player has already confirmed that he WILL be back next summer.

Looking at the international calendar he may well be recalled for a Test series - possibly two - by the West Indies during the season, which may well mean that we need to draft in cover for him. That's a bridge to be crossed as and when though. I'm certainly not going to set a hare across the park until the future international intentions of both the player and the West Indies cricket authorities are known.

Finally tonight, the next in the A to Z of Derbyshire cricket should see the light of day over the weekend. There's some decent players in there, but top spot should, I think, really be signalled by puffs of smoke.

That's a clue, if there ever was one...

Enjoy your weekend.

An interview with Harold Rhodes: part one

At a time when 'great' is used as an everyday term for most things from the modest upwards, it is a delight to be able to write a piece for the blog about a player whose career record defines greatness as it should be and the dictionary intends.

Harold Rhodes was an outstanding bowler for Derbyshire and almost certainly would have been for England, but for what was effectively a 'witch hunt' against him over a period from the late 1950's onwards.

Harold had an elbow that hyper-extended. It wasn't bent, like a dart player, as he let the ball go. His elbow actually went past straight, giving perhaps an extra 'whip' to the ball as he let it go in a classical style. His action was as smooth as gossamer, something a thrower could never manage in a million years of trying. He was quick, he was accurate and he jagged the ball around on a helpful wicket as well as any Derbyshire seamer has ever done.

Any bowler who finishes a career with over a thousand wickets at less than twenty runs each has got to have something special and anyone who saw him knew that he was just that. He was one of my first cricketing heroes; I wanted to bowl like Harold Rhodes and keep wicket like Bob Taylor, the stand out players in the Derbyshire side that I first saw in the late 1960's. Sadly, in trying to play like one of them, I fell well short of the standard of both, but it didn't stop me trying. Nor does it to this day, when my bowling is of a pace that I feel I could sometimes, if I chose to do so, go and stop a ball I've bowled before it reaches the batsman...

I was thrilled when Harold very kindly accepted my request for an interview, something that took me back many years to when I got his autograph at Chesterfield, as he left the field during a game against Yorkshire. I never imagined then that I would get an opportunity to question him on his career and I'd like to think that I handled it better than I did my encounter with him at that time. I'm not even sure I remembered to say 'please' when I asked for his signature, but he was kind enough to give it, something for which a nine-year old boy was very grateful.

I'm also grateful to him for his time in this interview. He is as lovely a man as he was outstanding a bowler and I hope that I have done him justice in this piece that will appear in several parts over the coming weeks.

If you, like me, were lucky enough to see him bowl, I hope it brings back a few memories. If you are too young and missed out, then believe old Peakfan when he tells you something.

Harold Rhodes was something very special indeed.

How did you come to join the Derbyshire staff?

Well, funnily enough – and this didn't make it into the book on my career by John Shawcroft a few years back – I nearly joined Middlesex!

At the point where a decision had to be made on my future, Walter Robins, who was the chairman at Middlesex at the time, offered me terms to go and play at Lords. This was at the same time that an offer was tabled by Derbyshire and I had to think about it for a while. I'd played for the Club and Ground side and done well, which was where Middlesex had seen me in action.

I decided to show loyalty to my county, where my father had played with distinction over many seasons and I never regretted it. Over the years though, I have wondered if the controversy over my action would have reared its head had I opted to play at Lords.

In your youth you were a spinner like your father. What made you change?

I actually started out as an off-spinner. One day I was down at the nets and couldn't bowl them, as I'd ripped the skin off my spinning finger and had Friars Balsam or something similar on it. Cliff Gladwin suggested that I bowl some leggies. I used to bowl leg-spin pretty well and could pitch it fine, but I didn't have the googly that was so successful for my father in his career and you really need at top level.

At that time I used to bat 5 or 6 for the Club and Ground and actually made my debut for the county against Oxford University as a spinner, five weeks short of my seventeenth birthday! Then one day I turned up to play for the Club and Ground side and a trialist fast bowler's car had broken down. Our coach, Denis Smith, asked me if I could bowl some seam to take the shine off the ball.

So I did – and it went well enough for me to decide to bowl quick. Denis thought I had a bit of pace and soon afterwards, chairman Robin Buckston sat me down in his Bentley and said that they wanted to take me on to the staff as a seam bowler. He also said that I should forget about batting and that I would be going in at ten from now on - just above Les Jackson.

How big an influence was your father on your career? Did you see him play regularly?

He encouraged me, which was the most important thing, and his connection with the club enabled me to practice with the ground staff when I was only 12 or 13. He got me playing for the Chaddesden Cricket Club, which was a good standard at that time and there used to be no end of people turned up for nets in the park. If you were late arriving, you didn't get a bat! I had to walk a mile there and then again back home – I couldn't afford a bike until I was 16.

I've seen a few references to you as 'Dusty' Rhodes, but always thought that nickname was the preserve of your father. Was that the case?

Yes, my father was called 'Dusty' by most people around the circuit for all of his days as a player and umpire, but only, to my recollection, the Yorkshire and Lancashire players used it with reference to me.

You came into a Derbyshire attack led by Gladwin and Jackson. That must have been quite daunting?

Yes, it was, but it was also a huge advantage. It showed me the temperament and the qualities that I needed to succeed and I count myself as very fortunate to learn from two such outstanding professionals and craftsmen. They taught me how important it was, on good wickets, to stop batsmen scoring, by bowling a good line and length. It built pressure and then batsmen made mistakes in trying to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

It still frustrates me when I see bowlers giving away a couple of 'four balls' an over, so the batsmen have only to wait and help themselves. I had a year as first change to Cliff and Les and it was a wonderful education. People took risks against me, because they'd not had a ball they could hit in the first hour or so.

Our scorer, Gilbert Ryde, came up to me at the interval in one of my early games and asked if I wanted to see the score book and check my analysis. Being well aware of my place in the scheme of things, I suggested that Cliff and Les should see it first.

“Oh, they know theirs”, he said. They both kept their bowling figures in their heads and at the end of a day were usually only a couple of runs out. I always did the same after that and encouraged any bowlers that I later coached to do the same.

To be continued...

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - O is for Ollivierre: Charles Ollivierre

As was the case with the letter N, finding the best Derbyshire player whose name began with the letter O didn't give too many options. Still stunned that I could find no room for Kim Barnett ahead of Eddie Barlow, perhaps this is the time to concoct some fictitious Irish roots - Kim O'Barnett, to be sure...

Alas, no and I must be content with the nine names at my disposal that contain largely worthy, if not outstanding players.

There's Leonard Oliver, a left-handed batsman from Glossop whose career spanned the First World War. He gave decent service over three hundred first-class innings, but an average of a shade over twenty leaves him out of the running.

Moving forward, there's also Billy Oates, who was solid from the mid-1950s to mid-1960's without really establishing himself. In 214 innings he reached the fifty mark on 28 occasions, but only twice went on to three figures. A Sheffield man, he was a solid, if unspectacular cricketer who was respected by his colleagues and supporters alike.

Another Yorkshire import who did well for us for a few season was Steve Oldham. 'Esso', as he was known from those initials, was a medium-pace bowler who wobbled it around a little and was capable of getting good wickets. He took 273 of them in a career that started at Yorkshire and then enjoy four seasons with us from 1980 to 1983. He was a willing workhorse whose action let him bowl long spells, but his lack of pace saw his annual wicket haul sit around the thirty to forty mark at a cost of over thirty. I liked him as a player, but for me he's not quite breaking in to the top two.

Second place goes to Tim O'Gorman, a Surrey man who was an exception to my assertion that southern players have rarely made runs up north, certainly not for us. Between 1987 and 1996, O'Gorman was a solid player in the middle order, usually batting at five. He wasn't the best of starters, but if he got in there were shots around the wicket from a player who was good to watch.

Whenever I think of him, it is for his fifty at Lords against Lancashire, a typically gutsy display that helped to turn around a failing innings and give us a platform from which to build a match-winning score. His retirement for a career outside the game at the age of just 29 took us several seasons from which to recover, but he has made an excellent fist of that career and deserves full credit for it.

My number one? Going back into the mists of time, it is Charles Ollivierre.

Ollivierre was the first black West Indian to play county cricket. He came to England with the predominantly white West Indies side in 1900 and was the standout batsman with an average of 32. Allowing for the difference in climate and wickets, that was an excellent effort for a 24-year old player. In his game against Derbyshire on that tour, he was dismissed for three in the first innings, but made an unbeaten 23 in the second when opening the innings.

Derbyshire were sufficiently impressed by his displays to ask him to qualify for them and he played as an amateur from 1902, working in the Glossop offices of businessman, politician and Derbyshire player Samuel Hill-Wood. He played some aggressive innings in non-first-class cricket between times, but qualified from July 1902 and averaged 41 that summer.

His second season was the same as that 'enjoyed' by others before and since, his average falling to just over twenty as canny bowlers worked him out to some extent. 1904, however, saw him in prime form and 1268 runs flowed from his bat at an average of 35, a number of those innings played on wickets best described as sub-standard.

The highlight was his role in what has been known for decades as 'Perrin's match'. It was played at Queen's Park, Chesterfield, where Ollivierre's first sight of the town's crooked spire the previous summer had reputedly seen him dunk his head in a bucket of cold water, thinking he was still the worse for wear from the previous night's revelry!

The game, between Derbyshire and Essex, was played from July 18-20 in 1904, a Monday to Wednesday. Nonetheless, around two thousand people were present at Chesterfield to see the first day against a strong Essex batting side. None of them could have predicted what was about to unfold.

On a very hot and sunny day, Essex reached 179-3 at lunch. Remember, this was at a time when a six had to be hit out of the ground rather than just over the ropes. The prolific P.A. Perrin, a tall, elegant batsman was unbeaten on 79. In the afternoon he reached his century then cut loose until he was badly dropped by Bill Bestwick, always a poor fielder, at mid-on. The unlucky bowler was Arnold Warren, who then took two wickets in two balls to leave the visitors on 314-6. That was as good as it got though, as Perrin moved on from his good fortune and finished the first day unbeaten on 295 from a total of 524-8, having hit 58 boundaries...

Next morning, the last two wickets added 73 as Essex were all out for 597, Perrin unbeaten on 343 with 68 fours. Avoiding the follow on was to be a huge task, with 448 required, but Derbyshire openers Levi Wright and Ollivierre put on a century stand in 55 minutes and at lunch were on 144 without being parted. The West Indian reached his century in 95 minutes and although Wright was out at 191, Bill Storer came in and added a further 128 in 75 minutes. Ollivierre reached his double century in 190 minute with a five and 33 fours, only the third Derbyshire batsman to do so, and a celebratory drink was taken out to him.

He was eventually dismissed for 229 and had frequently hit fours from balls pulled through mid-wicket from around off stump. At the close Derbyshire had almost saved the follow on at 446-4, the day having been watched by around three thousand fans who had their money's worth!

The final day was cooler after the blistering heat of the earlier days and we were all out for 548. The game seemed a certain draw, but before lunch Essex collapsed against opening bowlers Bill Bestwick and Arnold Warren and were in disarray at 27-6, each bowler having taken three wickets.

The crowd grew in the afternoon as word spread of a possible result, but Essex recovered to 80-6 before a double bowling change brought a breakthrough, the innings then subsiding to 97 all out with one player unable to bat. Warren was a tall and wiry bowler, reckoned to be one of the quickest in the country, and finished with 4-42.

Play was to continue until 6.15pm, so Derbyshire had 125 minutes to score 147. It looked a tricky challenge in the light of the Essex collapse and when Wright went with just eleven on the board, Essex must have fancied their chances. Ollivierre was again in prime form though and reached a run-a-minute 50 with eight fours, the hundred coming up in just sixty minutes. At the start of the final hour, Derbyshire were 108-1 and needed only 39 to win, Ollivierre on 74.

Both the West Indian and Storer were keen to reach their milestones of a century and fifty respectively, the latter because he would then, as a professional, be entitled to a bonus. The remaining runs came in 15 minutes, with Ollivierre on an unbeaten 92 (15 fours) and Storer on 48 as the game ended with 45 minutes and nine wickets in hand. Maybe missing out on his bonus was the crux of a comment attributed to Storer, who said that "England should be for the English", a comment that at best was churlish.

Ollivierre had two more seasons of reasonable returns and occasional brilliance, his batting being compared to that of the great Ranjitsinjhi and especially strong in cutting and on the leg side. He retired at the end of 1907 because of eyesight issues but has gone down in cricket history as the first top black West Indian batsman. 

 

For that reason I cannot overlook a gifted player who was a trail-blazer and became a firm fan favourite.