Derbyshire Legends 2 - Cliff Gladwin (1916-1988)

Cliff Gladwin was the other half of one of the best opening attacks in County cricket since the Second World War. Good judges say that there have been precious few better in the history of the game. Lohmann and Richardson at Surrey, Hadlee and Rice or Larwood and Voce at Notts, maybe Loader and Bedser at Surrey. There have been few who managed such sustained hostility over a long period like the Derbyshire pair.

I've already covered Les, but Cliff was a wonderful foil. For a big man he was light on his feet and his short run and economical action took little out of him. Like Les, he could bowl long spells and batsmen couldn't plan to bat out five or six overs, as they could both bowl for a couple of hours without a noticeable drop in pace.

Big inswingers were what Cliff bowled, backed up by Carr, Revill and Morgan in the legtrap who appeared to practice by catching flies. There was also one that held up, and a leg cutter that got many victims. 1653 wickets at 18 was testimony to the penetration of his bowling, but Cliff and Les were chalk and cheese on the pitch. When a catch went down off Les, he would as often as not say "bad luck, catch next 'un". Cliff would reveal a fine range of invective but bore no grudges. They shared a dislike of conceding runs and many marvelled that Cliff knew his analysis at the end of a day - indeed even correcting a scorer on occasion. He was the ultimate professional who allowed no slacking in the field. One of his team mates recalled a bawling out from Cliff for attempting a run out by kicking the ball at the stumps, a criminal waste of a new ball...

He managed eight England caps and was possibly just short of Test class. He did, however, play a part in one of the greatest Test match wins, getting the winning run off his thigh in South Africa in 1948-9. "Coometh the hour, coometh the man" were his words as he walked out in the final over, and he was as good as his word.

He was a fair batsman, and could well have been a good all rounder, narrowly missing the double in 1949. His bowling was more important to Derbyshire, however and he took a hundred wickets in 12 of his 13 seasons for Derbyshire, taking 94 in the injury-hit season when he didn't.

When Harold Rhodes came into the Derbyshire side he was in awe of the pair, but admitted the help that they gave him and the encouragement to maintain the level of parsimony that they had established. Rhodes helped Jackson to bowl out Hampshire for 23 at Burton in 1958, but one fan was heard to comment that "they wouldn't have got half that score if Cliff had been bowling with Les". Now that is a tough school! He recalled watching Frank Tyson bowl lightningly quick at Northampton one day and bowl a bouncer in his first over that just missed the batsman's head, then cleared the wicket keeper and went for four byes. Appreciative whistles came from the waiting batsmen and from Rhodes himself, but Cliff was unimpressed.

"What a bluddy waste of a new ball" was all he said. Make the batsman play, that was the Derbyshire way.

After he retired he played League cricket for years and ran a sports shop in Chesterfield. I bought a pair of batting gloves there once and he was very helpful and friendly. Many a batsman would have liked to have seen that from 22 yards away, but Cliff was one of the great competitors. It was once calculated that his average bowling figures were 22-7-55-3 and there were no easy runs with Cliff Gladwin around.

Not bad for a man who had only played one first class match before the war and played his second at the age of 29. There's a lot to be said for late developers.