Snippets

It was good to read today that the club intend to mark the 140th anniversary with a commemorative DVD in 2010.

Changed days from 1970 when the centenary was marked with a bumper edition of the yearbook and the issue of a Crown Derby plate.

There’s plenty of stuff out there and it just needs a little detective work on behalf of some dedicated individuals to pull it all together. I’m sure that, like me, you will look forward to seeing the fruits of their labours and will buy a copy next season.

A week or two back I highlighted a piece of film I came across of George Pope (which I've told the guys about for the DVD). Here's another that you may enjoy, this time of 1950's legend Cliff Gladwin bowling against New Zealand for England in 1949. You'll see Cliff at 2:16 and 3:17.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=29095

Modern fans may look at Cliff's modest run up and think he looks non-too threatening. All I'll say is that 1653 wickets at 18 suggest a bloke who could bowl and as Fred Trueman once said, these old films fairly slow a bowler down...

At the end of the day, its not how fast you bowl, it's where you bowl it and the figures suggest Cliff did that better than most in the history of the club, even if he perhaps lacked that something extra for the very top level.

Elsewhere, there’s a terrific marketing ploy by Middlesex for next season, which you can see at

http://www.middlesexccc.com/news-detail.asp?NewsID=1931

There’s has to be people or companies out there who would be happy to do a similar thing at Derby. Maybe the guys there have considered the idea or are working on something at the moment, but I think it is a very innovative piece of work by the marketing guys at Lords and top marks to them.

The only other bit of news today is that Craig White has rejected a move to Edgbaston, where he was to become their bowling coach and has decided to stay at Yorkshire, where he is in charge of the Second XI. White cites personal reasons for the decision, but I can understand him not wanting to move from the beauty of Scarborough to Birmingham. The latter is not one of my favourite cities and would be a long way from a bracing walk along the sands on the east coast.

As for me, I’m off for a tropical few days in the splendours of the Lake District tomorrow for a three-day conference, followed by a couple of days seeing the folks. So early warning that there’ll be no blog on Saturday or Sunday, but should anything happen up to the weekend I’ll be taking advantage of the promised wi-fi at the hotel.

See you soon!