Donald Carr 1926-2016

The passing of legends is always sad to record and that of Donald Carr marks the end of an extraordinary cricketing life.

Carr progressed from being one of the finest schoolboy cricketers of his generation to county cricketer, before briefly becoming England captain on  his one tour to India in 1951-52. A long and successful career as a cricket administrator followed, before a retirement that was enjoyed with his close family.

His life and career were admirably documented by John Shawcroft in his biography of the player, but suffice to say that for Derbyshire fans of the 1950s, Donald Carr was always a pleasure to watch. As with most players brought up on reliable, public school wickets, he was happy to play his shots and was especially adept in front of the wicket and on the hook.

He was one of a number of former Repton boys to play for the county and took over the captaincy from Guy Willatt, when the latter retired prematurely. He led the side with good grace, charm and no little skill between 1955 and 1962, though contemporaries will cite an over-dependence on Les Jackson and Cliff Gladwin as a weakness, especially when he had Edwin Smith, Harold Rhodes and Derek Morgan in the attack.

He was a good enough bowler of slow left arm to take over 300 first class wickets himself and was one of the finest close fielders the county ever had. Carr held five hundred catches in his career at a rate of more than one a game, testimony to safe hands, good coordination and an attack that offered regular opportunities.

Above all he was an attacking batsman to be enjoyed and with Arnold Hamer carried the batting for a number of seasons. Nearly 20,000 runs at just under 29 are not figures to impress too many statisticians but, as with all players of the era, it should be remembered that uncovered wickets were no friend of the batsman playing for an average. It was generally reckoned that had Derbyshire had one more top class batsman - a May, Cowdrey or Graveney - they would probably have one at least one Championship in the 1950s. Carr scored over two thousand runs in 1959 and was one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year, but his availability decreased thereafter.

He was both captain and secretary until 1962, when he became a highly respected administrator. He became assistant secretary of the MCC (1962-74), and secretary of the Cricket Council and TCCB (1973-86). He was also a useful footballer, winning his Blue at Oxford and making two Amateur Cup final appearances with Pegasus. Meanwhile his son John played for Middlesex for a number of years and his brother Douglas was also long time Derbyshire secretary, following him into the post.

I never met him, but his contribution to Derbyshire and English cricket was considerable and will never be forgotten.

Rest in peace Donald Carr.

Book Review: Lives in Cricket: Donald Carr - Derbyshire's Corinthian by John Shawcroft

Donald Carr was an all-rounder in the truest sense. An aggressive batsman who scored quickly and attractively; a slow left arm bowler who could remove the best of batsmen and a brilliant fielder anywhere. He was also Derbyshire's captain between 1955 and 1962, club secretary between 1959 and 1962 and secretary of the MCC from 1962 to 1974, besides managing England on three overseas tours.

He was a useful footballer too, playing in two Amateur Cup finals with Pegasus as a winger or inside forward and this excellent book, by local man John Shawcroft, pays appropriate tribute to a man who served both Derbyshire and English cricket well.

It is the latest in the worthy Lives in Cricket series, published by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Mr Shawcroft is an established writer on Derbyshire cricket and his interest in and knowledge of the subject shines through in an excellent book.

That Donald Carr chose the less than salubrious surrounds of the County Ground, when there was an opportunity to play for Gloucestershire or Kent in the 1950s, is remarkable. For the remainder of that decade he played for and captained a side that had as good an attack as any in the country, only being short of a batsman of genuine class and high average to enable it to do better than challenge for the County Championship.

That side felt that a score of 250 would enable them to win more games than it lost, though as one stalwart of that era told me, sometimes they struggled to do better when conditions warranted otherwise. Carr led the side with flair and panache for a number of years, even if his declarations erred on the side of the cavalier on occasions. He was well aware that in Les Jackson and Cliff Gladwin he had as good an opening attack as there was in the country, with Derek Morgan and Edwin Smith providing admirable support.

Carr played only twice for England, on the 1951-52 tour of India, when he captained the side, in the Madras Test, to their first defeat in that country. His aggressive approach at the crease perhaps cost him a few points on a batting average that might otherwise have warranted greater recognition, but those who saw him recall a batsman who generally entertained. In 1959 he scored 2,292 runs, a county season aggregate that is likely to remain as a record for all time. Meanwhile his fine hands in the legendary Derbyshire leg trap, with Alan Revill and Derek Morgan,  are still discussed in hushed tones.

His career as administrator included the poorly handled D'Oliveira affair in 1968, although it would be unfair to lay this at the door of Carr, very much a junior man at the table during discussions and decision-making that were, at best, messy. He did much good work during his tenure and worked long hours, also taking pride in the first-class career of his son, John, for Middlesex. He retains a keen interest in the fluctuating fortunes of his beloved Derbyshire, writing to congratulate the club on their 2012 second division title success.

This is a worthy addition to cricket's literature, well-researched and well-written. It deserves to be read and to be successful.

Lives in Cricket: Donald Carr - Derbyshire's Corinthian is written by John Shawcroft and published by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians, priced £14. It can be purchased from them at sales@acscricket.com or by calling 01529 306272. Their website can be seen at www.acscricket.com

Best of the Cs

There are three realistic candidates for the best Derbyshire player beginning with the letter C. One of them isn’t Rikki Clarke…

The club site rightly pays tribute to Sam Cadman, a worthy cricketer and a coach responsible for the production line of talent through the 1930s, while Daryll Cullinan was a fine batsman in but one season. There are, however, only three real candidates.

In third place, Donald Carr was a very fine player and captain of the county for a good part of the 1950s. Though probably just short of the top drawer as a batsman, Carr’s strokeplay was redolent of the true surfaces of the public school rather than the green ones on which he played much of his cricket. He was also a useful spin bowler, but as a captain he got the best out of Gladwin and Jackson. Conversely, it could be said that with two bowlers of such ability, backed up with the likes of Derek Morgan, Edwin Smith and Harold Rhodes, he had some impressive resources to call upon. Had we had one more batsman of ability alongside Carr and Arnold Hamer we may well have won another Championship during that decade, but it was not to be Carr captained an England XI in India too, but highjinks involving an umpire probably cost him any possibility of a permanent role.

Second place for me would be Dominic Cork. A man who polarised the fans, Cork’s combative personality and skills saw him win a good number of matches but lose a few friends over the years. Like Kim Barnett before him, Cork’s tenure as Derbyshire skipper saw some high profile departures and a degree of acrimony, but few would doubt that he was (and still is) a player of great talent.

No one who saw it will forget his innings at Lords against Lancashire, when an unpromising situation was turned into a winning one by Cork and Karl Krikken’s late onslaught. I don’t think Cork ever got the credit he deserved for the remarkable flick to fine leg (from off stump!) that he played off Wasim Akram in the final over. It was a shot that saw acclaim rain down on Viv Richards when he played it, and for me was a nigh-iconic moment that laid down the gauntlet to our opponents. Whether you liked or disliked Cork’s public persona, few would dispute that most sides would be strengthened by his inclusion.

I also think he will become an outstanding commentator on the game when he finally retires, being unafraid to say what others might be thinking. Spiky and articulate, Cork at his best has been very good indeed.

Yet not quite good enough to take my top spot, which goes to Bill Copson. The coal miner from Clay Cross suffered periodic bouts of ill health and injury that truncated several seasons, but when he was fit, as he was throughout the Championship season of 1936, he was deadly. There were 140 wickets at 13 that summer for Copson, who maintained the typically Derbyshire ‘grudging’ line and length that he married to rare hostility. His run was not excessive, but his long arms and whippy action got considerable leverage.

The tactic for most of the decade was simple. If Bill (and brothers George and Alf Pope) could make inroads to the early opposition batting, Tommy Mitchell and Les Townsend would make short work of the lower order and tail. Over a thousand wickets at just under 19 suggests that Copson did that a few times over the years.

Indeed, for his first few overs he was perhaps as quick as any domestically-reared Derbyshire bowler until Alan Ward burst onto the scene. Harold Rhodes was lively in his earlier days and Les Jackson hostile and whippy, quicker than he looked, but Copson at full fitness gained both excessive bounce and extravagant movement that destroyed batting line-ups.

Two examples of his prowess will suffice. Against Surrey at the County Ground in May 1936, a Derbyshire batting collapse (it has been known…) left the visitors chasing just 94 to win. At 49-2 they were coasting it at tea, but afterwards Copson ripped through the batting, taking 7-19 in 14 overs, five of his victims bowled and one lbw. A Derbyshire win by 16 runs looked barely possible, yet arguably served as the catalyst to the season. The following year he took 8-11 against Warwickshire, including seven wickets in 23 balls.

I once saw Derbyshire cricket in the period beautifully encapsulated within a paragraph. I cannot recall the author, but the essence was that there was a good crowd, a close field, a green wicket and a sense of expectation as Copson prepared to open the bowling. A shout often came from an excited member of the crowd, the first word pronounced in the Derbyshire way, to rhyme with howl and suggest that Copson was about to eviscerate the opposition.

“Bow-el the boogers aht Bill.” He often did.

Copson never played cricket until he was 17, bowling a batsman with his first ball, a feat he was to repeat in the first-class game when he dismissed the England batsman Andrew Sandham of Surrey. On both occasions the prodigious movement was deemed a fluke, but that ceases to be the case when you’ve done it a few hundred times.

The excellent Basil Easterbrook, a fine cricket writer, described him thus:

His run up to the wicket was an easy affair and he seemed to hesitate fractionally before releasing the ball. He looked deceptively slow through the air, but he could make the ball swing and swerve either way very late and he also seemed to make the ball gather pace off the pitch. He either forced the batsman to make a hurried stroke or caught him totally unprepared. In his heyday he could bring the ball back so unexpectedly and so viciously that at times he was almost unplayable. Few men of pace in my lifetime have ever been able to extract so much out of an easy-paced, even lifeless, pitch.

His back problems, a result of his work down the pit, probably resulted in an unusual gait, often described as a ‘trudge.’

“Bill, tha bloody walks like Groucho Marx,” said Denis Smith, watching him walk from third man to bowl one day.

“Aye, and sometimes tha bloody bats like him,” replied the bowler, a laconic man, his face deadpan under a shock of red hair.

Nine wickets at Lords and 3-33 at Old Trafford against the 1939 West Indians suggested that Copson could have become a good international player, but his only other Test appearance came against South Africa in 1947, when he was 39 and past his prime. Nonetheless, three wickets saw him far from disgraced. That he headed the bowling averages on the 1936-7 tour to Australia and still didn’t play a Test speaks volumes for the selectors of the time.

With better luck with health and fitness and without the loss of six seasons to the war, Bill Copson could have put the Derbyshire record for most wickets taken out of reach. A few have since surpassed his aggregate, but not many better bowlers have worn the county colours.

Derbyshire Legends 11 - Donald Carr (1926- )

Donald Carr was a cricketer who's ability exceeded his average by some distance. Good judges would say he was one of the best captains that the county ever had, leading the side with good grace, charm and no little skill between 1955 and 1962.
For several years, to be fair, he had Les Jackson and Cliff Gladwin to spearhead the attack and as my Dad once put it, anyone could skipper a side with those two bowling.

Although the obvious tactic was to bowl one until lunch and the other for the first hour so he was ready to come on after the interval, Carr did much more than that. He had a good attack at his disposal, with Derek Morgan's seamers, Edwin Smith's underrated off spin and, latterly, Harold Rhodes genuine pace. He was a good enough bowler of slow left arm to take over 300 first class wickets himself and was one of the finest close fielders the county have ever had. Above all he was an attacking batsman of grace and with Arnold Hamer carried the batting for a number of years. Nearly 20,000 runs at just under 29 are not figures to impress too many statisticians but, as with all players of the era, it should be remembered that uncovered wickets were no friend of the batsman playing for an average. It was generally reckoned that had Derbyshire had one top class batsman - a May, Cowdrey or Graveney - they would probably have one at least one Championship in the 1950's.

Carr was a good enough player to gain selection for the 1951-2 tour of India, where he ended up captaining England to their first defeat on Indian soil in the Madras test. His Test career was effectively ended by a "scandal" involving the soaking of an Indian umpire by players unhappy at the poor decisions they were getting, but Carr played for Derbyshire until 1962, when he became a highly respected administrator. Indeed he both captained the county and was secretary from 1959-62. He then became assistant secretary of the MCC (1962-74), and secretary of the Cricket Council and TCCB (1973-86). He was also a useful footballer, winning his Blue at Oxford and making two Amateur Cup final appearances with Pegasus. Meanwhile his son John played for Middlesex for a number of years and his brother Douglas was also long time Derbyshire secretary, following Donald into the post. I remember Douglas as sounding very pompous on the ancient tannoy system at Derby and Chesterfield as he read out the teams and public notices. On one occasion his naivety got the better of him, as Mike Hendrick arranged for a notice to be passed to him.

"Could Hugh Jarse and Ivor Biggun report to the secretary's office immediately" rang out to considerable mirth on and off the field...

My Dad has watched Derbyshire since 1946 and still maintains that Donald Carr was one of the three most attractive home grown batsmen he has seen. Fans brought up on a diet of attritional batting enjoyed the partnerships between Carr and Hamer and their fielding, especially in the leg trap to Cliff Gladwin was spectacular. Carr held FIVE HUNDRED catches in his career at a rate of more than one a game, although with the bowlers of the era there were always chances coming along.

Most recently Derbyshire and the University of Derby have joined forces to launch a new scholarship scheme in his name for outstanding young cricketers,which enables them to attain the best cricketing and academic education possible.

Fast-bowler Ed Jones, 18, is the first player to benefit from the new partnership between the club and university which enables the best young players to take up free undergraduate degree courses. Should future county players emerge through this scheme, Carr's legacy to the county will be complete.