In My Mind's Eye Number 2: William Chatterton (1861-1913)

On the basis of contemporary accounts, William Chatterton must have been one of the most graceful batsmen to represent Derbyshire, as well as being one of the most loyal.

Indeed, when the history of Derbyshire cricket is considered, there is strong argument that he, with George Davidson, were the main reasons that the club regained and retained first-class status in 1894, having been demoted in 1888 for poor results.

A batting average of 25, to modern eyes is indicative of a player of only modest talent. Yet Chatterton, or 'Chatty' as he was known, made many of his on poor, uncovered and under-prepared wickets. It was 'Fiddler' Walker, then groundsman at Trent Bridge, who started to top dress wickets with marl. The high clay content of this, rolled out, improved wickets considerably, The downside was that wickets at the ground became fast and true, high scores of up to 500 runs in a day not uncommon. Tellingly, when the quality of wicket improved, Chatterton's average went northwards too, although his sound defence, noted in reports of the time, enabled him to score more runs on awkward tracks than many of his contemporaries.

Born at Birch Vale in the High Peak, he made his first appearance for the County Colts in 1885 but took two or three seasons before returning any figures of note. Indeed, his slow round-arm bowling looked the best of his game at that time and he continued to bowl throughout his career, taking 208 wickets at an average of 21 in first-class cricket. He was also a reliable slip fielder in an era when fielding ability was not necessarily commonplace.

His batting gradually developed, however, as he became known as one of the game's stylists. In 1889 he averaged nearly 29 with the bat and 16 with the ball, this after a couple of seasons when ill-health prevented him from showing his best form. With Derbyshire demoted at this time, fixtures were limited, though a fine season in 1891 saw him invited to go on tour with an England eleven to South Africa. He played in one Test match, scoring 48 in his only innings, yet made over 950 runs on the tour, easily heading the averages. He would have passed the thousand-run mark, but for illness again ruling him out of several matches.

Commentators waxed lyrical at his sound defence and technique, while his stroke play, when he chose to unfurl it, was 'a delight'. Reports confirm several offers to play for a first-class county around this time, but he declined them all. There was also an offer to spend three winters in Kimberley, South Africa, for  a sum of one thousand pounds and 'perquisites', but Chatterton again declined the offer, as a condition was that he become a permanent resident there.

He returned to England and a celebration dinner at The Old Bell Hotel in Derby, where his admirers entertained him and presented him with a cheque for £160, referring to him as 'the great standby' of the county eleven. He in turn said that he had no interest in playing for anyone but Derbyshire, and saw only good times ahead for the county.

The club's return to first-class status saw his form blossom still further and an average of over 40 in 1896 was his best. 'No batsman has ever had a more graceful style' wrote one onlooker 'and when he has played himself in he is one of the most attractive batsmen that ever took guard. He is a master of many strokes and to be trusted anywhere in the field'. He made several appearances for the Players against the Gentlemen and was regarded as unfortunate that no further invitation came to play for his country.

He again passed a thousand runs in 1901, but his form deserted him in 1902 and he was released by the county. Ill-health returned to dog him and the man who had been talented at both rugby and football (he played a few games for Derby County) was a shadow of his former self.

He returned to his father's home at Flowery Field, near Hyde and died of tuberculosis on March 19, 1913.

Perhaps accepting that offer in South Africa might have helped to prolong his life, but William was Derbyshire through and through. Plenty of other batsmen have exceeded his near eleven thousand runs for the club, but his skill and loyalty at a time when they were both badly needed helped to establish the county in first-class cricket.

We were very lucky to have him.

(Image sourced courtesy of David Griffin at the Derbyshire CCC Archive)

NB for some reason this piece never published a couple of winters ago, so I thought it time for it to see the light of day

In My Mind's Eye Number 9: Garnet Lee (1887-1976)

There have been times, certainly in the years that I have watched Derbyshire, when the recruitment of players in their late thirties has rebounded badly.

Perhaps the same thoughts were entertained when the county signed Garnet Lee from Nottinghamshire at the end of the 1922 season. He was 35 years old and had to spend two years qualifying, before making his debut. So it was 1925 when the soon to be 38-year old made his debut and expectations will have been limited. He had struggled to hold down a regular place at Trent Bridge, despite being on the staff there since 1910. He was primarily a batsman, but the intervention of the Great War and limited his impact, despite opportunity. He had just started to find his best form in 1913 and 1914, but failed to recapture that in the first seasons after the conflict.

Yet even on his debut for Derbyshire, against Northamptonshire, it was noted by the watching press that he appeared to be 'the quality of opening batsman that Derbyshire had lacked for many seasons.' He made only 27 runs, but it was the way in which he made them that was important. He may have been senior in years, but at a time when young batsmen like Worthington, Townsend and Hutchinson were emerging, he gave them the requisite experience that was to aid their development.

His first season was a triumph, seeing him make a thousand runs for the first time, as well as taking wickets with leg spin and googlies that had been seldom used before. He was to go on and score a thousand runs six times in his nine seasons with the county, to go with almost 400 wickets in his first-class cricket career.

He produced a string of outstanding performances. In 1926 he scored 191 against Kent, as well as taking five wickets in an innings on four occasions. In 1927 he produced an outstanding individual display against Northamptonshire, when an unbeaten century was followed by bowling figures of 7-78 and 5-65.  A forcing batsman, he hit eight sixes in one century against Northamptonshire and supporters enjoyed watching a player who took the attack to the opposition, encouraging others to do so by his example. Reports reflect on the 'glory' of his driving and the 'sheer pleasure of watching bat put to ball in such a manner'. After years of struggle, it contributed to an exciting side, with Worthington and Townsend each contributing their own measured aggression to an increasingly potent mix.

His final season was in 1933, when the averages dropped a little and at 45 he was no longer the force that he had been. Even so, there was a century against Leicestershire and another against Northamptonshire, the thousand-run mark passed again, despite batting down the order. There were younger players in the wings, however, with Albert Alderman and Denis Smith ready to begin a successful partnership together, Harry Storer another alternative. The team was on the cusp of greatness and Lee had played an important role in its development.

He went onto the first-class umpires list in 1935 and remained on it, around the war, until 1949, when he resigned because of his wife's health. There were coaching engagements too, including a wartime role at Repton School, where he coached the young Donald Carr.

He was a regular visitor to both Trent Bridge and Derby in retirement, always happy to chat about the game and those that he played with and against.

Without doubt a player I would have loved to have known as well as seen, he died at his home at Hawtonville, Newark-on-Trent on 29 February, 1976.

(Image sourced courtesy of David Griffin from the Derbyshire CCC Archive)

In My Mind's Eye number 8: Bill Bestwick (1875-1938)

In the course of my interviews with the late Walter Goodyear for my second book, the legendary former groundsman told me that he had got to know Bill Bestwick in his later years, when the former county stalwart had a flat overlooking the County Ground at Derby. The thought that with one man I was linked with nineteenth century cricket has stayed with me, just as the tales that Walter told me always will.

I have always felt that if there was ever to be a film made on the life of one Derbyshire-born player, Bestwick would be the likely subject. Had it been done a few years back, I always saw Alan Bates, a Derby man himself and wonderful actor, as perfect for the role as the 'bad boy of Derbyshire cricket'. Because for all of his talents on a cricket field, Bill was an alcoholic and created plenty of problems off of it.

I am so pleased to hear that Mick Pope's biography of the player should see the light of day next year, because it is very much a tale worth telling in all of its entirety, or in every gory detail, if you will.

He was a wonderful bowler and, as described by the former county secretary Will Taylor, 'a great-hearted and very pleasant individual, a wonderful trier - but he had his faults, as a good many of us have and he gave us, through his thirst, some very difficult moments'. Years later the Derbyshire all rounder Les Townsend would recall 'I was always scared of him, but not his bowling. He never bounced them around your ears but he was a fine bowler'.

Mick's book will doubtless tell the many tales of his life in the detail that is warranted, but here I want to recognise his worthy place in the discussions on any great Derbyshire quick bowler.

He was born in 1875 at Tag Hill, Heanor and was working at the pit by the time he was eleven. Later in life he would say that he never felt tired. 'You see, I had plenty of hard work as a youngster and after that, bowling all day in a cricket match feels like nothing.'

He made his county debut in 1898, though continued to work down the pit in the winter as an insurance policy. He developed slowly, like so many others, and took a short run for someone of his pace. It got shorter still in later years, yet he still surprised batsmen with his pace, which was generated by his massive shoulders and physical strength. The photograph that accompanies this article is one of my favourites and he must have been an imposing sight as he ran in for over after over.

In 1900 there were 5 five-wicket innings, 2 ten-wicket matches. He increased this to six in 1902, then ten and eleven in 1905 and 1906, in each of which seasons he passed a hundred wickets. Good judges regarded him as a better bowler than Arnold Warren, who was selected for England, but there were question marks over his fielding, which was never good and his batting, which was even worse. Indeed, in his last 280 first-class innings he failed to reach twenty, his career-highest 39 made in 1900.

Yet as a bowler, he was special. His captains could effectively leave him on to bowl at one end, almost without any sign of tiring. He would bowl in excess of 800 overs a season and was a potent weapon.

Then it all went wrong. His wife died in 1906, leaving him with a son, Robert and the drinking got worse. In 1907 he was charged with manslaughter after a Heanor man, William Brown, attacked him with a carving knife, following a pub argument at the Jolly Colliers Inn there. Brown was later found dead  by 'severance of the main blood vessel of the neck'. Bestwick only learned of it when being treated for cuts and slashes to the face at his brother's house nearby. The account in the Derbyshire Advertiser for February 1 1907 makes for harrowing reading, but it seems clear that the verdict of 'justifiable homicide' was correct, Bestwick acting in self-defence after being attacked and slashed to the face and hands by a man who mistakenly felt he was having an affair with his wife.

In 1909, tired of his excesses, despite 178 wickets in the two preceding seasons, Derbyshire dispensed with his services. A fresh start was called for and after a brief spell as professional at Nelson in the Lancashire League, terminated early because of a breach of discipline, Billy went to South Wales, where he remarried and worked in the colliery, playing for Glamorgan in the Minor Counties in 1914.

That should have been the end of the story, but in 1919 he was invited to return to Derbyshire, with cricketers of ability in short supply after the Great War. He took 90 wickets, but then returned to play for Glamorgan in 1920, before agreeing to another Derbyshire return in 1921.

He was 46 when the 1921 season began. By the end of it, through sheer physical strength and considerable skill he had taken 147 wickets and bowled over 900 overs. Seventeen times he took five wickets in an innings, still and always likely to be a county record. Against Glamorgan at Cardiff he took all ten wickets for only forty runs, he and Tommy Mitchell remaining the only men to do so in the club's rich history.

Despite all of this he was an unreformed character. Arthur Morton was deputed to look after him on the dangerous away trips, but Billy managed to evade him more than once. The game before that was at Bristol and he was rendered incapable by a couple of late night sessions there. He was even considered a doubtful starter at Cardiff, but he declared himself fit and George Buckston, his captain, asked him to open the bowling.

He took a wicket with his fifth ball and clean bowled seven of his victims, taking all ten wickets before lunch in just nineteen overs. While perhaps not understanding the mentality, one can only admire the constitution that allowed that.

He never changed. The following year he was left out of the team at Worcester after another night out, but recovered sufficiently to pay his own way into the ground and barrack his own side. In that year he came close to a hundred wickets again, as he did in 1923. Only in his last two seasons did the haul decline, but he was fifty in 1925, had a season best of 7-20 and still took his 35 wickets at just fifteen runs each.

He enjoyed the company of his son, Robert, in the side of 1922, though his spell in the county game was short and only two games. Thereafter Bill became a first-class umpire, standing in 238 matches including three Tests.

He died on May 2, 1938 at Nottingham General Hospital. Cancer finally claimed the man with the iron constitution and the tributes from around the country were testimony to his talent. Only Les Jackson and Cliff Gladwin have exceeded his 1452 wickets for the county. Only Tommy Mitchell and Les Jackson have exceeded his 104 five-wicket hauls. No one is likely to better that 10-40 analysis.

He really was that good, yet modestly recalled late in life 'I just concentrated on making the batsman play and aimed to hit the stumps every time'.

(Image sourced courtesy of David Griffin from the Derbyshire CCC Archive)

In My Mind's Eye Number 7: Arthur Morton (1883-1935)

Arthur Morton, from Mellor in the High Peak SOUNDED like a Derbyshire player.

It was his unfortunate lot to be born and become one at a time when we had a side that was as weak as at any point in history, to lose some of his best seasons to the Great War and to die in the December of the year before we became county champions.

All things considered, fate was not favourable to Arthur, but such blunt assertions mask the fact that he was a cricketer of considerable fortitude and ability. As a batsman he was dogged and diligent - you don't do aggression when the next collapse is only a wicket away. He was a man for a crisis, in much the same way that Fred Swarbrook would be years later, the averages similar, though Arthur was a right-hander. He was good enough to score six centuries, as well as 45 half centuries, the scorecards and reports of the period confirming that there was no real surprise in the partial or full resurrection of an innings when he was at the crease. Most of his runs came in front of the wicket, making him a firm fan favourite. He eschewed risk, but a bad ball was punished. He was a firm fan favourite, 'good old Arthur' and he was one of the few certain selections at a dark time in our history.

The Derbyshire batting was brittle, the onus on the bowlers, to give any chance of a win, to take wickets and concede as few runs as possible. That may sound a case of stating the obvious, but in the era after the war, until his retirement in 1926, there were rarely runs to play with. In his first-class career Arthur took 981 wickets and conceded around 2.5 runs per over. There were 63 five-wicket hauls and eleven ten-wicket matches, as he became an opponent to be respected, regardless of the quality of the rest. His partnership with Bill Bestwick, fast medium seam at one end and slow medium off spin at the other, was a precursor to the 'brimstone and treacle' of Bill Copson and Tommy Mitchell that enabled the success of the side a decade or so later. Contemporary reports say that he had 'several variations' with his off spin and he rarely failed to capitalise on favourable conditions.

Indeed, there were occasions when the two WERE the Derbyshire attack, such as at Worcester in 1921. The home side were dismissed for 214 in 95 overs shortly after tea, with Bill bowling 43 and Arthur 42 overs. It was far from a unique instance of Morton going above and beyond the call of duty. In 1914, against Yorkshire at Chesterfield he scored 50 in an all out home total of 68, in scoring 73.53% of the total setting a county record that is still to be beaten.

He made his first appearance in 1903 and there was a slow and steady improvement until he burst forth in 1910. Bestwick had been sacked for misconduct the previous year, leaving the attack even weaker, but Morton took 116 wickets that summer, a figure only previously beaten once in the county history. He chipped in with useful runs too and in the summer before war broke out, in 1914, passed a thousand runs in the season for the first time. There were just too many occasions when we needed another ten like him.

Only in two seasons, one of them 1919 when like everyone else he hadn't played for four years, did his bowling average exceed 23. He took 89 wickets in the awful summer of 1920, when Derbyshire failed to win a match and again took a hundred wickets in 1922. The output was reduced by a motorbike accident in which he suffered broken ribs in 1921, riding as a passenger on the motorbike of Yorkshire's Abe Waddington on the first evening of the fixture between the two sides at Hull. He was ruled out of the rest of the match, as well as several to follow and with Gilbert Curgenven also injured, the second innings amounted to only 23 runs. Bestwick, now returned, gave half of a recent collection to Morton to partially compensate him for lost earnings.

The two were good friends, Morton given the onerous task of keeping Bestwick out of trouble on away trips, a task he appears to have fulfilled with the diligent professionalism of his cricket, if not always with the same success. He was also a talented golfer and billiard player, becoming a respected first-class umpire when his playing days were over.

His bad luck continued in 1924, when his benefit match at Chesterfield was ruined by the weather and he earned 'only a couple of hundred pounds.' It would have been accepted with the shrug of the shoulders that supporters had come to know well.

He died at Mellor after a long illness on December 18, 1935. It was one week after being appointed to the list of umpires for what would become Derbyshire's championship season.

He would have enjoyed that. With 10,813 runs and 966 wickets in the county colours he had established himself as one of its finest all-rounders, as well as one of its most popular cricketers.

(Image sourced courtesy of David Griffin from the Derbyshire CCC Archive)

In My Mind's Eye number 6: William Storer (1868-1912)

I was first drawn to the name of William Storer because he was born at Ripley, like me. As a youngster I recall my Dad taking me to see his grave, though at that stage I knew little of his reputation or talent. Nor of his nature, because William, or Bill as he was more commonly known, was another member of a late nineteenth century team that suffered fools somewhat unwillingly.

In a dressing room full of strong characters, only the strong survived. Perhaps it accounted for the later decline of the county's fortunes up to the Great War, because many a talented young local player broke into the county side but failed to realise their promise. Bill Storer was one who got into the side as a Daryn Smit-style all-rounder. He was a fine batsman, good enough to become the first professional to score a hundred in each innings of a first-class match. He was a good enough wicket-keeper to play for England, while on occasion he could bowl leg breaks that turned a considerable distance. He took five wickets in an innings on four occasions, and over 200 first-class wickets confirms him as huge asset to a team, whatever role he played in it.

He was born at Butterley Hill, Ripley on January 25, 1867 and played for Butterley Cricket Club with considerable early success. He was only nineteen when he made his Derbyshire debut, though the step to the senior game proved problematic for a couple of seasons. Once he was tried behind the stumps, in 1890, he never looked back and became a key member of the side.His style behind the timbers was unusual, because he stood up to the wicket, regardless of the bowler's pace, his style perhaps similar to that of Karl Krikken in not crouching as the bowler ran in to bowl. He even stood up to Charles Kortright, reckoned the fastest of the day, and earned lavish praise in 1893 at Lord's, playing for the MCC against the Australians, when he held four catches, stumped another and didn't allow a single bye, even with the Essex man bowling.

His first great summer was 1896, when he scored over 1200 runs at an average in excess of fifty, including that two-century match against the powerful Yorkshire side of the period. When George Davidson scored his 274 against Lancashire, his own century aided in a partnership of 308 for the third wicket. He passed a thousand runs for the season in seven successive summers, making him perhaps the best wicket-keeper batsman to play for the county. He frequently headed the county batting averages and was often near the top of the national figures too, as well as maintaining a high standard behind the stumps.

He toured Australia in 1897-98 and in the words of commentators, only MacLaren and Ranji batted better than him. He did himself no favours, however, by running out the Australian batsman Charlie McLeod, who was deaf, and walked off after being yorked by Tom Richardson and failing to hear the no ball call. Storer shouted for the ball, which had gone down to third man, to be thrown in and removed a stump, the batsman declining MacLaren's offer of reinstatement. In the final Test he told the umpire 'You're a cheat and you know it', which resulted in censure by the MCC. They needed no further reason not to pick him.

At county level he could be hot-headed too. In a game against Essex at Leyton in 1895, he refused to play when his brother, Harry was omitted from the team. When play began he had still not left the team hotel, but eventually arrived and took his place. His protest continued, pulling his hands away to allow byes, and kicking balls for overthrows. Eventually the captain, Sydney Evershed asked Levi Wright what he should do, being told to send him off. Evershed, who appears to have been a considerate man, replied 'But what of his future'? and likely had a quiet word. Storer cooled down and subsequently kept wicket brilliantly, holding five catches.

Ill-health caused him to retire prematurely, in 1900, at the early age of 33. Having lost George Davidson the previous year, the detrimental impact on the county can be imagined. The club awarded him the Yorkshire fixture at Chesterfield in 1902 as a benefit, but life was thereafter a struggle for William, his wife and their five children.

He suffered from dropsy, or oedema as it is now known, usually a sign of congestive heart failure, liver or kidney problems. Poor diet can also be a contributory factor and his declining health eventually saw surgery to relieve the build up of fluid in the legs and ankles as the disease took hold. Fluid build up in the abdominal cavity often sees the patient 'tapped' to remove the pressure on internal organs, but Bill Storer must have been in considerable pain in his last years.

He died in Derby on February 28, 1912, not too long after his 45th birthday. He was buried at Ripley Cemetery on March 2, in a grave next to his brother Harry, who had pre-deceased him by four years and had only reached the age of 37. His county cricket career was limited to five matches, but he played football as goalkeeper for both Arsenal and Liverpool.

Harry's son of the same name became a gritty and long-time opener for Derbyshire, as well as a footballer and football manager worthy of a book in his own right. He was one of  small handful of men to represent both Derbyshire at cricket and Derby County at football, going on to manage the Rams for a long time too.

Both clubs sent wreaths to the funeral, which was attended by William Chatterton, Walter Sugg, Joe Humphries and the club secretary, Will Taylor, among many others. It was another sad and premature end to a cricket life and career that made a large contribution to the county side.

It would be some time before someone of comparable talent was to appear in the county colours.

(Image sourced courtesy of David Griffin from the Derbyshire CCC Archive)

In My Mind's Eye Number 5: Arnold Warren (1875-1951)

Will Taylor was the secretary of Derbyshire CCC for 51 years, between 1908 and 1959. In his later days - and he lived until 1976 - he was happy to tell anyone who listened that the fastest bowler he had seen in the county colours was Arnold Warren. 

Considering the many fine names who appeared for Derbyshire in the intervening period, that is an impressive, informed opinion. It was not held by Taylor alone, however, as plenty of good judges in the era before the Great War declared Warren the fastest bowler in the country.

Descriptions of his run up and action remind me of Alan Ward, another who was upright, fluent and tall, not to mention lightning fast. Batting gloves and protective wear had moved on a little by that time, so one can only imagine the consternation when Warren, like Ward, first burst onto the scene, rattling barely-protected knuckles and ribs with balls that lifted, when ordinary bowlers struggled to get any bounce.

Warren came from Codnor, where his father and sons had a successful building firm. Some of those houses can still be seen today, but Arnold saw a career in sport as his first choice, after some fine performances in local cricket. He played his early cricket on the ground of the Butterley Company and made his first appearance for Derbyshire in 1897. It wasn't until 1902, after a decent apprenticeship, that he became established in the side, matching increased accuracy to the pace that was always there. 

His breakthrough year was 1904, when he became the first Derbyshire bowler to take a hundred wickets in a Championship season, taking 124 in 22 matches. Had there been Test matches that summer he may well have earned recognition. The Athletic News in August 1904 said that 'no bowler currently playing has anything like the devil, or break on a plumb wicket [combining] unplayable length with very sharp break back'. It also said that he 'would take many more wickets but for the poor fielding of his county' and suggested that England honours may be near.

That was to come in 1905, when the Australians were the visitors. He had earlier impressed the England captain, Yorkshire's F.S. Jackson, with match figures of 12-126 against his county and Warren was brought in for the third Test at Headingley.

In 19.2 overs he took 5-57, including the prize wicket of Victor Trumper, as well as Monty Noble, Joe Darling (the Australian captain) and Warwick Armstrong. Good wickets all and when he followed this with the wicket of Trumper again in the second innings he would have been excused for thinking he had done well.

He was never selected for his country again.

His second innings bowling was noticeably less menacing, according to reports of the time and the story ran that Warren, partial to alcohol like his team mate, Bill Bestwick, had "over-celebrated" with friends after his first innings heroics. He wasn't the only fast bowler on the circuit to enjoy the offerings of the beer tents and hostelries, but it offered too easy an excuse to exclude him in the future.

He could bat too and with his captain, John Chapman, he shared in a world record partnership for the ninth wicket of 283, against Warwickshire at Blackwell in 1910. They saved a game that looked hopelessly lost, though Warren too often got carried away with his hitting to repeat the century that he scored that day. Contemporary reports refer to him 'batting strongly', all too often appended 'but fleetingly'...

A strange accident in which he got ammonia fumes in his eyes while uncorking the bottle saw him admitted to Derby Infirmary in 1911, where only prompt medical attention as an in-patient prevented any detrimental effect on his sight. He played on for Derbyshire until 1913 (aside from a fleeting appearance in 1920) and a few lunchtime whiskies in the refreshment tent at Leicester in 1912 revived his spirits sufficiently for a devastating spell of 7-52 in 24 overs that won the game. That appetite for alcohol was more often having a detrimental effect, however and brushes with the law and a period of destitution saw him released at the age of 38.

He lied about his age and served in the Great War, where  he joined the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1915. He was badly wounded in 1917, suffering fractures to his neck, spine and right shoulder blade. Despite several months in hospital, he suffered constant pain thereafter, that one appearance in 1920 a minor miracle  in the circumstances. 

He umpired in first-class cricket through the 1920s and early 1930s and worked as a bricklayer at Ormonde Colliery until he retired in 1945. His personal life saw tragedy, the birth of a son, Martin, in 1906 tempered by the death of his wife the same year, after which he lived alone. He died in September 1951 and was buried in Crosshill Cemetery in Codnor, the mourners including Will Taylor and Denis Smith.

With Bill Bestwick he made up one of the finest, if least temperate  opening attacks in the county's history. On his day, he must have been quite spectacular to watch.

939 wickets at 24 runs each confirms his place in the local cricketing pantheon.

(Image sourced courtesy of David Griffin from the Derbyshire CCC Archive)

In My Mind's Eye Number 4 - Levi Wright (1862-1953)

L.G (Levi) Wright was one of the first early names of Derbyshire cricket that I became aware of, perhaps because he had the same name as my father. He was also perhaps the last survivor of the game's golden age in Derbyshire, only passing at his home in Normanton in January 1953, after a short illness.

• Obituary notices referred to him as the 'Grand Old Man of Derbyshire Cricket' His better known contemporaries were dead long before him and I would have loved the opportunity to quiz him further on his era and the characters who made it special.

Further? Unlike anyone else in this series, Levi Wright put down his memories in a manuscript that was published by the Derbyshire CCC Supporters Club in 1980, having been written and given to a friend around forty years earlier. It would have benefited from a little editing and one gets the impression in reading it, which I have done many times, that the player just sat down and wrote, perhaps without even revisiting it.

Nonetheless it is a priceless contemporary account of county cricket in the late ninteenth and early twentieth century and packed with anecdotes and pen portraits of its greatest characters, while Wright comes across as a modest man. Not only did he play for Derbyshire between 1883 and 1909, he also played football for Derby County and was good enough to be selected as a full back and centre half for the North v South game, as well as a reserve for the full England side.

The longevity of his career accounts for a batting average of 'only' 26. While he was always a stylish player, easy on the eye as he drove and deft in his placement of the cut and late cut, he didn't make his first century until he was 35 years old and reached a thousand runs for the first time at the age of 37. Such late flowering would be impossible today, yet between 1897 and 1906 he reached his thousand runs on six occasions. In 1905, at the age of 43, he was elected one of Wisden's Cricketer's of the Year, with 1855 runs at an average of 42.

He was an easy and automatic choice throughout that period, not only for those runs (he scored 20 centuries and 72 fifties) but also for his brilliance in the field, where he earned the reputation as one of the finest cover points in the game. His speed over the ground was a factor, but he held his share of catches that confirmed a safe pair of hands. This set him apart from a team that was otherwise not known for the quality of its fielding. His book refers to one player who put down six catches in one day...

Having flowered late, it is fair to say that he went on for a few years too long. His average dropped from 20 to 19 to 11 in his final seasons, which would have been sad to witness for supporters who had long enjoyed the style of his batting. Curiously, his last four centuries all came against the same county, Warwickshire, three at Edgbaston before his final 'ton' came at Derby, in 1908. It was a poor era for Derbyshire cricket, however and there were no real alternatives to an ageing professional.

When his playing days ended he continued as a clerk for the Midland Railway, a job he had held through the winter months, before becoming a regular at the County Ground in retirement. He lived for over forty years at 42, Derby Lane in Normanton, where he was remembered as a jovial man, always happy to talk about sport. He was a keen bowler too, a regular at the Arboretum Bowling Club.

Sadly, an interview with him in 1938, for the BBC Radio sports feature Cricket Interval was inadvertently wiped.

What a pleasure that would have been to hear.

(Image sourced courtesy of David Griffin from the Derbyshire CCC Archive)

In My Mind's Eye Number 2: William Mycroft 1841-1894

Despite not making his first-class debut until the age of 32, William Mycroft was the first of the outstanding line of Derbyshire seam bowlers. Indeed, he was probably, according to contemporary accounts, one of the fastest, as many a batsman was defeated in the defensive stroke by his fast left-arm deliveries.

Perhaps he was a nineteenth century Mark Footitt, and the extraordinary thing is how many wickets he took when perhaps the years of his real pace were behind him. He was a classic late developer, however and reports suggest that he 'didn't really amount to much' until his late-20s. The great Kumar Shri Ranjitsinjhi described him as having 'a high action and getting a lot of spin on the ball, as well as swerve, all at pace'. All this, while looking like an earlier incarnation of Australian fast bowler, Merv Hughes.

He was born at Brimington, near Chesterfield, the son of a miner who became a publican, jobs which William did in turn himself. His county debut came in 1873, when he took six wickets in his first match that summer, then took twenty in the only four matches of 1874. His ability was noted and his reputation quickly grew, so much so that in 1875 he topped the national bowling averages with 75 wickets at just over seven runs each. With eleven five-wicket hauls he became a feared bowler, enhanced by the remarkable match figures of 14-38 for the North against the South.

He wasn't a big man, standing only 5'9'' but he was sturdily built and strong. There was a suggestion that his yorker was thrown, but he was never called and it continued to be a potent weapon in his armoury. He was as dangerous a bowler as any in England in the 1870s, when he took a hundred wickets in a season twice. In 1877 he took 157 wickets in just 22 matches for Derbyshire and the MCC, while the following year he became the first man to take a hundred wickets in a season for Derbyshire alone.

A measure of his importance to the side, which was far from a strong one, came at Southampton in 1876, when he took seventeen wickets in the match for 103 runs, also holding a catch, of the nineteen wickets that fell - yet his side still lost by one wicket. He took 9-25 in the first innings, seven of them bowled, then 8-78 in the second, leaking runs as he tired but almost winning the game single-handedly, after his side had been bowled out by a lob bowler. He even held the catch at slip that deprived him of all ten, confirming him as a team player, regardless of his individual talent.

Injuries started to affect him in the 1880s, and he played his last game for the club in 1885, at the age of 44. He later became an umpire for a short time.

It was a relatively short but meteoric career, in the course of which he took 534 wickets for Derbyshire at less than twelve runs each, with 863 in all matches, for a similar average. Notwithstanding the variable pitches of the day, he must have been a remarkable bowler. If one considers WG Grace as the star batsman of the generation, their battles ended with honours even, indicative of his ability.

That talent was diametrically opposed to his limitations as a right-handed batsman. He was one of a select band of players to end a lengthy career with more wickets than runs, just 791 runs at an average of five in 138 matches - a reputation as an 'erratic' runner between the wickets, didn't help. Yet consider this - 87 five-wicket hauls in those 138 matches, 28 times taking ten or more. They are figures that compare favourably with any in the game's long history.

William Mycroft died of influenza at his home in Freehold Street, Derby, on 19 June, 1894. Rheumatic illnesses had plagued his final years and money was in short supply, though a Derbyshire supporter named John Cartwright, who scored for the county when he was able, organised a subscription which saw one hundred pounds handed over to the old hero. His obituary notice, in the Nottingham Evening Post of all places, made it quite clear - 'if he was not the best fast bowler in England, he could certainly lay claim to no superior'.

Two curiosities about him to finish. The writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, himself a decent cricketer who played at first-class level, was rumoured to have chosen the name of Sherlock Holmes' brother, Mycroft, after watching the Derbyshire bowler  against the MCC in 1885. The story gains some credence with the first Sherlock Holmes story being published two years later, especially when the opposition that day included the Nottinghamshire players, Mordecai Sherwin and Frank Shacklock.

Finally, William's son, Thomas was later the father-in-law of the Derbyshire opening batsman and subsequent coach, Denis Smith. The great bowler was long gone by that time, but I think he would have approved.

Not a bad family lineage, is it?

(Image sourced by David Griffin from the Derbyshire CCC Archive)