More on Barlow

I got an e-mail last night that asked how I could choose Eddie Barlow, who only had three years at Derbyshire, over Kim Barnett, who spent most of his career at the club and broke all of the batting records.


Now, if this was a reality TV show, at this point I’d be saying ‘it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.’ Such comments are the norm for X Factor judges when deciding who needs to leave the show, which always leaves me thinking that they must have had a pretty easy life. Personally, deciding on an operation for a child and an entire raft of personal decisions sees such a choice pale to insignificance…

It was a tough call though, but one I thought I’d explained yesterday. Kim Barnett was a lovely batsman to watch and was himself a good captain. He had set ideas about how we could get results, taking a leaf from the great West Indian side of the period by building an attack of pace. This took advantage of some ‘sporting’ tracks at the County Ground, where the wicket was often undistinguishable from the rest of the square. Yet while the opposition often struggled, Barnett would lead from the front and produce an innings that made a mockery of conditions. He bowled tidy legspin or seam too, though the bowling was of an occasional nature as his career progressed.

Barnett is one of my two all-time favourite Derbyshire cricketers, the difficulty being that the other is Eddie Barlow. See the dilemma?

I went over some of the reasons for choosing Eddie yesterday, but to expand a little, he came into a club that was at rock bottom in 1976 and in three years took us to a Lords final that would have been laughable as a concept when he came. His own performances were steady, rather than spectacular, but his runs and wickets usually came when most needed. When people moaned about his batting in his first season (yes, we had moaners then…) he went out and scored 217 against Surrey at Ilkeston…

His statistics?

1976 - Championship - averaged 30, plus 28 wickets at 24
           One day – averaged 33 plus 34 wickets at 20

1977 – Championship – averaged 29 plus 46 wickets at 19
            One day – averaged 22 and 33 wickets at 17

1978 – Championship – averaged 30 plus 24 wickets at 22
            One day – averaged 22 plus 44 wickets at 12


Every season his batting average, however modest, exceeded his bowling one, the true mark of an all-rounder of talent. Yet he was 36 when he arrived at the county. Dad and I have often talked about what we might have achieved had we been able to pick him up six years earlier. In 1970, playing in the Rest of the World side against England, he looked as good as Sobers, averaging 39 with two centuries and taking 20 wickets at just 19 each. As I mentioned yesterday, he was an eye player and at 36, with fifteen years at the top behind him, was past his peak when we signed him - but boy, he could still play!

Captains like Stuart Surridge at Surrey, Ronnie Burnett and Brian Sellars at Yorkshire, Arthur Richardson at Derbyshire and Mike Brearley for England achieved great feats with their sides despite limited personal success. Barlow was at least their equal as captain, yet his own performances were also inspirational.

Besides transforming young players like Tony Borrington, Alan Hill, Harry Cartwright and Colin Tunnicliffe into good county cricketers, he effectively turned Geoff Miller and Mike Hendrick into England players with a strong work ethic and sensible advice. As the latter once commented, Eddie worked on the basis that if the opposition had someone who could hit the ball into the next county, Derbyshire could fetch it back quicker than anyone…

It was just three years, but so much happened in that time. He brought over three young players from Western Province who all played for our Second XI one summer. We opted for Peter Kirsten ahead of Allan Lamb and Garth Le Roux, but must never have fielded a better second string side. Kirsten went on to become the star of the 1981 side that won at Lords, a powerful line-up that owed so much to Barlow and one in which the young Kim Barnett was introduced to the first-class game. The difference between that side and the one inherited by Barlow in 1975 was extraordinary and only a man with his dynamism, positive outlook and skill could have been the catalyst. If you didn’t see the Barlow era, you were unlucky. I consider myself privileged to have seen much of it and live in hope that the excitement of those years will be replicated in my lifetime.

In the same way that Derby County fans still discuss the relatively short tenure of Brian Clough, or the even shorter (effectively one season) period of Carter and Doherty, Derbyshire fans of a certain age will probably always be nostalgic for the Barlow era.

While it didn’t conclude with the definitive proof of its excellence and a trophy, it marked a time when the club emerged from years of mediocrity to become worth watching again.

King B? It’s just got to be Barlow.

Postscript: after a two-year hunt, my lovely wife has told me that she’s managed to source a copy of Eddie Barlow’s autobiography from South Africa and it will be part of my Christmas present. How can you not love a woman like that?!