Something for the weekend

There is encouraging news from the club this morning with the announcement of the 2011 Academy intake.


It is understandable that the greatest attention is paid to the name of Greg Cork, son of our former England all-rounder. Yet it is equally unfair to place any burden of expectation on the youngster, talented as he obviously is at a tender age. To follow in a father’s footsteps in any sport is a somewhat onerous task and the history of the game is littered with examples. Billy Sutcliffe was always going to struggle to match the achievements of his father Herbert, while of Donald Bradman’s sons one didn’t bother to play and the other changed his surname to Bradson to do so. Richard Hutton, though a worthy cricketer, was never going to match Leonard, while Liam Botham opted for rugby ahead of cricket and the herculean task of matching his legendary father Ian.

Conversely, Maurice Tate was a far better cricketer than his father Fred, while both Chris and Graeme Cowdrey became good cricketers in their own right, despite having to follow their father Colin’s exploits. Ryan Sidebottom is also a better bowler than his father, Arnie, a decent player for Yorkshire over the years.

Cork junior is a left arm bowler, which sets him apart from Dominic straight away, and we should do our best to allow him to develop as any other youngster has a right to do. At 15 he is a bright talent, but realistically has a lot of work to do, not to mention schooling, before he is even considered for the Derbyshire first team squad. In that he is the same as the other boys in the intake.

It is also good to see Harry White, younger brother of Wayne, in the group. The latter has done well since his move to Leicestershire and again, the left-handedness of his younger sibling will help avoid direct comparisons. The encouraging performances of left-arm spinner Tom Knight for the Seconds last year will stand him in good stead, while there are opportunities for the others to develop alongside young players of equal talent and with an excellent coach in Karl Krikken.

All of the above neglects the fact that Derbyshire have a track record of father/son or sibling appearances. The current squad has Paul Borrington working hard to match the record of his father Tony in the 1970s and ‘80s, when he was a key member of the side and did well for several seasons. William Richardson was an all-rounder of talent in the 1950’s and probably a better player than his father Arthur. He was never able to play regularly, however and the fragility of our batting at the time meant that he would never emulate his father who led us to the Championship success in 1936. The Hill-Wood family, in an earlier era, produced no fewer than four brothers who played for the county with varying levels of success.

The most notable father and son, of course, were Albert ‘Dusty’ Rhodes and his son Harold. ‘Dusty’ was a leg-spinner of talent at a time when most counties had one and a good enough batsman to score four first-class centuries. He took five hat-tricks, a feat exceeded by only three players in the history of the game. Like many of his generation he lost a lot of years to the Second World War but managed over 650 first-class wickets before becoming an umpire, standing in ten Test matches.

Harold was an outstanding seam bowler, taking over a thousand first-class wickets at under 20. He learned at the feet of the masters, Les Jackson and Cliff Gladwin, recounting in his autobiography how he benefited from their close control early in his career. Batsmen who had barely had a loose ball in the opening spells ‘had a go’ at the youngster, often hastening their demise in so doing. He went on to lead the attack through the 1960’s, when he should have been an England regular. Sadly, a perceived problem with his action led to his being called for throwing on several occasions. All too late for his international aspirations, this was eventually shown to be a hyper-extension of his elbow joint, which somewhat freakishly went PAST what a normal straight arm would do.

Given how more recently the regulations on what constitutes a legitimate delivery have been rewritten, Rhodes could rightly feel aggrieved that his career should be tarnished in such a way. Nothing should detract from the fact that he was an outstanding bowler, thoroughly deserving to take his place in the pantheon of top Derbyshire seamers.

Curiously Brian Jackson, who had several fine seasons in the 1960s after being plucked from the leagues, was often confused with his namesake Les. On several occasions people referred to his ‘Dad’, while someone once commented on how well he looked, considering he had made his debut in 1947…

If any of the new Academy crop can come close to emulating his efforts, there will be few complaints from the fans.

PS The Jackson anecdote above reminds me of one of the worst errors I have ever seen in a book, on Scottish football greats. It referred to the former Derby County and Scotland winger Dally Duncan, who starred for the side in the 1930s, having taken Chesterfield to the FA Cup semi-final in 1997. Sadly, this neglected the facts that:

A - it was John Duncan who did it.
B - that Dally had died in 1990 and
C - that he would have been 88 years old at the time had he lived…

As the old saying goes, there’s nothing like research - and that was exactly it. Nothing like research…

Have a good weekend.