By all accounts, in his prime he was something special, his driving in particular a thing of beauty. Many a cover point had the bruised hands as testament to his timing, though more often than not, on the frequent good days, the ball fizzed past them to the boundary rope.
It was not always so. When he first played for the county he struggled for a few seasons. County wickets bore little resemblance to those in his native Caribbean, yet his class told, as it always will, in the end.
He first came to notice in the fine Swarkestone side of the late 1940s and early 1950s, one of a number of players from the Caribbean who made them a strong side.
With conditions in his favour, his front of the wicket style, honed on the hard tracks of home, was in contrast to that of many team mates, who offered a less aesthetic approach to scoring runs.
It was a shame that he came to his prime later in the 1950s and through the early 1960s. He would have been the perfect support for Arnold Hamer in a brittle batting line up, those extra runs perhaps making a difference in some fine summers between 1951 and 1955. With Gladwin and Jackson at the peak of their powers, a second championship win might have ensued with another prolific batsman.
As Hamer did in the previous decade, Johnson often carried the Derbyshire batting in the early 60's. He was an excellent fielder too, with a good pair of hands and a throw that accounted for the unwary. He even kept wicket on occasion, highlighting his importance to the side.
I had hoped to speak to him for 'In Their Own Words', but a phone call to his home near Birmingham brought a polite refusal.
'I am really grateful for your interest, but I am afraid my memory isn't what it was', he said. We spoke briefly, then said goodbye.
His passing leaves Edwin Smith, Harold Rhodes and Peter Eyre as the remaining regular members of that fine side of the 1950s, the contributions of the first two acknowledged by the club presidency in the past two years. Hopefully Peter is the next to be offered and accept the role.
Rest in peace, Laurie Johnson. At your best you gave a great deal of pleasure to many people.
Can anyone aspire to more?
Laurie was a true gentleman, one memory that's stays with me is of Laurie taking a fine running catch on the boundary, only for the batsman (Alan Ormrod of Worcestershire if memory serves me right) to be recalled minutes later because Laurie reported to the umpire that his foot may have stepped over the boundary as he sprinted round. A magnificent cover point and useful keeper, he kept ahead of Bob Taylor in a bid to strengthen the batting in 1964.
ReplyDeleteDuring the early '60s Laurie was, along with Donald Carr when he was available, one of the few Derbyshire batsmen worth watching. His cover driving, as you say,was hard yet stylish. Otherwise we much preferred to watch Derbyshire (Jackson and Rhodes, Morgan and Edwin Smith )bowl with Laurie patrolling the covers.
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