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)

Death of Bradbury announced as cricket MAY resume

It was a shame to hear from a blog regular the other day that Les Bradbury had passed away. 

It wasn't at that time confirmed, and it would hardly have been fair for me to mention something without that. Yet the news came through official channels later that one of Derbyshire league cricket's finest-ever bowlers was no more.

He played much of it for Matlock, but also did well for Undercliffe in the Bradford League, where he helped them to win the title in 1971, taking 35 wickets while Ashley Harvey-Walker boomed hundreds of runs at the other end with his bat, the weight of a standard table leg.

He once took all ten in an innings for Matlock, not unique but indicative of a bowler of more than average ability. The call to Derbyshire colours came in 1971, when he was 33 years old. He let no one down, least of all himself and took a wicket and a catch in the match.

Yet it was indicative of the club at that time. Too many good players had gone, bowlers were in short supply and the likely rationale was that both Les Jackson and his namesake Brian had been late developers plucked from the leagues - why shouldn't it work again?

Fifteen overs, one for 53 suggested that he could bowl and surely if it was worth doing once, the bowler was worth another chance? It didn't come though and realistically he needed to be five years younger to be worth a contract. He went back to the leagues and back to taking plenty of wickets for many years afterwards.

Rest in peace, Les.

Elsewhere, there appears to be a plan to play three regional groups of four-day county cricket in August if the current relaxation of regulations works, with T20 then scheduled for September and the season possibly extending into October.

It is welcome news, the likelihood being that matches will be streamed and crowds either not allowed or minimal. To be honest I am unsure how crowds can socially distance, when there will always be people wanting past to go to the toilet and bar. Maybe on international grounds it may be realistic with capacities reduced from thirty thousand to perhaps five thousand, but even then, safe social distancing will not be without dangers.

I suspect we may have to wait until next year to see our heroes in person and, with three vulnerable people in our house, the likelihood of me being sufficiently reassured to attend this year is remote.

More on this in the coming weeks.

In My Mind's Eye number 3: The sad story of George Davidson 1866-1899

Were it not for one feat, many modern Derbyshire fans would perhaps be unaware of the name of George Davidson. 

He still holds the record for the club highest individual innings of 274, made against Lancashire at Old Trafford in 1896. It sees his name mentioned whenever a county player passes the double century mark, yet no one, 124 years later, has surpassed it.

Centuries were also scored in that match by the two Williams, Chatterton and Storer. All three played a major role in what was a solid, if not spectacular Derbyshire side, on its day capable of beating anyone, though often flimsy in batting. Yet it is fair to say that like county elevens of a more recent vintage, dressing room relations were often far from cordial.

Levi Wright, one of the more consistent batsmen, recalled that 'the three leading professionals were unfortunately not always the best of friends and their manner and treatment of other players, particularly young ones on trial, was far from helpful'.

Indeed, things were so bad at one point that Chatterton and Davidson reputedly went through a season without speaking to one another, after an argument at dinner one evening. Davidson made a comment to the giant bowler George Porter, who suffered from sweaty feet, that apparently reduced the latter to tears. Chatterton took exception to it and laid down the law in no uncertain terms. 

Wright also separately refers to him being challenged to a fight by 'Jimmy Burns', perhaps the Essex bowler of the period. Even his obituary notices, which were sufficiently effusive commensurate to his talent, referred to a 'brusque exterior concealing a kindly heart'  and to 'his quick temper and hot-headed conduct'. 

Maybe not always an easy team mate then, but an extremely talented cricketer, one with a very interesting story.

In considering his attitude to new team mates, let us not forget that the lot of the professional in the 1890s was relatively glamorous, the challenge of someone new a threat to their livelihood. A good county player might earn only £150-250 a year, but that compared favourably to the lot of a labourer, the alternative for many, which was around £80-£100. To earn that money, you had to be selected. The standard contract was £5 a match for home games, £6 for away matches, out of which accommodation had to be paid for. On top of that, talent money might be paid, while collections would be taken for a good performance by a home player, which could earn as much as ten pounds. The irony of George's record score being made at an away ground, Old Trafford, was probably not lost on him.

A few professionals, like William Gunn and Arthur Shrewsbury of Nottinghamshire, did well in business ventures, but many worried about a life outside of the game and more than a few ended up in the workhouse when their playing days ended.

Like William Mycroft, George Davidson came from Brimington, near Chesterfield and honed his bowling skills with his father, Joseph. He was a good enough player to be a member of the first Derbyshire side to take the field, in 1871, and was known as an accurate bowler of off-spin. He took plenty of wickets in local cricket, even though he played only four first-class matches and took just six wickets. The two played together for Brimington Common and Davidson junior developed quickly. 

He worked in the iron works there as an unskilled labourer for 10d a day, before becoming professional at Keighley Cricket Club. He did well for them in 1885 and was offered a role on the staff at The Oval. Surrey wanted him to qualify and sign for them, as did Warwickshire later, but he only wanted to play for the county of his birth and made his debut for Derbyshire in 1886, against the MCC at Lord's. He took 5-37 on debut, something he was to do on 43 occasions, going on to take ten wickets in a match ten times. By means of comparison for modern supporters, his strike rate per wicket lies between that of Mike Hendrick and Harold Rhodes, confirming his ability quite nicely. 

For all that he holds that record score, Davidson averaged only a shade under 24 as a batsman from 260 innings, including two other centuries, but he added to that with 621 wickets at 18. If one takes the claim of any cricketer as an all rounder seriously, their batting average should exceed their bowling one, and these figures confirm that Davidson must have been a very fine player. 

Descriptions of his bowling suggest someone of Tony Palladino's pace, described as 'above medium but not fast'. He had a unique 'semi-circular' run up, starting at wide mid-off and had the ability to bowl for long spells, frequently doing so. Levi Wright recalled him disliking being taken off for any reason and praised him for his stamina throughout a long season. On one occasion at Leyton, he bowled from the start of the day at 12 noon until 1.35pm before a run was scored from him. He was taken off five minutes before lunch at 1.55pm and resumed again after the interval. A man of average height, he bowled right arm with great accuracy, as evidenced by a career record in which he conceded only two runs an over. He moved the ball off the pitch to great effect, with a fast, high action that enabled him, in the modern parlance, to hit the wicket hard.

The Lancashire game in which he scored 274 saw him bat for seven and a quarter hours. He followed this by bowling 57-34-75-3 in Lancashire's first innings, in which they were forced to follow on. To the modern viewer, used to players complaining of burnout and tiredness after a Test series, this makes astonishing reading.

Davidson also reached a century as part of another then record, the team score of 645 against Hampshire at Derby in 1898. With declarations not possible at this time, his captain, Sydney Evershed, told him to get out so the bowlers could get to work, but Davidson, confirming his contrary nature, ignored him and batted on to score his century, following it with another 31 overs and 6-42. As a batsman he was described as defensively sound, with the ability to play strokes when he got going. 

His annus mirabilis was in 1895, when he scored 1296 runs at 28 and took 138 wickets at less than 17. These are the figures of a special player, one who deserves to be mentioned when discussions of the county's finest take place. It was the first time a Derbyshire player did the double, and perhaps the result of spending the previous winter coaching and playing in South Africa, keeping his eye in quite nicely. He returned from the Cape 'bearing gifts and testimonials' after a series of fine performances. His record season for Derbyshire  saw him presented with a gold watch and chain by his friends at Brimington, as well as being talked about as one of the finest all round cricketers in the country.

He took a benefit in 1897, but contemporary reports blame Queen Victoria's  Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the weather for a cheque 'of meagre proportions' (£200) and comment 'it is not pleasant for the sportsmen of Derbyshire to feel that their favourite's reward was such a wretchedly small one and amounted, in fact, to absolute insult'.

It is hard to argue. Three times he took nine wickets in an innings for the county, every season but one that he played being the leading wicket-taker, while in 1892 he headed both the batting and bowling. Several reports comment that he was the 'biggest single reason' that Derbyshire remained a first-class county. His line and length were especially noteworthy and after twice bowling A.C.MacLaren, a giant of  the age, on a flat wicket in 1895, the Lancashire captain declared that 'he would exhaust anyone's patience with his metronomic accuracy'.

His final game for the county saw another record to which he contributed, albeit inadvertently. He had missed several matches with a strain when Yorkshire visited Chesterfield in 1898 but declared himself fit to play in Walter Sugg's benefit match. Wright recalled that it was obvious from the first ball that he wasn't himself, and it was all he could do to finish his only over. His absence from the rest of the innings left Yorkshire openers John Tunnicliffe and J.T. Brown a novice attack to face, and they responded with a then record opening stand of 554. It was the other side of a complex character, trying his best to play in the match to help his friend, even when he likely knew in his heart that it wouldn't work.

George never played for the county again. During the winter that followed, a bout of influenza quickly worsened into pneumonia and the man with the iron constitution died on 8 February 1899 at the tragically early age of 32, leaving a wife, six children under the age of seven and very little money. The editor of Cricket magazine in 1899 hoped that 'energetic steps might be taken by the gentlemen of Derbyshire on their behalf'. Given that the club was in its perennial impoverished state, it is unlikely that they ever did so.

It was an 'irreparable loss to the county and to the game of cricket', evident in the outpouring of the newspaper reports of the day. Few knew that he was unwell, so the shock was considerable for supporters and cricket followers. The story was covered in local press around the country, the opinion firmly of a very fine player cut off in his prime. Maybe, even yet, one of international standard.

'A very large crowd' attended his funeral, before he was interred at Tipton Cemetery, near Dudley on 13 February. This was at the wishes of his widow, who hoped to remain locally, even though the family wanted him buried in Brimington. His team mates Hancock, Storer, Sugg and Chatterton were among the pall-bearers, while wreaths were received from his captain, Sydney Evershed, the club and several individuals, as well as the MCC. An unusually candid report in the Derby Daily Telegraph of the time revealed that the player had been told, in the days before he died, that he could never play cricket again, such was the effect of the illness on his heart. Such news would have been hard to bear in his already weakened state.

In his obituary, Wisden recalled him as a cricketer 'just short of the highest class' who 'had he played for a better county might have enjoyed a still more brilliant career'. Former England captain Henry Leveson-Gower, a contemporary, in his book Off and On The Field said that 'he would have gone much further had he plied his skills elsewhere'. 

We have heard that plenty of times over the years. Given that players at that time continued well into their forties, he had at least another ten years ahead of him, when further records may well have been set.

Next year will be the 125th anniversary of his record score and there is perhaps an opportunity for the club and its supporters to do right by George Davidson. My research suggests that his grave at Tipton Cemetery is unmarked and may even be that of a pauper. It would be proper to look to mount a plaque, at least, to mark his last resting place.

After all, it is the longest surviving record in the county's cricket and his loyal and significant  contribution to its early years is worthy of belated recognition. 

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

Changes..

Most of you will have noticed that the blog has a new look today.

Sadly, the current conditions have meant that erstwhile blog sponsorship has terminated and I would like to say a huge thank you to Office Care for their support over a number of years. That support enabled the blog to flourish and ensured that I was getting something for the time put into writing it.

I have also lost a couple of linked advertisers and thanks go to them, especially to former Derbyshire cricketer Chris Taylor, whose sports business has been a great supporter in recent seasons.

Which all means that I am looking for a new sponsor or sponsors, either for the blog overall, or to be linked from it to a site of your choice. Please message me if you would like to discuss - I fully understand that these are difficult times, but I am more than happy to discuss options.

The alternative, which I will hold off from for a few weeks, is to reintroduce Google ads - being selective over content but bringing in a few pennies (literally) when the blog is read. It is far from a preferred option, as I feel it is a little intrusive, but I will see how things go.

I still don't see myself covering much current Derbyshire cricket over the course of the current summer, but will be keeping the content going, starting with the next in the series on Derbyshire legends - In My Mind's Eye.

Any ideas for articles or talking points, please drop me a message through the blog, or email me at peakfan36@yahoo.co.uk

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)

Pining...

It was watching our dog, Wallace, yesterday that I realised how I must be for the cricket season.

He was lying by the door, every noise he heard worthy of investigation, each one perhaps heralding the return of his 'Mum' from the supermarket.

I am missing the cricket badly. It is something I haven't experienced before and although I try to stay optimistic, I am resigned to there being no county cricket this summer. If they pull it off, well done, but I can't see it.

The press piece released by the club this week on Michael Cohen, and how he has been living with bowling coach Steve Kirby since getting here brought it home to me. There was much to like in the prospect of Sean Abbott joining Ravi Rampaul et al but the prospect of Michael Cohen, a left-arm quick bowling 90mph held considerable interest. So too did seeing how Sam Conners had kicked on over the winter, with the attack, even before considering our raft of talented all-rounders, looking so much more incisive than the previous year.

Alas, we may have to wait another 11 or 12 months to find out and there is nothing we can do about it.

To fill in the time I have been writing my 'In My Mind's Eye' series, enjoying a week off work and getting my garden pristine.

The new series starts today and I acknowledge the help of David Griffin and the DCCC Cricket Archive in sourcing quality photographs.

I decided on ten players whose lives were worth the telling, focusing particularly on those who were less well known despite their major contribution. All are pre-Second World War and I discovered material about each that I haven't seen before. It was my reason for writing, perhaps leaving something for posterity, but keen to recognise that the only important players in the club's past are not just those who played in the past thirty years.

Polls and modern discussions naturally focus on what we know best. If, at the end of the series, you know a little bit more about some of our bygone legends and appreciate what they did for the club, then the writing will have been worthwhile.

Some of what I have discovered really blew me away.

Stay fit, stay well, stay interested! And please do comment, because I genuinely love hearing from you.

In My Mind's Eye - a new series

These are challenging times for a blogger, especially one whose interest lies specifically in the cricket history of the county of his birth. With no cricket to write of, and having covered post-war Derbyshire cricket with my second book (and ten years of blogging) I have given due consideration to something to keep the momentum going.

That will finally see the light in this new series, that I have called In My Mind's Eye.

In it, I will be looking at cricketers who played before the last war - quite apposite, on VE Day - and in some cases before the Great War. It will feature players that I have read about in contemporary accounts, and will utilise the notes that I have taken over a half century of years, painstakingly produced like some of my half centuries were in weekend cricket.

Part of it comes from my frustration that these players are, to my mind, criminally overlooked when it comes to modern polls. Of course, there is no one around to state their case and cynics will say that they couldn't have been in the same league as modern players. You see that whenever a piece of archive film is shown on social media. Only a fortnight ago, the great Ranjitsinjhi was belittled for his 'lack of technique' in a video that showed him in the nets. It rather missed the point that he was wearing no pads, was clearly hamming it up for the cameras and was the biggest single influence on the game's growing popularity before the first war, alongside WG Grace. 25,000 runs at over 50 an innings suggests he could play, these often made on wickets that could often be deemed 'sporting', especially when the rain fell and rendered them 'sticky'. 

There are no players of that calibre in Derbyshire's early history, but the list of players that I will be featuring were standouts on a local scale. In some cases this was for their talent alone, in others it was for their personality and contribution to the development of the county side.

It is appropriate to do it this year, marking the 150th anniversary of the club. It is also important to recognise that in any sport you can only be the best of your era. Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the Berlin Olympics of 1936, but would struggle to escape the heats with the times he set today. Does it diminish his importance as an athlete, or his greatness? No, not at all, at least for me.

The players of the early period may have looked rag, tag and bobtail outfits, with sashes, cummerbunds, braces, cravats and flat caps in team photographs. Their apparel may have been off-white, but then cleaning them will have been a challenge, in an era way before washing machines.

They played on grounds where facilities were basic, or non-existent. Sometimes there were only a couple of toilets for players and supporters alike, while there were at times no washing facilities and everyday clothes were hung from a nail, hammered into the wall. A sink, with cold water, was on occasion a luxury, enabling a quick freshen up at the end of the day.

It was still eleven against eleven and the cream still rose to the top. There was a lot of excellent cricket played by some tremendous players, some of them wearing Derbyshire colours.

They are players I would have loved to see, have tried to picture over the years and would like to see recognised for posterity.

I hope that you enjoy it.

Brian Bolus: an obituary

Those who saw Brian Bolus speak at cricket dinners and societies normally heard a man of dry, self-deprecating humour. 

'For those who saw me bat, let me apologise' he would say, before delivering a talk that displayed a sense of humour as expansive as his batting frequently wasn't. A man of contrasts then, engaging company off the pitch, a gritty, stereotypically northern batsman on it. Brian was like the northern batsmen recounted by Neville Cardus, with 'no fowers before lunch and precious few afterwards'.

His death was announced today and it was rather like the man himself, quiet and undemonstrative. Growing up in Yorkshire, he graduated to the fine side of the late 1950s and early 1960s and was a solid, dependable member of it, before being replaced by a younger model, the man who defined that moniker, Geoffrey Boycott. He made the England side and played for it seven times, averaging 41 and never being dismissed in single figures in his twelve innings-career, a record that still stands. His highest score was 88 and in hitting his first ball in Test cricket back over the head of the bowler, Wes Hall, he made perhaps one of the most uncharacteristic of introductions to the international game.

He moved south and became a fixture in the Nottinghamshire side in 1963, where he remained for a decade. He racked up his thousand runs for the season in ten summers, the benchmark by which the county stalwart was judged and provided the reliable grit in that period, the side's batting and cricket latterly dominated by Garfield Sobers. In much the same way that I hoped for Chris Wilkins to get in early at Derbyshire, supporters in Nottingham saw those who came before Sobers as merely a warm up act, but the runs he scored, more than the way that he made them, ensured he was a respected and valuable part of the team.

In 1973 he moved to Derbyshire as captain, in a period when our recruitment was generally of ageing players from elsewhere. It was an onerous task, as it was one of the weaker sides I have seen in county colours and at 39 Brian was understandably past his best. Too many good senior players had left at the same time and the batting was flimsy, at best, the bowling perhaps even weaker. It accounted for him being unwilling or unable to take a risk, as batsman or captain, knowing full well that two quick wickets often heralded an unseemly and hasty demise for the innings. The result was runs made less against the clock than the calendar.

Again though, he registered a thousand first-class runs in two seasons, even if one-day cricket wasn't really his game. With the resources at his command, his approach was often to try and avoid defeat, something that couldn't work in a limited over match, of course. It made for grim watching in that period, but it took someone special, with the ability, charisma and sheer personality of Eddie Barlow, to rescue the county from the doldrums in 1976.

I will remember him as a batsman strong off his pads and not without strokes, but his unwillingness to use them or take a risk, while understandable, made for Derbyshire watching that was only for the diehard and purist. He will best be remembered, perhaps, as the man who sent Alan Ward off the field for refusing to bowl, against Yorkshire at Chesterfield in 1973.It wasn't the best day for either man, but we all make mistakes.

He later served as an England selector and chair of the management advisory committee, before becoming Nottinghamshire president for two years.

His death, at the age of 86, will be mourned by cricket supporters of a certain vintage in three counties. Few will remember him for his effusive stroke play, or for inspirational captaincy.

But he was a man who always gave one hundred percent and over 25,000 runs in the first-class game confirms that he could play. Besides anything else he was a lovely bloke and few had a bad word to say about him.

Most of us would take that as an epitaph.

Rest in peace, Brian.