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)