The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - W is for Wright: John Wright

W is for 'Wow'.

Quite likely the source of my biggest dilemmas, this one, containing, as it does, some of my favourite cricketers and more than a few players who have enriched my enjoyment of Derbyshire cricket over the past forty-five summers.

It is a nice way to end. Rather than a mediocre assortment of players who did their best but were not perhaps in the first tier of county players, the W category contains some vibrant and honest batsmen, some bowling workhorses and a selection of players who most would say best exemplified the term 'first-class cricketer'.

Because they were. All of them.



Of course, there are big names - in the context of Derbyshire cricket giant names - who pre-date my watching of the club. There was Levi Wright, probably the preeminent batsman in the club's early history, whose career average of 26 per innings owes more to the variable wickets of the time than any lack of talent. Wright played for the county from 1883 to 1909 and amassed twenty centuries. He was also as good a cover point as the game had known at that time and saved numerous runs, as well as taking some remarkable catches. Over and above all that, his cricket memoirs remain one of my favourite books, florid in style but anecdotal nirvana.

Then there was Arnold Warren, the first in the lineage of outstanding Derbyshire seam bowlers. A number of contemporaries deemed him the fastest bowler in the country at the time, when he was fully fit and bounding in from a run that was deemed overly long. Becoming established in the side in 1902, Warren played up to the Great War and ended up with 939 first-class wickets at under 25. Like Bill Bestwick, he probably suffered from being asked to bowl as both shock and stock bowler and went for runs as he tired, but he was a fine bowler. In his only Test appearance, he took five wickets in the first innings against Australia but was never picked again. That he dismissed the great Victor Trumper in each innings must have been some consolation in his dotage, but Warren was not the last Derbyshire player to be poorly treated by national selectors.

Moving on a few years, Stan Worthington (left) was a fine cricketer in the side of the 1920s and 1930s, probably the best batsman of several who were magnificent in full flight but not consistent enough to rival the very best. Worthington averaged just under 30 from twenty thousand runs; the same from almost seven hunded wickets with bustling medium pace. In his prime he lost little in comparison to the great Wally Hammond, with who he added 266 at The Oval for England against India, yet Worthington, like the rest of the side, batted selflessly in scoring runs quickly to allow a strong bowling side to force results. He was later a well-regarded coach at Lancashire and was a fine servant to Derbyshire cricket.

In the last fifty years there have been a number of candidates. As regular readers will know, few players gave me greater enjoyment than our first overseas batsman, Chris Wilkins. A free-flowing, front of the wicket player, the advent of the burly South African, usually at number four, saw the beer tents empty, people sit up in their seats and newspapers being largely ignored. You never knew what to expect and on the bad days an impetuous early shot may see the ball held by a circling mid-off or an alert slip cordon. On the good ones - and there were plenty - the ball came off his bat with a crack and fairly fizzed to the boundary. He wasn't a player to play for your life, but if I had to compile an eleven of entertainers, Chris Wilkins would be one of my first picks.

Nor can I ignore the claims of Alan Ward (left), who looked at times scarily quick to my young eyes from the boundary edge. While acknowledging the naivety of youth, nor can I forget a few players backing away as another fast rising ball ripped down at them. Not having seen Harold Rhodes in his prime, nor Bill Copson at all, I cannot pass judgement on relative speed, but when he was fully fit (alas, too infrequently) Ward was an impressive, awesome sight and a contender for the quickest home-reared bowler in club colours. That a bowler as good as he was didn't reach five hundred wickets over ten summers speaks volumes and the feeling remains that he was a largely unfulfilled talent. But what a sight at his best...

Barry Wood will always have a place in Derbyshire history, as skipper of the 1981 Nat West Trophy winning side. His best days came at Lancashire, but he was a feisty character who played fast bowlers with considerable courage (and more than a few broken fingers) and bowled innocuous-looking medium pace in one-day cricket that was remarkably successful. A good player, Barry Wood, but a Derbyshire player for too short a time for greater consideration here.

So too for such players as Wayne White, Colin Wells, Rob and Phil Weston, together with Ross Whiteley. All had their days in club colours, but their greatest were (or are more likely to be) elsewhere. Good players all and worthy of note, but not greater consideration here.

More recently there have been hugely popular all-rounders in Graeme Wagg and Graham Welch. Wagg was and remains an enigmatic cricketer, capable of genuine brilliance and relative mediocrity in quick succession. He could hit a ball long and hard, but perhaps not quite often enough to rank as a true all-rounder. He could bowl left-arm swing that would trouble the best and bowl out any player, but mixed that up with days when the radar had gone and the ball went everywhere. Perhaps that unpredictability accounted for his popularity among supporters. If it was his day, you knew we could challenge the best, but Wagg is another who remains a largely unfulfilled talent, though possessing remarkable natural gifts.

Graeme Welch was a fine county all-rounder. We liked him because he battled, he turned around lost causes and he made the very best of the talents he had. He wasn't the best batsman in the side, but he scored runs when others failed. He wasn't the quickest or most dangerous looking seamer, but he was respected by opponents as someone who could bowl a quicker ball, mix it up, move it around and make life difficult for them. Perhaps his greatest deeds are yet to come in his new coaching role, a field in which he has made an impressive early reputation. Welch is another who would get into any eleven of mine from an entertainment perspective, because he never gave up. There was no such thing as a lost cause and if this attitude can be passed over to his new charges he will take us far.

Which leaves one man and, after careful consideration, I am confident in having made the 'Wright' choice.

 If I were to choose one player who, irrespective of the state of the wicket and who was bowling, would get his head down and graft, I can't think of many that I would place ahead of John Wright. For all that he had a fine array of shots and, like all good left-handers, was immensely strong off his legs and especially through mid-on, the thing that I most remember John Wright for was his 'leave'. He was the best judge that I have seen in the county colours of the ball to let go and had an unerring ability on a humid morning when the ball was swinging around to play only what he had to. The 'oohs' and 'aahs' of a myriad county seamers must have been music to his ears and if it bothered him at all he never showed it. Instead, he just leaned on his bat, chewed his gum and smiled.

That was another thing about John Wright. He smiled a lot and seemed to appreciate that being paid for playing cricket, while undoubtedly not easy, was something that a lot of us cherished. He was one of the more genial players on the circuit and was well-liked by cricket fans around the country.

He might have ended up at Kent, where he turned up for trials, but their surfeit of overseas stars saw him try his chances at Derbyshire, where 150 in a second team game convinced the county that they had found a good 'un.

He was that all right. From 1977 to 1988, Wright was a model of consistency, his second-wicket partnership for much of that time with Peter Kirsten giving the county perhaps the greatest solidity they have ever had in batting. To a Derbyshire fan of my vintage, thinking back to the two of them batting at Lords in 1981 will bring a wistful smile to the face. When they were in full swing, which was often, there appeared little that the opposition could do to stop them. Indeed, a sign of their ability was how the opposition last-day targets got higher and higher. For supporters who recalled all to easily Derbyshire's inability to score 200 in the last innings, seeing us chase down 250-300 was a joy, such a target usually reached through a century from one of them.

1982 was the peak. In that golden summer, Wright scored 1830 championship runs at 56, with seven centuries and five fifties. Kirsten scored 1941 runs at just under 65, eight centuries and six fifties. That summer I would listen for the cricket scores on the radio and Derbyshire always seemed to be something like 230-1, with both going like trains. They didn't let me down in person either and for two Derbyshire players to be within touching distance of 4,000 runs between them, even now, seems extraordinary.

They were good friends and shared a flat together for some time. I remember a former girlfriend of mine telling me around that time that she'd been out for a drink with some friends and chatted up by a "New Zealander who played cricket for Derbyshire". I was jealous, but more of the fact that she'd been chatting to him, rather than me...it probably shows I wasn't all that serious about her, I suppose...

In 1984 Wright averaged over 60 and scored 1200 runs in just 21 innings, but by that stage he was job-sharing the overseas role with Michael Holding. Wright, in a delightfully self-deprecating way, told of how the opposition were always pleased to see his name on the team sheet in that period, as it meant that they wouldn't face trial by Holding. One got the impression that a lot of the enjoyment went for him at this time, something confirmed in his excellent autobiography, but he continued to give value for money and bad trots were few and far between.

He was a thinker about his game and team mates recall his gluing his top batting glove to the bat handle so it was in the right position all the time. They also attest to the origin of his nickname 'Shake', due to his messy kit bag, which he used to shake onto the dressing room floor in an attempt to find the cleanest gear. He was immensely popular in the dressing room and in 1976, when Eddie Barlow arranged a team bus for away games, Wright kept the players entertained with his singing and guitar skills. He was also willing to help with advice for younger players and few were surprised when he became a respected coach.

His dry wit continued in his successful tenure as coach of the Indian national team in the era of Dravid, Ganguly and Tendulkar. "The most important job is to make sure you get all the practice balls back"  he said, accepting that players of such talent needed little coaching.

Yes, he was a fine player and I will always remember his innings against the West Indies at Chesterfield in 1980 as perhaps the bravest I have seen by a Derbyshire batsman. It was a typical green-top and Messrs Roberts, Garner and Marshall were fast and nasty, most of the batsmen taking blows to the hands and body.

Wright took more than most, but made an extraordinary 96 from a total of 229. I am sure that the visitors wouldn't have grudged him that extra four runs in an innings of remarkable skill and courage. Wright went on to become the first New Zealander to pass 4,000 Test runs and remained a player that the opposition knew that they would need to dig out.

It was a privilege to have seen him and he is the perfect player to end this series.

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket: V is for Venkat - Srinivasaraghan Venkataraghavan

In the absence of any Derbyshire cricketer whose name began with the letter U, we move quickly on to the V category. Unusually, in such a small group, all three have something worthy of consideration, though one is a clear winner by some margin.

Matthew Vandrau was born in England but brought up in South Africa and made his Derbyshire debut at the age of 21 in 1990. Over the seasons from then to 1997, there were occasions when he looked on the verge of a breakthrough and becoming a regular in the side. He looked a composed and classy batsman and a first-class average of twenty, while not spectacular, suggested a player of talent - one possibly better than the position that he filled in the order.

He was a good fielder too, while seven five-wicket hauls in 59 first-class matches (twice going on to ten in a match) showed off-spin ability that was above average. It never happened though and he drifted out of the first-class game at the age of 28 when, in fairness, he was a long way from the worst player on the staff and would doubtless have prospered from greater opportunity. In missing out on that, he was in good company over my years of following Derbyshire cricket....

Just after the second world war, Pat Vaulkhard made a belated debut for the county at the age of 35, having played for Nottinghamshire in a few games before the conflict. He quickly showed himself to be an attractive batsman with a penchant for six hitting, usually from a well-timed 'punch' with minimal backlift over the arc between mid-off and mid-on. That aggressive nature, the product of an amateur status that left him less in fear of his place than others, often saw an early demise, but supporters enjoyed the days when Vaulkhard got going.

In that 1946 season he made his only first-class century, against his former club at Trent Bridge. He made the most of it and went on to a score of 264, for a long time the second-highest score in the club's history before being overtaken by Chesney Hughes last season. His partnership with Denis Smith that day, a small matter of 328 runs, remains the club's highest for the fourth wicket.

Yet neither can match the number one, an outstanding off-spinner from India at a time when his country was awash with them and he couldn't establish a permanent role in the national side.

Srinivasaragahavan Venkataragahavan was not a name that rolled easily off the tongue, nor was it one you saw on the back of many shirts, even had such a thing existed back in the 1970s for supporters. There was a joke around that time that the Derbyshire innings rarely lasted much longer than the time it took to spell his name in full, though we were all happy to use the shortened form of 'Venkat'.

He was a class act. He had 450 wickets before he came to England with the Indian touring side of 1971, then took 63 wickets on a tour where he was the fourth in ranking of a never surpassed quartet with Bedi, Chandrasekhar and Prasanna. The latter was his main rival for a regular spot in the side and gave the ball more air, but Venkat was the best batsman and fielder of the four and showed himself a dogged tail end batsman with some nice shots, a talent that was required far too often for comfort. He was 28 when he arrived at Derbyshire and took 72 wickets in 1973, bowling well over 800 overs.

He scored over 400 runs and held over 20 catches too, fielding very well in the close positions, so his season was a long way from a failure. A second campaign saw a reduction to 49 wickets at nearly 40 each and question marks over his signing continued, but in 1975 he had his best summer, taking 68 wickets at just 21, at the end of which the club declined to renew his contract.

It was a strange engagement. The club's best two young players at the time appeared to be fellow off-spinners Geoff Miller and Bob Swindell and the argument was that Venkat would help them both mature and pass on the wisdom of his experience. Of course, it didn't really work out like that. Miller ended up, on his infrequent appearances, bowling at the least favourable end, while Swindell gradually drifted from the scene despite some impressive displays.

Former team mates remember a gentle, thoughtful man whose subsequent success as a top umpire came as no surprise. He didn't drive in England, instead being ferried around by colleagues who enjoyed his company and easy conversation.

They enjoyed his ability to spin the ball too. From a short run up, a quick arm action sent the ball fizzing down the wicket, often fairly flat and invariably accurate. Eripalli Prasanna might have been the more favoured off-spinner by his country's selectors, but Venkat was a fine bowler. 1390 career wickets at 24 confirms that and Derbyshire have had few, if any, better spinners in their long history.

He was just the wrong man at the wrong time, though those of us who watched him bowl long spells will remember a beautiful bowler; a man of genuine humility and a ready smile.

His umpiring success came as no surprise and he became one of the best in the world. History will not see him go down among the very best of our overseas recruits, but he was a very fine bowler indeed.

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - T is for Taylor: Bob Taylor

When I sat down to look at the candidates for the best player to wear Derbyshire colours whose name began with the letter T, I expected there to be more candidates than immediately came to mind.

Yet there wasn't. A triumvirate of Taylors is worthy of passing mention before we look at the top three, with Will Taylor being the first. His greatest playing claim to fame was the dismissal of Learie Constantine's father in the tour match of 1906, but he went on to become club secretary for an astonishing fifty-one years until 1959. He saw the club through some very dark financial periods that coincided with perhaps their greatest sustained period of competitiveness, certainly from the early 1930s onwards.

There was also Chris Taylor, who looked a class above most of what we had in 2006, before disappearing after the 2007 season in what appeared a case of poor man management, though there were doubtless faults on both sides. Nor should we overlook Paul Taylor, although he was discarded by the club before going on to take over 550 first-class wickets for Northamptonshire. One of the most consistent county bowlers of the 1990s, his left-arm seam eventually earned him two England caps.

It is another left arm bowler who is third in my list. Colin Tunnicliffe was a solid county professional who took over 300 wickets for the club. He had a kind of 'rolling' run up that always reminded me of a dog, out for a walk, straining to escape the leash, but he was very effective and picked up his fair share of wickets with late swing. Colin was a fan's favourite, as you knew you were going to get total commitment from him, irrespective of the match situation.

He was also a hearty tail end batsman, capable of powerful blows, with his starring role coming in the Nat West final of 1981. His 'clumping' of Northamptonshire's Sarfraz Nawaz enabled us to get past the post when it looked like the game had been thrown away. Few will forget the last ball drama and Geoff Miller's headlong dive to make his ground, but 'Tunners' had bowled steadily and played a vital late hand. His contribution to the club will never be forgotten, that's for sure.

Second has to be all-rounder Les Townsend, who was a very powerful all-rounder through the 1930s after a lengthy apprenticeship in the previous decade. County leg-spinner Tom Mitchell recalled that when he bowled to him in the nets he used to run quickly out of the way, as the ball often came back at a rate of knots! Although the batting of that side could be inconsistent, Townsend's arrival at the crease was always of interest, as he was generally aggressive and hit ferociously once set. From 1932 to 1938 he breezed past a thousand runs each summer, his golden year being 1933, when 2268 runs flowed from his bat, a tally that included six centuries and ten fifties. His 'arc' was generally between long on and long off and spectators were often kept on their toes in that area of grounds.

Aside from his batting in 1933, he also took one hundred wickets at just eighteen with his off-spin. Considering that he usually only came on when Bill Copson, the Pope brothers and Tommy Mitchell had been tried, he took an astonishing 1088 wickets in his career at just over 21, taking five in an innings on fifty-one occasions. In most other categories he would deservedly have been number one, but this is no ordinary category.

Because in first place is the greatest wicket-keeper I ever expect to see, Bob Taylor.

In a side that lacked real stars, the standout players in the first Derbyshire side I saw were Harold Rhodes and Bob Taylor. Rhodes bowled quickly, though near the end of his career when I saw him, but Taylor was neat, unobtrusive and remarkably consistent.

One of my earliest cricket lessons was my Dad telling me to 'listen' to Taylor taking the ball, whether the bowling or throws from the field. I wondered what he meant, but soon understood, as there was barely a sound. The ball always seemed to be taken cleanly, no matter how wide the delivery or erratic the throw. His footwork was exemplary one rarely saw him diving for balls down the leg side, his quick feet getting him into position for a more conventional 'take'.

When he had to dive, for thick edges, the ball usually stuck, and keep in mind that this was before the advent of modern gloves with webbing between thumb and forefinger that at times in the intervening period has approached the size of a baseball mitt.His reflexes were impressive too, as can be seen in this clip of a catch from Australia's Kim Hughes off the bowling of our own Geoff Miller

Indeed, the greatest surprise was when he conceded byes, as evidenced by the murmur that went around the ground on such occasions. We assumed that the ball must have hit something the umpire hadn't seen, or spun viciously from the rough. It was hard to accept that our hero was a mere mortal.

His England call came late, after Kent's Alan Knott opted for the Packer money that revolutionised the game. Knott was another outstanding 'keeper, though not quite as good as 'Brilliant Bob' behind the stumps, in the eyes of others less parochial than most of us, who would allow no argument. Where Knott scored was as an impish, innovative, pugnacious batsman who often steered a failing England innings to a competitive total. Bob couldn't compete on that playing field, generally being a dogged battler who sold his wicket dearly but ended his career with an average of sixteen, around half that of the Kent man.

When he made the Test side, he made fifty-seven appearances and confirmed what Derbyshire folk had known for around a decade. There were just three half-centuries, but glove work of such a high standard that it barely mattered. Bob didn't need to play catch up, having given lives to opposition batsmen. Catches were held with the minimum of fuss and the fielding generally seemed tidier because Taylor made it so. Watching keepers since has been like having a Rolls Royce for your first car. Everything afterwards will do the job, but its not quite the same thing...

In 1986, having spent the afternoon in the hospitality tent at Lords during a Test Match against New Zealand, Bob was called up from a two-year retirement with the agreement of Jeremy Coney, the Kiwi skipper, after Bruce French was hit on the head by Richard Hadlee. He kept without blemish for much of the final session at the age of 45, wearing borrowed kit.

He did have his wicket-keeping gloves in the car, though. He was always prepared, Bob Taylor and here's my summation, as a bloke not overly renowned for hyperbole.

He was a fantastic player... a true great.

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - S is for Smith: Denis Smith

As with the 'R' category before it, the list of players whose surname began with the letter S is lengthy and most impressive.

The earliest was FR Spofforth, who spent three part-seasons with us between 1889 and 1891 when he had been one of the finest bowlers in the world for the previous ten to fifteen years. An Australian, he took 853 wickets at just under 15 in his career, but so few of them were in Derbyshire colours that he doesn't merit inclusion in the mix here.

The same could be said of two other players. Phil Sharpe was a fine batsman and outstanding slip fielder for Yorkshire over a number of seasons, before moving to us for the final two summers of his career. He still caught flies at slip, but Eddie Barlow's demands on fitness levels saw Sharpe retire after two years.

Similarly David Steele enjoyed three summers with us at the end of his career as an obdurate batsman and handy left-arm spinner. He produced some decent displays, but his greatest deeds were achieved in Northamptonshire colours and again he's not included in the top three here.

Other worthy cricketers have to be excluded too. David Smith, a stubborn and occasional explosive opening bat in the 1960's; Fred Swarbrook, a left-arm spinner of genuine talent and lower-order batsman who sold his wicket dearly; Keith Stevenson a decent seam bowler who could move it around, but had to move to Hampshire for regular cricket; Steve Stubbings, a popular and conscientious opening batsman, who always gave of his best.

There's also wicket-keeper batsman Luke Sutton, a fine player, especially in his first stint at the club, while Shahid Afridi flitted briefly across our firmament, but without the success that characterised most of his long and illustrious career. Going back in time, mention must also be made of Harry Storer, yet another obdurate batsman who went on to great success as a football manager at Coventry City and Derby County.

Yet the top three largely pick themselves. In third place is an off-spinner who would, if he played today, walk into the England team.

Edwin Smith took over 1200 wickets for Derbyshire, despite often playing on wickets that were prepared for Les Jackson, Cliff Gladwin, Harold Rhodes and Brian Jackson, not to mention Derek Morgan. To some extent he got the scraps that were left, but with the knowledge that he was expected to perform when conditions were in his favour. It was a peculiar kind of pressure, but he usually handled it well. He took five wickets in an innings on 51 occasions, ten in a match four times. He turned it enough, not excessively, and flighted the ball to keep batsmen guessing. When conditions were good for batting, his control of line and length kept it quiet; when it started to turn, he was always a handful.

He was a stubborn bat too, capable of holding an end up to secure an extra point, or a valuable first innings lead, while he was a safe and reliable fielder in most positions.

A fine player, yet not good enough to break the top two, because this is top quality company.

In second place is William Storer, a professional of exceptional talent on the variable wickets of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Uncle of Harry Storer, he gave wonderful service over an eighteen-year career, scoring 13,000 runs at the respectable, for that time, average of 28. He was a good enough leg-spinner to take 232 wickets at 33, while also a  very competent wicket-keeper who held nearly 400 catches and took over fifty stumpings. Now that's real, all-round talent! Good enough to play six Test matches, Storer was a player who helped to keep Derbyshire a solid side before the First World War, in stark contrast to the years that immediately followed it.

Yet first place simply has to go to a batsman who, on the good days that were many, was often compared to the great Kent left-hander, Frank Woolley. Denis Smith (second right in the back row in the above photo of the 1936 champions) was a tall, elegant left-hander who, until the advent of Kim Barnett, was the club's leading run-scorer. He tallied almost 22,000 runs over a career that ran from 1927 to 1952, although a number of seasons were lost to the war, that would otherwise have put him out of sight of anyone. From 1934 to the outbreak of war, his season aggregates were, successively, 1599, 2175, 1421, 1914, 1234 and 1597. Given that when he returned after the war he passed the thousand mark another four times, it is fair to say that his peak years and perhaps six to eight thousand runs were taken from him.

He usually opened the batting and the ethos of those highly successful years was for the batsmen to score runs quickly enough to give the bowlers time to win games. A career average of 32 probably doesn't reflect Smith's true value to the side as a batsman who invariably gave the side a sound but brisk start, often in the company of Albert Alderman. He earned two Test appearances and averaged a respectable 32, but his career was largely spent in Derbyshire colours.

I never saw him play, but descriptions suggest him as a left-handed Barnett, full of glorious shots through the covers but, like all left-handers, strong off his pads. His footwork wasn't the fastest, but you don't score the volume of runs that he managed through being slow.

When his career ended he became county coach, a post he held for many years. He was a hard task master who insisted on nets being taken in the proper manner, with a withering put down for anyone who he felt was getting above themselves.

"My old suit has cleaned up well" he said to one young player who was showing off his new threads, while a would-be fast bowler who drove off fast and loud in his car after nets was dismissed with the comment "if he drives like he bowls, he'll not hit owt..."  His hard attitude was explained as being because cricket was a hard game "and no one holds your hand out in the middle".

One of the game's characters and one of Derbyshire's finest.

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - P is for Pope: George Pope

There have been some very good cricketers whose name begins with the letter P in Derbyshire colours.

The earliest was George Porter, a fast-medium bowler of considerable talent whose availability to the Derbyshire side between  1881 and 1896 was severely limited by ill-health, together with the realisation that he could make more money as a league professional . When he was able to play, he regularly took wickets, as 130 wickets at just 21 each suggests. A chimney sweep to trade (not many modern equivalents, I'll wager) he was only 46 when he died in 1907.

Fast forwarding a few decades, one of the more attractive Derbyshire batsmen of the late 1960s onwards was Mike Page. From 1968-1973 he was a very consistent performer, largely at number three, and once set had a wide range of strokes and an un-Derbyshire (for the time) willingness to play them freely.

A Lancastrian by birth, Page reeled off his thousand, or near it, every season and a fine summer in 1970, when he scored over 1300 runs at 41 saw him come close to national consideration. It was not to be though and he left the game in 1975 at the age of just 34, following a testimonial that raised £3,500.

Most supporters will retain a soft spot for James Pipe, whose wicket-keeping between 2006 and 2009 was of a very high standard, fitting neatly into the great Derbyshire lineage. He was also an explosive batsman, capable of scoring very quickly once set and usually contributing five hundred-plus valuable lower-order runs a season.

He has subsequently forged a fine career as club physiotherapist, where his skilled work, no doubt aided by his cricket experience, has ensured that players have the best possible support in getting back to full fitness after injury.

Yet the best player in this category has to come down to a choice between two brothers.

Alf Pope was a very good seam bowler and handy tail-end 'clumper' in the great Derbyshire side of the 1930's. His breakthrough season was in 1934, when fifty wickets suggested a bowler with something to offer. There were 87 wickets in 1935, then 99 in the championship summer of 1936, taken at just 18 runs each. By the time the Second World War came along, Alf had taken 555 wickets at just 22 each, impressive pickings when one considers that Bill Copson, Tommy Mitchell and his brother were also testing and troubling the country's batsmen.

He was thirty when war broke out and didn't reappear afterwards, though he remained a fine bowler in the leagues for many years.

Good a player as he was, he has to take second place to his brother, George.

I never saw George Pope play. In fact, he'd retired 11 years before I was born. He is, however, one of my favourite players because of his deeds and the legion of stories about him. Another of that tough breed of ex-mining industry players, George was, by any standards - even Brian Close standards - a tough nut. He did, after all, counter the short bowling of Larwood and Voce by chesting them down - remember, this was in an era before chest pads, thigh pads and various protective accoutrements became de rigeur for the professional batsman.

Excellent judges maintain that the two best all-rounders in the world just after the Second World War were Keith Miller and George Pope. George taught Miller how to bowl the outswinger when they played on opposing teams in the Victory Tests of 1945, just as he taught the leg-cutter to Alec Bedser, the one that he had learned himself from the great Sydney Barnes. Bear in mind that at this time George was 34, and had lost his peak years from 1939 to the global conflict.

He was a crucial cog in the wonderful Derbyshire side of the 1930's. A batsman who could either sell his wicket dearly or hit the ball to all corners, depending on the needs of the side, he averaged 28 with the bat. That's not so impressive, you might say, but the success of that side was in scoring enough - just enough and quickly enough - to give the bowlers a chance to bowl out the opposition twice. Sometimes a quick 30 or 40 was needed, and George did the business before holing out. His highest score came in his final season, 1948, when he hammered Hampshire to all parts in an unbeaten 207. His premature retirement at just 37 was down to his wife's ill-health and he was still a fine player, achieving the double. A hundred wickets at seventeen each, 1152 runs at 39..quite a player.

His bowling was typical Derbyshire, movement both ways, grudging every run and bristling with aggression. 677 wickets at just under 20 speaks of a very fine bowler, and those who faced George (and his brother Alf) knew they were in for a torrid time. Some said he wouldn't take wickets abroad, but his one real foray overseas, to India in 1937-38, saw him take 58 wickets at 15, figures that for anyone would be seemed outstanding. He wasn't quick, but kept batsmen on their toes and moved it just enough to get the edge of the bat, or beat it. You can see him in action in this clip on the excellent British Pathe website, at one minute, eight seconds.

Stories about him abound. Like the one where the all-conquering Yorkshire side of the 30's were scenting victory and the field crept ever closer. Skipper Brian Sellers at short leg had to duck to avoid two lusty blows by George.

"I say Pope, I believe you're trying to hit me" said the Yorkshireman.

"Aye, and if you stay theer any longer you'll be in no bluddy doubt" came the reply...

The cut and thrust of the border battles against Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire often brought out the best in him, and his bald head would glisten with sweat as he pounded down ball after ball of relentless probing fast medium for the batsman. He had many great days, but his only reward from the Test selectors of the time was one match against South Africa in 1947 - shades of the later treatment of Les Jackson.

His greatest day? Derbyshire v Somerset at Chesterfield in June 1947. Somerset 68 all out. Pope 21-11-34-6. We then thrashed a quick 231, then put them back in after tea.

They were all out for 38. George took 7-16 in nine overs and the game was done in a day.

Not bad for a man worth one Test. If he were around today, he'd be making a fortune in the IPL.

And be worth every penny...

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - O is for Ollivierre: Charles Ollivierre

As was the case with the letter N, finding the best Derbyshire player whose name began with the letter O didn't give too many options. Still stunned that I could find no room for Kim Barnett ahead of Eddie Barlow, perhaps this is the time to concoct some fictitious Irish roots - Kim O'Barnett, to be sure...

Alas, no and I must be content with the nine names at my disposal that contain largely worthy, if not outstanding players.

There's Leonard Oliver, a left-handed batsman from Glossop whose career spanned the First World War. He gave decent service over three hundred first-class innings, but an average of a shade over twenty leaves him out of the running.

Moving forward, there's also Billy Oates, who was solid from the mid-1950s to mid-1960's without really establishing himself. In 214 innings he reached the fifty mark on 28 occasions, but only twice went on to three figures. A Sheffield man, he was a solid, if unspectacular cricketer who was respected by his colleagues and supporters alike.

Another Yorkshire import who did well for us for a few season was Steve Oldham. 'Esso', as he was known from those initials, was a medium-pace bowler who wobbled it around a little and was capable of getting good wickets. He took 273 of them in a career that started at Yorkshire and then enjoy four seasons with us from 1980 to 1983. He was a willing workhorse whose action let him bowl long spells, but his lack of pace saw his annual wicket haul sit around the thirty to forty mark at a cost of over thirty. I liked him as a player, but for me he's not quite breaking in to the top two.

Second place goes to Tim O'Gorman, a Surrey man who was an exception to my assertion that southern players have rarely made runs up north, certainly not for us. Between 1987 and 1996, O'Gorman was a solid player in the middle order, usually batting at five. He wasn't the best of starters, but if he got in there were shots around the wicket from a player who was good to watch.

Whenever I think of him, it is for his fifty at Lords against Lancashire, a typically gutsy display that helped to turn around a failing innings and give us a platform from which to build a match-winning score. His retirement for a career outside the game at the age of just 29 took us several seasons from which to recover, but he has made an excellent fist of that career and deserves full credit for it.

My number one? Going back into the mists of time, it is Charles Ollivierre.

Ollivierre was the first black West Indian to play county cricket. He came to England with the predominantly white West Indies side in 1900 and was the standout batsman with an average of 32. Allowing for the difference in climate and wickets, that was an excellent effort for a 24-year old player. In his game against Derbyshire on that tour, he was dismissed for three in the first innings, but made an unbeaten 23 in the second when opening the innings.

Derbyshire were sufficiently impressed by his displays to ask him to qualify for them and he played as an amateur from 1902, working in the Glossop offices of businessman, politician and Derbyshire player Samuel Hill-Wood. He played some aggressive innings in non-first-class cricket between times, but qualified from July 1902 and averaged 41 that summer.

His second season was the same as that 'enjoyed' by others before and since, his average falling to just over twenty as canny bowlers worked him out to some extent. 1904, however, saw him in prime form and 1268 runs flowed from his bat at an average of 35, a number of those innings played on wickets best described as sub-standard.

The highlight was his role in what has been known for decades as 'Perrin's match'. It was played at Queen's Park, Chesterfield, where Ollivierre's first sight of the town's crooked spire the previous summer had reputedly seen him dunk his head in a bucket of cold water, thinking he was still the worse for wear from the previous night's revelry!

The game, between Derbyshire and Essex, was played from July 18-20 in 1904, a Monday to Wednesday. Nonetheless, around two thousand people were present at Chesterfield to see the first day against a strong Essex batting side. None of them could have predicted what was about to unfold.

On a very hot and sunny day, Essex reached 179-3 at lunch. Remember, this was at a time when a six had to be hit out of the ground rather than just over the ropes. The prolific P.A. Perrin, a tall, elegant batsman was unbeaten on 79. In the afternoon he reached his century then cut loose until he was badly dropped by Bill Bestwick, always a poor fielder, at mid-on. The unlucky bowler was Arnold Warren, who then took two wickets in two balls to leave the visitors on 314-6. That was as good as it got though, as Perrin moved on from his good fortune and finished the first day unbeaten on 295 from a total of 524-8, having hit 58 boundaries...

Next morning, the last two wickets added 73 as Essex were all out for 597, Perrin unbeaten on 343 with 68 fours. Avoiding the follow on was to be a huge task, with 448 required, but Derbyshire openers Levi Wright and Ollivierre put on a century stand in 55 minutes and at lunch were on 144 without being parted. The West Indian reached his century in 95 minutes and although Wright was out at 191, Bill Storer came in and added a further 128 in 75 minutes. Ollivierre reached his double century in 190 minute with a five and 33 fours, only the third Derbyshire batsman to do so, and a celebratory drink was taken out to him.

He was eventually dismissed for 229 and had frequently hit fours from balls pulled through mid-wicket from around off stump. At the close Derbyshire had almost saved the follow on at 446-4, the day having been watched by around three thousand fans who had their money's worth!

The final day was cooler after the blistering heat of the earlier days and we were all out for 548. The game seemed a certain draw, but before lunch Essex collapsed against opening bowlers Bill Bestwick and Arnold Warren and were in disarray at 27-6, each bowler having taken three wickets.

The crowd grew in the afternoon as word spread of a possible result, but Essex recovered to 80-6 before a double bowling change brought a breakthrough, the innings then subsiding to 97 all out with one player unable to bat. Warren was a tall and wiry bowler, reckoned to be one of the quickest in the country, and finished with 4-42.

Play was to continue until 6.15pm, so Derbyshire had 125 minutes to score 147. It looked a tricky challenge in the light of the Essex collapse and when Wright went with just eleven on the board, Essex must have fancied their chances. Ollivierre was again in prime form though and reached a run-a-minute 50 with eight fours, the hundred coming up in just sixty minutes. At the start of the final hour, Derbyshire were 108-1 and needed only 39 to win, Ollivierre on 74.

Both the West Indian and Storer were keen to reach their milestones of a century and fifty respectively, the latter because he would then, as a professional, be entitled to a bonus. The remaining runs came in 15 minutes, with Ollivierre on an unbeaten 92 (15 fours) and Storer on 48 as the game ended with 45 minutes and nine wickets in hand. Maybe missing out on his bonus was the crux of a comment attributed to Storer, who said that "England should be for the English", a comment that at best was churlish.

Ollivierre had two more seasons of reasonable returns and occasional brilliance, his batting being compared to that of the great Ranjitsinjhi and especially strong in cutting and on the leg side. He retired at the end of 1907 because of eyesight issues but has gone down in cricket history as the first top black West Indian batsman. 

 

For that reason I cannot overlook a gifted player who was a trail-blazer and became a firm fan favourite.

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - N is for Newman: Paul Newman

With the greatest of respect, there is far from a stellar cast from which to choose the best player whose name begins with the letter N in the club's history.

The best of the earlier brigade was undoubtedly Ernest 'Nudger' Needham, whose style of batting was nicely encapsulated by the nickname. Over a career that stretched from 1901-1912, Needham ground out 6,500 runs at an average of twenty. Not spectacular, but invaluable for a poor side in which he played the sheet anchor role with genuine northern determination. There were seven centuries and a highest score of 159 for the Chesterfield man, who died just before the start of the 1936 championship season.

Moving forward a few decades, the likes of Tom New, Marcus North and Jake Needham flitted across the scene with flashes of talent, but not for long enough to warrant top spot. New had a loan period with the club in which he kept wicket adequately and played some useful knocks, but failed to win a permanent deal and some disparaging comments about his stint at the club on his return to Leicestershire did him few favours.

North did very well in a short-term stint as overseas player, but his Australian commitments legislated against other than the six innings he played in 2006. He racked up 461 runs at 93 in those knocks and played a few one-day games into the bargain, but subsequently has worked his way steadily around the circuit, playing for five counties so far and enjoying a solid international career.

Jake Needham looked an off-spinner of genuine potential for several summers and bowled particularly well in one-day games, but the feeling grew that he was less of a threat in the four-day game. Pushing the ball through he bowled with good control, but the need for more air to dismiss county batsmen saw his length suffer a little. Many worse players have had longer careers for the club, but Jake was a victim of the ECB regulations and simply hadn't done enough by the time he was 26 to merit retention.

Which leaves my number one choice; the man with the film star name - Paul Newman.

From 1980 to 1989 he was a key member of the county attack and on his day could bowl quite quickly. He wasn't lightning fast by any means, but he could hurry batsmen, especially in his earlier career.

My abiding memory of him is of the Nat West quarter-final at Derby in 1981, when we were drawn at home against Clive Rice and Richard Hadlee's Nottinghamshire. It was a glorious day and the ever-reliable duo of John Wright and Peter Kirsten gave us a platform at 77-1. Then Kirsten played his favourite paddle sweep and lobbed a simple catch to Clive Rice off Eddie Hemmings, Wright was run out and the innings subsided to a seemingly inadequate 164 in our 60 overs.

When the visitors replied, Newman came in hard and had Weightman leg before wicket. Then Paul Todd and Derek Randall took them to 75, before Randall was also lbw, this time to Barry Wood. The wicket sparked a collapse and Nottinghamshire were soon 81-5, before the dangerous Todd and Hadlee, then Bruce French sparked a fightback.

There were plenty of overs in hand, but Newman came back again, after excellent bowling from David Steele, Colin Tunnicliffe and Steve Oldham, to york Kevin Cooper and then end the fighting knock from Todd to seal a memorable win.

He ended his Derbyshire career with 315 first-class wickets at 31, along with another 187 in the one-day game, before going into the Minor Counties. There he played for both Staffordshire and Norfolk with considerable success, only ending his career in 2004 when he was 45 years old.

He was a good cricketer. Perhaps no star, like his namesake, but an honest county professional who always gave of his best.

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - M is for Morgan: Derek Morgan

It is a good job that I have had time to think about the next categories in the A-Z of Derbyshire cricket, because the letter M throws up a number of worthy candidates.

There's Devon Malcolm for starters. 1054 first-class wickets at a shade over thirty, 128 Test wickets at 37 and a legendary performance that destroyed the South Africans in 1994 at The Oval. Devon was seriously quick when his rhythm was there, although there were plenty of occasions when the radar went AWOL and he could go around the park. He was a wonderful sight in his prime and was probably the club's fastest British-born bowler, a statement only contested by Harold Rhodes and Alan Ward in their respective primes.

Then there's Geoff Miller, a very fine all-rounder with 12,000 first-class runs at 26 and 888 wickets at 28. He made important contributions at international level too and was one of the best spin bowlers to appear for the county, his partnership with Fred Swarbrook being our best-ever tweaking combination. Miller looked such a class batsman that it was a surprise he made only two first-class centuries to go with 72 half-centuries, but was a very fine cricketer indeed. More recently he has played a major role in England's resurgence as national selector, a job he did to a very high standard.

Tommy Mitchell was a very fine leg-spinner of the 1930's, who was just short of international standard but took almost 1500 wickets for the strong Derbyshire side of that era. If Bill Copson and the Pope brothers could make an early breakthrough, which they frequently did, Mitchell regularly disposed of the rest in fine style. Like most others of his kind he could be expensive on a bad day, but could also conjure a victory from nothing on the good ones, which were frequent. He took five wickets in an innings on a remarkable 118 occasions and ten in a match thirty times, though such form failed to translate to the international game, where his eight wickets cost 62 runs each. Nevertheless, those wickets were taken in only ten full seasons and the Second World War probably prevented him going way past two thousand wickets and a record that would have stood for all time.

How about John Morris, a supremely talented batsman who compiled 21,000 first-class runs, most of them from front of the wicket strokes that most could only dream of. With over fifty centuries and an average of 37, it is perhaps unfair to say that his talent remained unfulfilled, but on his day Morris looked the complete batsman. Only his impetuous nature got him out on occasions and he was capable of much more than three Test caps. Watching him bat with Kim Barnett marked halcyon days for Derbyshire supporters and it is unfortunate that the careers of two of our greatest-ever batsmen were ended in the colours of another county.

There's also Ole Mortensen, an aggressive seam bowler from the unlikely source of Denmark. His loud exclamations of frustration when he beat the bat - which was often - became a feature of the local cricket scene and 434 first-class wickets at just under 24 told of a genuine talent. He was parsimony personified in the one-day game, when he often bowled through at the start of an innings. When one considers seam bowlers who fitted into the 'Derbyshire tradition', you have to include one who started out as a tax inspector in Denmark, rather than being whistled up from a pit shaft.

Nor can one overlook the claims of Wayne Madsen, a very fine batsman, increasingly impressive captain and outstanding ambassador in the current side. In a few years time, Madsen's claims may become even stronger, but for me there's only one candidate for top spot.

That's Derek Morgan (left), who between 1950 and 1969 scored over 18,000 runs at 25, as well as taking 1248 wickets at the same average, the mark of a genuine all-rounder. Add in fielding that saw him hold 573 catches and run out numerous batsmen with lithe, athletic work in any position - fielding so good that he was a regular England twelfth man - and you get an idea of the measure of the man.

He was a functional, rather than attractive batsman to watch. He had the shots, but often chose not to play them as he conducted his latest master-class in rearguard actions, salvaging a Derbyshire innings that had not gone to plan - how often has that happened over the years?

Uncovered wickets often made batting hazardous in the 1950's and early 1960's and Morgan battled on many occasions to keep Derbyshire alive in matches. A good example  would be the game against Hampshire at Burton-on-Trent in 1958, when 39 wickets fell in a day. No other batsman made more than 19 on a treacherous pitch, but Morgan's second innings 46 made the difference before he became the game's only bowling change and finished the game off with three wickets for four runs in the visitors forlorn run chase.

He would have had many more wickets, but for the fact that for a long time he lived off the remaining scraps once Cliff Gladwin and Les Jackson had wreaked havoc on the opposition. Most who saw him regarded him as a 'canny' bowler, capable of bowling brisk seam with a newer ball before switching to slower off-cutters if the conditions dictated. He and off-spinner Edwin Smith were admirable foils for the legendary opening duo, though Morgan took a step back when Harold Rhodes emerged in the late 1950's, more often coming on as second change.

Were it not for the presence of Trevor Bailey in the England side, Morgan would have won many more England caps, notwithstanding the bias against his chosen county by the selectors of the time. Later in his career he became a shrewd captain of a weak Derbyshire side, the eleven of the late-1960s masking poor championship form with a Gillette Cup run that took them to the final in 1969.

In the face of such opposition as named above, a cricketer has to be pretty special to be seen as the best.

Derek Morgan was one of the greatest players to appear for Derbyshire, so without reservation he would be my choice.

Postscript - the picture at the top of the page shows Derek Morgan (standing left) with Alan Revill to his right, Seated: L-R - Edwin Smith, Cliff Gladwin, Arnold Hamer, John Kelly, George Dawkes, Les Jackson.

Now one of those bats would be worth owning...

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - K is for Kirsten: Peter Kirsten

There are four outstanding candidates for the best "K" to represent Derbyshire.

Simon Katich had but one season in our colours, in 2007, yet finished it with the highest average in a championship season by a Derbyshire player (75.52). He was an accumulator, someone who, having got in, rarely gave it away. By the same token, Katich was somewhat one-dimensional and really couldn't play the one-day game, while T20 appeared anathema to him. For me, his season at the club will be remembered for an outstanding championship season, but a limited overs one that was, at best, average. That season's T20 campaign as a team was, even with the benefit of hindsight, somewhat shambolic.

Adrian Kuiper was largely responsible for our Refuge Assurance win in his one full season with us. A useful medium pace bowler and good fielder, Kuiper's strength was that he could hit a ball a country mile and did so with remarkable frequency. Potentially close finishes that year were blown away by the brilliance, yet common sense of his hitting, showing a man with good judgement of the hittable ball. With Chris Wilkins he was the biggest hitter I have seen in Derbyshire colours and that judgement made all the difference. If a target  looked like it was getting away from us, Kuiper simply smacked a couple of boundaries and brought it within the realms of respectability again. It sounds easy, but isn't - despite the South African making it look so. Were he playing today he would earn a fortune in T20.

For me, Kuiper is just shaded into second place by Karl Krikken, largely by dint of service over a protracted period. By no standards would you say that Krikk was a conventional wicket-keeper. His farmer in wellingtons style, waddling between balls behind the stumps, was a long way removed from the textbook crouching manner, while he looked almost like a goalkeeper facing a penalty kick as the bowler's arm came over. Yet Krikk missed little over 400 games, often taking catches, especially down the leg side, that a more orthodox stance may not have allowed him to get to. He had great hands and an even greater mouth, a never-ending source of encouragement to bowlers from first ball to last.

As a batsman he was more than useful and should have scored more runs than he did, though the Derbyshire side of his time was blessed with greater batting talent than some of more recent vintage and Krikk often perished in the quest for quick runs. Having said all that, his greatest contribution to Derbyshire cricket may be yet to come...

For me, though, the number one simply has to be Peter Kirsten, with Dean Jones the best all-round batsman I have seen in Derbyshire colours. Kirsten could accumulate and would often get to thirty before you realised it and while you struggled to recall the strokes that got him there. Yet once he was in, the strokes were dazzling and he had them all.  From late cuts to sweeps, "Kirst" played all round the wicket and had lovely footwork. He was compact and composed at the crease and some of us called him the "Little Don", reference to the dapper and uncomplicated style that was reminiscent of the great Bradman.

His first two seasons saw him scrape past a thousand as he got used to English wickets as a young player, but from 1980 to 1982 he was as good a player as any in the country, recording 1895, 1605 and 1941 championship runs in successive seasons with averages of 63, 55 and 64.  In that 1982 season, with John Wright making 1830 runs, Derbyshire fans enjoyed two batsmen at the peak of their form and batting brilliance that had never been seen before, or since. Kirsten hit eight centuries that season and Wright seven. Derbyshire were usually 195-1 or similar at the sports bulletins, and there were matches when they hardly looked like getting out. So good were they, indeed, that opponents started setting ridiculous targets for us in the fourth innings of games, yet we sometimes we still got them.

Kirsten was a brilliant fielder and a useful off-spinner, at least until a knee injury started to cause problems.  A request for a year's break was met with a refusal and his release was a startling example of the way the club has shot itself in the foot too many times over the years. He was just 27 and approaching his prime at the time.

He would have graced international cricket and, although past his peak, at least made a dozen Test appearances when South Africa were re-admitted to the fold. When he reached a century against England at Headingley in 1994, I cheered more than if an Englishman had reached the milestone. While his Test average of 31 in no way reflects his talent, considering he was 37 on debut it was far from a disgrace.

57 centuries and 107 fifties; another ten centuries and 83 fifties in one-day games - oh yes, Peter Kirsten could play alright. I consider it an absolute privilege to have seen him in his prime and would be astonished if I saw anyone comparable in our colours in the future.

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - J is for Jackson: Les Jackson

Les Jackson.

It has to be, doesn't it? If you asked every Derbyshire supporter to name a greatest ever XI, I find it hard to believe anyone would omit him.

There were other good candidates among the J's. His namesake Brian, who followed him into the Derbyshire side from league cricket, was himself a very good bowler and made up an outstanding opening attack with Harold Rhodes for a few seasons. There was also GR Jackson, a determined batsman and good captain who was largely responsible for bringing together the players of the 1936 Championship side.

Then there was Laurie Johnson, arguably the most entertaining batsman in the side from the early 1950s to mid-1960s. Born and brought up in the Caribbean, Johnson brought a range of untypical shots to the Derbyshire side in that period, all flowing drives and rapier cuts. His average may not have matched his talent, but Johnson was, by all accounts, a fine player to watch on the often rain-affected tracks that he and his generation played on.

Nor should we overlook the sterling efforts of Steffan Jones, nor the one season of brilliance that we saw from Dean Jones, a contender for the most complete all-round batsman we have seen at the club. Jones could dig in when the situation demanded, display all the shots that anyone could need and run like a whippet between wickets. Without doubt he was the best pacer and finisher of an innings I have seen in the club colours and he took the club closer to the Championship  than anyone else in recent memory, as an aggressive captain who unfortunately managed to polarise a dressing room full of strong characters.

Yet, at the end of it all, there is Les. I'm not old enough to remember him in his pomp, but Dad's eyes still mist over when he talks about him. We met him a couple of years before he died at the County Ground and it was the nearest I've seen my Dad to being tongue-tied in the presence of his hero. I still treasure a letter I got from him a few years earlier, when I wrote with a question, more in hope than expectation of an answer. Yet a reply was prompt, polite and much appreciated.

His figures speak for themselves. 1733 wickets at 17, twenty times taking ten in a match, 115 times taking five in an innings. You could talk for ten minutes about his greatest feats and not repeat yourself, but suffice to say that he was incomparable as a Derbyshire bowler.. He might have made it as an international too, but the powers-that-be decided that Les wasn't good enough, his action not aesthetically pleasing enough, for England, something that contradicted the opinion of the batsmen that faced him over fifteen years. Not bad for someone who was 26 before playing county cricket...

When they eventually brought him back in 1961, fourteen years after his one previous Test and at the age of 40, he let no one down. It is ironic that the Australians looked for his name in every England squad and were continually astonished that he was overlooked. Donald Bradman considered him the best bowler they faced in 1948, something that makes his subsequent omissions all the more startling. Les simply carried on bruising the ribs and fingers of batsmen year after year, as well as getting them out. In 1958 he took 143 wickets at under eleven runs each, despite cutting down his pace because of a bad groin injury, the sort that would have seen most men out for weeks.

Such things were of little consequence to him. Donald Carr once recounted, after finding Les in the dressing room with his sock and boot a mess of blood and pus from burst blisters, that he asked why he hadn't said something. Les simply shrugged. "You asked me to bowl skipper, so I bowled". Could any captain want for more from a bowler? When asked how he obtained such extravagant lift and movement he was typically modest. "I just wrap my fingers around the ball and bugger about with it until something happens". It usually did.

I saw him play only once, at Queens Park for a match between a Derbyshire XI and the International Cavaliers in September 1968, one of the games that were a precursor to the John Player Sunday League that started the following year. In the opposition were Geoff Boycott, Barry Richards, Ted Dexter, Mike Smith and Fred Goldstein, a South African opener who hit the ball with real power and played for Oxford University and Northamptonshire for a while. It was serious opposition - and Les was 47 years old and had been retired for five years.

He had Boycott and Goldstein lbw and finished with 9-1-19-2. Not bad for an old timer, but no real surprise.

In the context of Derbyshire cricket, Les was one of the golden greats.

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - H is for Holding: Michael Holding

There’s a fair decision to be made among the ‘H’ category, albeit one that comes down to two players as far as I'm concerned.

Two opening batsmen are worthy of consideration, both of them players who sold their wickets dearly. Ian Hall was a dogged battler in the 1960s who got to the middle and worked to stay there. Not for him the flamboyant shots – he accumulated runs and was a workmanlike player.

As was Alan Hill, although ‘Bud’ became a key member of the side in the 1970s and 1980s as the ideal foil for John Wright. They made a good pairing, though Hill at times struggled to shake off the reputation that once saw him make a century in South Africa without a boundary. It was ironic that he subsequently was the first Derbyshire player to make a Sunday League century, tribute to his willingness to work at his game and Eddie Barlow’s encouragement to hit the ball. Hill was never a flashy player, but if you were selecting a Derbyshire side to save a game you would want him in there fighting for you. He was very underrated and I had a lot of time for him.

Then of course there is Arnold Hamer, the best batsman of a fairly ordinary batting side in the 1950s and one who could play in whatever style the game and conditions demanded. His average of 31 in the first class game would probably be worth far more on the covered tracks of today, but Hamer, worthy a player as he was, is eclipsed by two bowlers of distinction.

The stature of the man in first place is illustrated by Mike Hendrick being ‘only’ second. Hendo was an outstanding bowler in the great Derbyshire tradition. The lineage that ran from Warren through Bestwick, the Popes, Copson, Gladwin, Jackson and Rhodes was safe with him. Not especially quick but hostile, no extravagant movement but enough to find the edge, Mike Hendrick was a class act.

Especially when he reached the international stage, some argued that he bowled too short, happier to keep the score down with short of a length bowling than to produce the probing outswinger that drew the batsman forward. Maybe that was so, but Mike Hendrick on a green top was hard to play and he grew up in a Derbyshire side that rarely had runs to play with. In the Championship you could usually bank on a few wickets, while in one day games he was rarely hit. You can ask for little more from a bowler and Hendrick was also a fine slip fielder, had a good arm in the deep and was an entertaining slogger in the way that tail-enders used to play.

It takes a special man to keep him from top spot, but Michael Holding was one of the all-time greats. Although his days of constant express pace were behind him when he joined us, he could still bowl an occasional ball of unfeasible velocity. David Lloyd told a tale about umpiring at Derby where the pitch was docile, yet Holding found the pace and bounce to produce a ball that removed the thumb guard from the glove of Northamptonshire batsman Robin Boyd-Moss and sent his thumb in several directions.

Occasionally he would turn back time and come off his full run, which remained an awesome sight, but Holding was also an able lieutenant to the fledgling skipper, Kim Barnett. Always willing to come on when things were tough and the score mounting, he was close to the ideal overseas player. There were times he seemed to get wickets by reputation, but whatever the length of that run, watching Holding was a joy for the connoisseur - unless you were 22 yards away.

He was usually good for some effective tailend clumping too, and had a safe pair of hands. John Wright once said that the opposition always seemed pleased to hear he was playing, as it meant that Holding, with who he shared overseas duties for a time, wasn’t.

I’ve written before of my reservations about a book that was written a couple of years back on one hundred Derbyshire cricket greats. Greatness can be defined in different ways, in a local, national or international context. However I try to define it, I can’t get anywhere near fifty from Derbyshire’s history.

Having said that, both Mike Hendrick and Michael Holding would be in that fifty. On a local scale Hendrick was a great player and on a national scale a good one.

Holding? He was a giant of the game by any benchmark, so has to be number one. An all-time great?

You bet.

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - G is for Gladwin: Cliff Gladwin

There’s only one contender for the G-Man.

I’ll admit that Peter Gibbs was one of the more aesthetically pleasing batsmen of my formative years as a fan. He seemed to have more time than most and possessed a glorious cover drive. Indeed, that classic style was at odds with the more functional, perhaps attritional method of some contemporaries, but as a cricketer and contributor to the county’s fortunes he was light years behind my number one, Cliff Gladwin.

Curiously, Gladwin’s father, Joe, played with Tom Forrester, my ‘F’ of choice, but the boy’s talents far exceeded those of the father. Cliff made his first class debut in 1939 prior to the Second World War, but had to wait long years until hostilities ended and he was able to resume his first-class career. He was thirty when cricket resumed in 1946, but he took a hundred wickets that season and did so with metronomic regularity for the remainder of his career.

Although a solidly built man, he was light on his feet and had a short run up, followed by an easy action that meant he could bowl long spells. This can be seen on the Pathe news site by following this link:

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=29095

Gladwin can be seen bowling at two minutes fifteen seconds, playing against New Zealand in 1949.

His record speaks for itself and year in, year out he bowled with rare control and hostility. There was no real pace, but Gladwin’s late swing saw many fall victims in his leg-trap, where he was wonderfully supported by Donald Carr, Alan Revill and Derek Morgan. 1653 first-class victims at eighteen each is testimony to his consistency and sustained hostility and no batsman in the 1950’s fancied coming to Derby or Chesterfield. Various accounts tell of injuries ruling players out when faced with Cliff and Les Jackson on a green top – and that was before the game!

One of the best accounts of Derbyshire watching in the 1950’s was published in the Derby Telegraph some time ago and was written by someone called ‘S.Williams’ Part of this description can be seen below:

"The County Ground at Derby in the 1950s was a dump in the real sense of the word, a place of gentle decay.

The ramshackle former racecourse buildings were often home to no more than a few dozen spectators because, when the weather was unkind, watching – and, no doubt, playing – at the County Ground was not for the faint-hearted.

The wind came whipping off the old racecourse, straight from the Urals it seemed, cutting through you like a knife. The facilities were awful: toilets that have been described as French Colonial; catering which made the worst that the old British Railways could offer look like a Savoy Grill buffet. Finding shelter from wind and rain meant huddling at the back of the Grandstand while keeping one eye on the toilet habits of dozens of pigeons cooing happily in the cavernous roof. Once settled on a fine day, though, I had eyes only for my hero.

It is exactly 50 years since I last saw him in action. His run-up began easily – no stuttering start like so many of his profession – and gathered graceful speed until his body moved into that classic arc and his broad shoulders propelled the ball on its way.

Quite simply, Cliff Gladwin was one of the finest cricketers that I have ever seen. Whenever Gladwin was on the field, something was always likely to happen, whether it was shattering the stumps, clouting a few late runs to frustrate the opposition, or running somebody out. In short, Gladwin was an entertainer, a character to help brighten up those austere years after the Second World War."

Gladwin played eight Test matches, taking 15 wickets at 38, figures that suggest he was just short of the highest class. Yet his greatest moment came in South Africa in 1948-49, when he scored a leg-bye off the last ball of the Durban Test to win the game.

“Coometh the hour, coometh the man,” he had announced on arrival at the crease, and he was as good as his word. He was 33 when he played the last of his Tests the following summer, but was one of the best bowlers in the country throughout the 1950s and could – perhaps should – have received greater recognition.

Whereas his partner in crime Les Jackson was philosophical about mistakes in the field, Gladwin could be fairly hard on team mates.

“Four for thirty-seven in nineteen overs…could have been four for thirty-three if that bugger had kept his legs together…” He knew his analysis TO THE RUN at the end of the innings and instilled in the young Harold Rhodes the need to make the batsman play everything and give nothing away. Rhodes, like Derek Morgan and Edwin Smith, often recounted how they got many wickets from batsmen taking a chance against them, having faced the opening pair for an hour or more with hardly a ball from which to score.

He could be outspoken, but people will always accept someone doing that when their actions on the pitch justify it. Cliff Gladwin set a standard of parsimony that has seldom been exceeded and is rightly regarded as one of the club’s greatest ever players.

An easy choice for best G. What would we give for another of his ilk?

PS - the picture above shows Gladwin bowling for Derbyshire in his pomp, with the field set for a bowler in command of his game.

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - F is for Forrester: Tom Forrester

I can safely say that Derbyshire have had few players of genuine talent whose names begin with F.

While we had high hopes of Travis Friend until his back problems, only two players whose names began with that letter have risen, not so much to the top, but from mediocrity.

One of them was Roger Finney, who for a few seasons looked like making it as an all-rounder. A medium pace left-armer, he could get the ball to move around and on occasion was a handful. He was also a batsman good enough to average 20 in the first-class game and stuck around like a latter day Fred Swarbrook. Just over 200 wickets was a fair return, but Finney’s spell at the top was relatively brief and he finished his career in the Minor Counties with Norfolk.

For me, the star turn is Tom Forrester, or Forester as he sometimes spelled his name (presumably when in a hurry…)

Forrester was a right arm medium pace bowler for Warwickshire from 1896-99 before registering for Derbyshire and playing for us from 1902-20. Born at Clay Cross, the move was a natural one, but he did only moderately in 1902 and 1903, played once in 1904 and then played no more cricket until 1910, when he was 37 years old.

In between times his game had improved, however, and in the four seasons preceding the First World War he gave sterling service. 1911 brought 62 wickets at 25, 1912 another 31 at 19 runs each and 1913 saw 65 wickets at 27.

The final season before the outbreak of war, 1914, was an especially impressive one. Seventy wickets at 20, twice taking ten in a match, was an admirable return for a man of 41, before cricket was effectively wound up until 1919.

Forrester the batsman was a left-hander good enough to make eleven half centuries, though an average of just 15 was far from spectacular. Although he returned briefly in 1919 and again in 1920, Father Time had caught up with him at last and he retired aged 47, after a career in which he took 347 wickets at 25, with best figures of 7-18. That well over half of them came after his 37th birthday is extraordinary but a long way from unique for that period .

He died in Nottingham in 1927. A steady cricketer, but not a legend, like the star turn in the Gs...

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - E is for Elliott: Harry Elliott

After the decisions that went in to choosing letters A to D, even ET could choose the winner of letter E. Whatever way you look at it, the answer is going to be Elliott...

John Eggar was an attractive stroke player when available from teaching commitments in the late 1940s and early 1950's, while Peter Eyre contributed with bat and ball in the 1960's. Eyre's great moment, of course, came in the Gillette Cup semi-final at Chesterfield in 1969, when he took six Sussex wickets and was close to being unplayable.

However, the choice really comes down to two men, both named Elliott.

My second choice would be Charlie Elliott. An opening batsman of great determination, he scored over 11,000 runs for the county. His peak came after the Second World War, when he scored a thousand runs in six successive seasons. A career average of only 27 per innings was not spectacular, but in the context of the county game at that time he was a solid professional.

He later became a first-class umpire and was highly respected, standing in 42 Test matches. Latterly he served on the club committee for ten years, giving great service alongside his former captain and colleague Guy Willatt. He was the last of Derbyshire's pre-war cricketers to die, at the age of 91 in 2004.

Yet for me it was his uncle, Harry, who is number one. Born in 1891, he joined the county staff in 1920 after the First World War at the age of 29. There was no 'discrepancy', as the club site puts it, over his age. He simply lied about it and took four years off, as he would never have got a county contract at his real age of 29. He only revealed this fact at a players reunion in 1967, which meant his last appearance came at the age of 55!

He was a sticker as a batsman. always at his best when staving off a defeat. A first class record of only 14 per innings tells that he never fulfilled early promise, but he sold his wicket dearly and when runs were needed he had a distinctive 'mow' through mid wicket from one knee that brought him many runs.

While Bob Taylor later passed his aggregate of victims, Elliott still holds the club record dismissals in an innings, a match and a season. He also took more stumpings in a season than anyone else (30)and was a very good wicket-keeper over a career that spanned 25 years.

Most astonishingly, in 1935 he didn't allow a bye in 25 completed innings. This speaks volumes for the accuracy of the attack, but with two spinners in Townsend and Mitchell it says much more for Harry Elliott. After his career ended he became a successful first class umpire and county coach, while for years he ran a sports shop in Derby with Derby County footballer Sammy Crooks.

Derbyshire have been well served over the years by their glovemen. While Bob Taylor is still the benchmark, there have been few better than Harry Elliott, a deserved winner of the E award.

As for the Fs, there's not too many candidates, I'll warn you now...

The A-Z of Derbyshire Cricket - D is for Di Venuto: Michael Di Venuto

Choosing the best player whose surname begins with the letter D is, like many of the others, a fairly difficult task, but after a little thought I came down to a top three with which I am quite comfortable.

It was difficult to omit Phillip De Freitas. He had made his name at Leicestershire and Lancashire before joining the county, but was a fine player for several seasons. A fast-medium bowler who could trouble the best, as one would expect with someone of his international experience, De Freitas was also a brilliant fielder and an explosive hitter who could turn a game in a short time.

While at times giving the impression, rightly or wrongly, that he wasn’t in the mood, ‘Daffy’ at his best was a very fine player who, with Dominic Cork, gave us two quality all-round cricketers in the lower middle order.

The same goes for Kevin Dean. At his best an excellent left-arm swing bowler, Dean looked like he was set for the very top when he first emerged, but injuries truncated his career. Although he was always capable of golden spells, they became more sporadic and his early retirement came as no surprise.

My third place, however, goes to long-time wicket-keeper George Dawkes, who was a fixture in the side, missing very few matches, from the Second World War to 1961. Tall for a wicket-keeper, Dawkes was nonetheless agile and had an excellent pair of hands. He took over a thousand victims, 254 of them catches from the bowling of Les Jackson. He held every catch in Jackson’s hat-trick against Worcestershire in 1958 and was a hard-hitting batsman who often enlivened an innings.

My number two, George Davidson, was one of the best of the county’s early professionals. Anyone who has read the memoirs of Levi Wright will know that Davidson was a mercurial character with a sharp tongue and an unerring ability to rub people up the wrong way. Wright’s wonderfully entertaining stories portray the Derbyshire dressing room of the time as not especially harmonious, but things were generally overlooked because Davidson was such a fine player.

On 43 occasions he took five wickets in an innings, ten times taking ten in a match with a best of 9-39. 621 wickets at 18 is indicative of a bowler of some talent, but it is the player’s batting skills that have earned him lasting recognition. 5500 runs at just under 24 isn’t spectacular, but on the wickets of the time Davidson was regarded as one of the top all-rounders. He hit three centuries, the highest of which saw him make 274 against Lancashire that remains the county record individual score. Even on this occasion Davidson’s stubbornness shone through, as he refused to give his wicket away or accelerate, which led to a game that we had dominated ending in a draw.

He died tragically young, at the age of 32 from pneumonia, but left his mark on the county and took a lot of replacing, the sure sign of a good player.

Which links neatly into my number one, and the outstanding Michael Di Venuto. Some may argue that we never replaced Diva and the decision to let our best batsman and fans favourite go still rankles, especially when the one-dimensional Travis Birt was preferred to him. The decision was perhaps brought on by Di Venuto’s back problems of the time, but it revealed an alarming lack of foresight, as has so often been the preserve of Derbyshire over the years.

This was the same county that failed to check Allan Lamb’s credentials to play as an Englishman when he was in our Second XI, and that cancelled the registration of Peter Kirsten when, had they simply retained it, they could have had him back with another overseas star after he had taken a season’s break from the game.

Di Venuto was a class act at county level. He was the rock around which Durham’s batting was built for several seasons and played all forms of the game with equal skill and panache. His Italian passport was an asset to them, and he was one of the best batsmen of his generation.

He was unfortunate in that, being at his peak at the same time as many other top Australians in a vintage era. Otherwise Michael would have doubtless translated his talent to the international arena and been admired by a wider audience. A first-class average of 47 suggests that he should have played more international cricket, but Australia’s loss was very much Derbyshire and Durham’s gain.

A brilliant fielder, especially at slip, Di Venuto was also one of the ‘nice guys’ of the game. In many ways he is the antithesis of George Davidson, by all accounts a curmudgeon, who on one recorded occasion reduced a team mate to tears...

Best D? Definitely Diva.