Eddie Barlow - a 35th anniversary tribute - Part Three

P - Eddie then signed up for World Series Cricket and Kerry Packer. Presumably he did that without Derbyshire’s knowledge? Was there any awkwardness?

Dave Griffin - My recollection of him signing for WSC was that it was great for him and Derbyshire. He was outlawed from Test cricket because of South Africa’s isolation, so most Derbyshire people saw it as a rare opportunity for him to play top class cricket.

Bob Taylor – We were playing Somerset at Chesterfield in 1976 and batting on a hot day. In the dressing room Eddie suddenly exclaimed “There's going to be a revolution in cricket.” That's all he said but it was the first we heard about what became World Series Cricket.

P - How did he find WSC?

C – He got on a plane and turned right at Mauritius - only kidding!

The beginning was not auspicious at all with all the writs flying around, but the Boards had met their match with Kerry Packer and sanity prevailed. Eddie absolutely adored Australia and once thought of emigrating there. He did not play in the World Series proper, but his main job was captain of the Cavaliers side, which was mainly made up of injured players coming back to their best. 

Eddie went to Kerry once and told him that the players were getting too many injuries. He replied "The spectators want blood, I want blood and so does Channel 9." That was the end of that! There were a few incidents where Eddie dropped a couple of West Indian players because of bad timekeeping. They accused him of racism but Kerry soon sorted that one out.

P - The 1977 and 1978 seasons were two of my favourites as a Derbyshire fan, as Eddie led the team with panache and the players responded. Did he have any favourite players from that era?

C - Eddie didn't do favourites and the players he held in the highest regard would probably have got the sternest criticism, because he wanted them to do well. I remember a youngster he was coaching many years later saying to me "Why is the Coach always riding me"? My reply was "Because he respects your talent and wants you to do the same."

P - Who were the characters of that side?

Dave Griffin – They were all characters – just ask Geoff Miller!

(Around this time Miller and Hendrick did a brilliant comedy double act of two Derbyshire miners discussing the cricket club. 'Eric Bartlett' or 'Laszlo Baslow' was often discussed, as were 'Cliff Gladstone and Les Jackman' The former used to 'baarl big benders...')

Bob Taylor- It was a very happy dressing room and there was a homely and friendly atmosphere around the club. Eddie made us more competitive but we still had a lot of fun!

P - Did many of the players keep in touch later?

C - Like most walks of life, while you are with a group of people you are great buddies, but when you part your life changes. When their paths crossed it was as if they had met yesterday and I think most of them would say they would never forget what Eddie did for them.

Mike Hendrick - Eddie's arrival at Derbyshire gave my career the kick up the backside that it needed. He gave me the understanding of the strength and fitness needed to push on to achieve a flourishing career at Test level. His encouragement was a major factor in my development. He was a great bloke, on and off the pitch.

P - What sort of a captain was he? Would he have been quiet and authoritative, or prepared to give an Alex Ferguson-style hair dryer treatment to anyone who messed him about?

Bob Taylor – I was fortunate to play under two outstanding captains in Eddie and Mike Brearley. They were both very competitive and both commanded respect. You had total belief in them and in what they did. Eddie would always confer with you and listen to your thoughts.

Eddie was a fine batsman and his bowling was always dangerous. He bowled a good line, moved it a bit either way and he had a really quick ball that caught people out. He was outstanding as a skipper and rarely missed a trick.

Harry Cartwright – Eddie treated all the players as individuals and knew exactly how to get the best out of them -which player needed and arm around the shoulder and which one might need a much sterner approach. He was, quite simply, the best captain that I ever played under.

C - He would never ask a player to do anything he was not prepared to do himself. He led by example. I never knew him give a rollicking to anyone in his team in front of another player. I only once saw him go for a member of another team and he richly deserved what he would have got if Eddie had been a little quicker!

P – What was he like in defeat?

C - If the team had played badly he would walk off the field, go into the dressing room, get changed and go home. The next day he would call a meeting and in the cool light of day they would discuss what had gone wrong. Occasionally there would be a young whipper-snapper who thought he knew better than the captain. Eddie would send him to third man and then fine leg to get him out from under his feet!

Geoff Miller – On a personal level, Eddie transformed my career and was my most important mentor in county cricket. On a team level he transformed the whole of the thinking of Derbyshire County Cricket Club from a negative to a positive approach to the game.

P - What was his secret with young players? He seems to have had a knack of turning ordinary players into good county professionals. Was that force of personality, coaching tips or something else?

C - He never talked down to youngsters, always praised their endeavours, had a fund of stories for them, was always willing to listen to them and joined in their fun, even latterly from his mobility scooter. He also had their respect, which was probably why he did so well with the young county professionals.

Alan Hill - Eddie was ahead of his time in County cricket. He instigated a fitness regime and we were the first County to do track suited pre match warm ups. He was a man of high principles and standards and a shrewd reader of people which enabled him to get the very best out of his players with outstanding man-management skills. He was beyond the level of a captain-he was a General-and that's what we called him!!!!

Eddie Barlow - a 35th anniversary tribute - Part Two

Peakfan - Eddie was a big name in world cricket circles from around 1960 and county sides were recruiting overseas stars from the mid-1960s. I once read that he’d never been asked to join the county circuit before Derbyshire’s approach?

Cally Barlow - Yes that's right.

P - I still find it extraordinary that one of the top all-rounders in the world has to wait until he’s 36 for a county deal. How did that come about?

Dave Griffin - During the winter of 1975, George Hughes, Derbyshire’s chairman, who was a road haulage businessman from Loughborough, made enquiries about bringing a top world name to the club. Graeme Pollock was mentioned as well as Eddie and Derbyshire had to break the bank to sign him. At the time Garfield Sobers was earning £5,000 per season at Nottinghamshire and Barlow's £10,000 per season (around £85,000 today – P) sent serious shock waves through the cricket world. Hughes paid Barlow's salary, on the proviso that Derbyshire paid his tax. When the tax man came calling in the early 1980s, it became clear that Derbyshire hadn’t made good their promise on the tax!!

Bob Taylor – As far as the players were concerned, Eddie's reputation spoke for itself and there was no resentment about his salary. There was the odd comment around the circuit, but it wasn't an issue.

C - Eddie had so many things going on in South Africa. Cricketers had to earn a living in those days, as well as play cricket.

P - What were his first impressions of county cricket?

C - Mostly unprintable! He was always a player's man, which did not sit well with most administrators, but they were probably so desperate to get Derbyshire out of the doldrums that they would have agreed to anything he said and did. And he did a lot!. He had enjoyed his time in the Lancashire Leagues, where it was real blood and guts, but he found county cricket had very little direction. Some players were content to just play out the season, possibly due to no one really giving a damn, having just written them off.

Bob Taylor – Eddie took over from me as skipper part way through that first season. I wanted to concentrate on my wicket-keeping and believed that captaincy is something you have a natural aptitude for. Eddie had that, and as the senior player with international experience was the obvious choice to take over.

I remember he called a meeting soon afterwards and talked about professionalism, using me as an example. I used to have an hour's drive to the ground from my home. Eddie told the rest of the team that even when it was raining I did this with the expectation of playing cricket. He said too many cricketers were happy to sit in the pavilion in a negative state of mind when it rained. Eddie wanted us to stay positive, expecting to be on the pitch every day.

P - In that first season, Eddie’s batting form was the subject of a few moans from supporters. Did that bother him, or was he confident that it would come good in the end?

C - Eddie was always confident and I think he saw his job first and foremost as getting Derbyshire right, but he was at his best when he was getting either runs or wickets.

P - When he returned to form, it was with a career-best 217 against Surrey at Ilkeston. That was typically Eddie?

Dave Griffin – I saw the double hundred. There was real consternation among the members during the morning session as Eddie scratched around at the crease. The same members were giving him a standing ovation several hours later. One of the best innings I’ve ever seen.

C - Eddie never did anything by halves, but on the other hand he never revisited failure. He was always about tomorrow, never yesterday.

Gerald Mortimer - Eddie was an eternal optimist in his approach and in 1976 he lifted a bedraggled Derbyshire side, giving hope and belief to both players and supporters.

P - At the end of the first season, as referred to by John Wright in his autobiography, there were a couple of high profile departures from the county in ex-England players Phil Sharpe and Alan Ward. Wright suggests they did not subscribe to Eddie’s theories on physical fitness?

C - At that time it was most unusual for county players to even think about fitness of any kind. If you could bend your right arm, smoke coffin nails and party all night you were generally OK. It was a long way from Eddie's ethos for getting a team to peak performance and if players were not willing to go with what he wanted they got short shrift. Nor did he tolerate divisiveness in the dressing room.

Tony Borrington – Wardy had become very injury prone by 1976 and Bunter just could not see him lasting a season, when he was operating on a low budget with a small staff. He went to Leicestershire but was still plagued by injuries and it turned out to be a shrewd decision. However, I remember Wardy knocked Eddie's middle stump out at Grace Road (I was at the other end) and Bunter could see the irony in it!

Sharpey was a lovely man – greatly liked and respected. However, although a great slip catcher he was not the fittest at that stage of his career and the new fitness regime was always going to be a challenge. I don't recall it being controversial – I just think at that stage he was ready to move on to other things in his life.

P - So what did Eddie say to the players at the end of that first season? Looking at the difference between 1976 and 1977 it appears to have worked!

Tony Borrington – His training methods were innovative – specific training regimes for each player to be tested on the first day of pre-season. Also we did sprints fully kitted out in net sessions. He would call out 'run two' three times running so there was no complacency in the approach. He was very much ahead of his time.

Bob Taylor – He had us running around the County Ground and Queens Park even when it was raining. There was no room for complacency! You could always be fitter and Eddie used to stress the importance of concentration. People who maintain focus perform better and that's what separates international from county players. He helped us all, without question.

C - He was delighted for the players that fortunes improved and always quick to put his hand in his pocket when the occasion arose. He probably overstepped the mark when he took them all to a strip club. The wives found out and were furious...

P - Eddie then signed up for World Series Cricket and Kerry Packer. Presumably he did that without Derbyshire’s knowledge? Was there any awkwardness?

Dave Griffin - My recollection of him signing for WSC was that it was great for him and Derbyshire. He was outlawed from Test cricket because of South Africa’s isolation, so most Derbyshire people saw it as a rare opportunity for him to play top class cricket.

Bob Taylor – We were playing Somerset at Chesterfield in 1976 and batting on a hot day. In the dressing room Eddie suddenly exclaimed “There's going to be a revolution in cricket.” That's all he said but it was the first we heard about what became World Series Cricket.

To be continued...

Eddie Barlow - an appreciation

My series on Eddie Barlow that will commence in the early New Year has grown arms, legs and wings. As regular readers will recall, Eddie came to Derbyshire in 1976, so next year marks the 35th anniversary of that arrival.


As well as Eddie’s widow Cally, who has been very generous with her time, I’ve now had contributions from a number of players from that era, to who I am incredibly grateful.

Tony Borrington, Alan Hill, Harry Cartwright, Geoff Miller, Mike Hendrick and Bob Taylor have all contributed, as has Gerald Mortimer, who saw the period from the press box and knew Eddie very well. So has the club’s Honorary Secretary David Griffin, who, like me, saw a lot of the cricket in that period from the boundary edge and recalls it with great affection.

Their comments have helped me to put together a deserved appreciation of a man who did so much for Derbyshire cricket.

Look out for it starting sometime soon.

G'day Bozza!

Nice to read on the club site that Paul Borrington is off to Perth this winter to play for Midland Guilford, the club where Alec Stewart played with success. With Simon Katich, Tom Moody and Brendan Julian as former players he is obviously off to a good standard of cricket which can only be of benefit to him as he prepares for an important season in 2010.

Bozza has had a stop/start career with the club so far due to his studies at Loughborough University. Having now finished there, he is able to play cricket full time and was rewarded with a contract to 2012 by John Morris for some encouraging performances.

In 29 first class innings for Derbyshire and Loughborough UCCE he has managed two centuries and four fifties for a very respectable average of just under 35. He appears well balanced at the crease and nothing seems to faze him unduly. He is slight of build but not, by any means small at 5'10". An early reputation as a "sticker" with limited strokes has seen him play little one day cricket, but the signs are there that he is starting to go for his shots a little more after encouragement from John Morris. Indeed, a century for Loughborough last season saw him score 80-odd before lunch, pretty good going by any standards.

He comes from good cricketing stock of course, with his Dad, Tony a fixture in the Derbyshire side in the 1970's. At times Tony could look a good player and played some fine innings for the club, but never with quite the frequency to set him apart as a very good county cricketer. He was a similar height to Paul, but my memory suggests he was of sturdier build. He and Harry Cartwright were the young players in Eddie Barlow's era, both of them capable of batting with aggression, but also digging in when required. Tony managed three first class centuries for the club with another one day ton, something that his son will hope to pass, if only for bragging rights!

At this stage Paul looks a genuine prospect but next year is a big one for him. Free from studies, he can devote his energies to becoming the real deal and with the new quotas on age group players he will start the season as a favourite for a regular place.

Although an opening batsman, it is more likely (for me) that he will bat three for Derbyshire in 2010 as we have what looks like a tremendous pairing of Madsen and Rogers "up top". That could mean that Garry Park drops to five and leaves Greg Smith at four with Redfern at six, but it's all hypothetical at this stage.

A good winter in Australia should set him up nicely and I look forward to reporting on his form as the winter progresses.