Country Images Magazine North Edition November 2017 | Page 38

When rain
stopped play at
Queen’s Park
By John Shawcroft
QUEEN’S PARK was a disappointing end to Derbyshire’s home
programme, a waterlogged outfi eld causing the match against Kent to be
abandoned without a ball being bowled, despite periods of blue skies and
September sun. It was doubly irritating because three of the four days of the
previous home fi xture against Glamorgan at Derby had also been lost to
weather.
At least the season ended on a high note with Championship victories at
Hove and Bristol to enhance the T20 exploits earlier.
Rain stopped play is an occupational hazard for most cricket lovers and
winter memories tend to dwell on glorious summer days spent with
family and friends at Derby, Queen’s Park or at a Test match ground. It is
ironic that one of my outstanding recollections from decades of watching
Derbyshire concerns a rain-aff ected match that became an exercise in
futility.
Four matches
remaining
It occurred at Chesterfi eld in the wet summer of 1954 and, even allowing
for teenage romanticism and distance lending
enchantment, it produced county cricket which,
under the conditions, was of the highest quality.
Derbyshire, captained by Guy Willatt and
with Les Jackson and Cliff Gladwin in their
pomp, mounted a genuine challenge for the
Championship. Indeed, the evening of Tuesday
17 August, found an early edition of the
Derby Telegraph justifi ably proclaiming that
Derbyshire, aft er the previous day’s victory over
Worcestershire at the County Ground, had taken
over as new favourites for the title, particularly as
Yorkshire had lost to Middlesex. Th is had to be
qualifi ed later when Surrey sensationally pulled
off victory at Cheltenham ten minutes before a
downpour saturated the ground. Nevertheless,
the mathematics were straightforward. Derbyshire
had four matches remaining: if they won them
they would be champions. Th e next one was
against Middlesex at Chesterfi eld, due to start on
the following day.
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It was not lost on a crowd of 3,000 which packed Queen’s Park despite
the leaden skies which followed six hours of overnight rain. Derbyshire’s
side was Arnold Hamer, John Kelly, Guy Willatt (captain), Alan Revill,
Donald Carr, Derek Morgan, Bert Rhodes (emerging from retirement for
three games in August to help in the fi ght for the title), George Dawkes
(wicketkeeper), Cliff Gladwin, Edwin Smith and Les Jackson. Th e visiting
captain, Bill Edrich, decided to bat aft er winning the toss.
Edrich was a man who lived life to the full. In the Second World War he
attained the rank of Squadron Leader, operating as a pilot for RAF Bomber
Command. He took part in an audacious low level daylight attack by 54
Bristol Blenheims against power stations in the Cologne area, twelve aircraft
being shot down. Edrich, who was awarded the DFC, had an immense relief
that he survived the war and as a result loved to party and lived for the day.
Such courage extended to his cricket, notably against the Australian fast
bowlers Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller and in 39 Test matches he averaged
40. Always well in line, his most productive strokes were the hook and the
pull. In the ‘Edrich and Compton’ summer of 1947, his 3,539 runs smashed
the previous record – only for Denis Compton to exceed it with 3,816
and 18 hundreds. Conversely that year Edrich was one of Eddie Gothard’s
victims in an unlikely hat-trick at Derby.
Middlesex opening batsman John Dewes plays on. Th e bowler is Les Jackson and Bill Edrich is at
the non-striker’s end. Donald Carr is at slip and the umpire is Sam Pothecary.