All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

254 Born in Chertsey, Surrey at the end of 1974, Johnson played his early club cricket for Sunbury. Not yet 18, he made his first-class debut at the end of 1992 season and established himself in the Middlesex side two years later. Well-built, six foot two inches tall, and with a high action, he was coming into a successful side. Champions in 1993, Middlesex would finish fourth in 1994 and runners-up the following year. Neither Derbyshire nor Middlesex had started the season well and had had to wait until mid-June for their first Championship victories. Derbyshire had followed up theirs by beating the touring New Zealanders by an innings, and must have had hopes of success against a Middlesex side lacking opening bowlers Angus Fraser and Neil Williams. They started well, scoring 344 mainly due to captain Kim Barnett’s 148 which took him past 20,000 first-class runs. Starting their innings early on the second day Middlesex achieved a hefty lead thanks to centuries from Mike Gatting, Mark Ramprakash and John Carr. Under TCCB playing conditions two extras were scored for every no-ball bowled whether scored off or not and so 27 no-balls made a significant contribution to a very useful 81 extras! The County Ground would finish the season in equal second place in the TCCB Table of Merit for pitches (based on umpires’ marks), and so in good batting conditions the high scoring so far was perhaps not unexpected. However things changed on Saturday when Johnson got his hands on the ball at the beginning of Derbyshire’s second innings. Although his first-class career had so far been fairly modest, he already included Brian Lara among his victims, having dismissed him the previous month to end a run of five successive first-class centuries (and this a fortnight after bowling him in a Benson and Hedges Cup match). Johnson soon got going, dismissing both openers with only nine on the board, Barnett slashing a loosener to gully and Matthew Vandrau bowled through the gate. There was something of a recovery as the score reached 30 for two, but then Johnson got to work again to leave Derbyshire 43 for seven, his first nine overs bringing him figures of seven for 17. He was rested three overs later. Writing later in the Middlesex 1994/95 Review, Johnson recalled how tired he had been feeling, and when he came back after tea for a second spell his first two and a half overs went for 18 runs. He eventually settled down however and was re-energised when he broke an eighth wicket partnership of 50 between Simon Base and Colin Wells (who had just moved to Derbyshire after a long career with Sussex), a yorker pinning Base in front of the stumps. Eleven runs later a full length ball hit Wells’ off stump. Having taken nine wickets, most bowlers would be happy to see Devon Malcolm coming to the wicket (with due respect to a bowler who the following month would take nine for 57 against South Africa, figures only ever bettered for England by Jim Laker and George Lohmann). The problem of course was that Malcolm might get out to the bowler at the other end. With Middlesex miles ahead, another day left, and the weather set fair, captain Mike Gatting could afford to help Johnson get his final wicket (although Johnson later said he hadn’t been too bothered) and so opening batsman Desmond Haynes was brought on to trundle, hopefully innocuously, at the other end. The plan worked, Ramprakash at third Richard Johnson