History of Bucks CCC

the county’s best youngsters. Years later Ken Drucquer would proudly recall Wilf Slack, as an established county cricketer, saying of his time with Bucks Young Amateurs: “I learnt not just about how to play cricket, but how to behave oneself and do things in a proper way.” With the ACE sponsorship and with support now coming from the Sports Council, the first of a series of residential coaching classes at Bisham Abbey had taken place in the Easter holidays in 1978, with 24 Young Amateurs earmarked for intensive sessions with a professional coach. Each year since the original inception of the Colts, caps had been awarded to outstanding players. They were not easily earned and, when Cardigan Connor received his in the summer of 1978, it was only the seventy-fourth to be presented since 1947. About half of those earning caps, and many others who did not, had progressed to the county side for a match or two and a few, like Norman Butler, Ray Bond, Bill Atkins, Keith Edwards and John Turner, had gone on to long and successful careers. A few others were catapulted into the first-class game without ever playing for the county senior team, most notably Ian Gould, of Middlesex and Sussex, who played limited overs matches for England, and David Thomas of Surrey, once in the twelve for a Test match. But other young cricketers who had shown promise were lost to the county, and this concerned Orford and Drucquer. It was Drucquer who conceived the idea that there should be an Under 25 side to which the Young Amateurs could graduate and continue to develop their game. While Orford looked after the Young Amateurs with others assisting, the Under 25s became Drucquer’s prime responsibility. “There was no difficulty with fixtures,” he says. “The Army, the RAF, the Civil Service and some of the counties - we had a good list.” It all began modestly - three fixtures in 1981 but before long there was a festival with four counties competing for the Tom Orford Trophy. With all this activity Drucquer, in particular, was understandably incensed that so many of his best players should be ignored by the county team. It was not easy for David Smith as captain. He had to rely on the word of others when the claims of promising school and university players were pressed, and he knew that the step up to minor counties cricket was harder than others recognised. Moreover, when he sought a lead from the committee, he found people expecting the best of both worlds: instant success but with home-grown players. He recalls one meeting: “I said to them, ‘You can’t have both things together. If you want to bring in youngsters, fine – but it’ll take us two or three years, and I’m quite happy to go along with that – but if you want instant success we’ve got to bring some players in to do that.’ This was the big argument and it was agreed by the committee that we should bring some players in.” The North Circular was not the only recruiting ground for outsiders. The county also chose to follow the fashion of the day by registering overseas players, though those signed up by Bucks were still of unproven quality. In 1980 an Australian, Ken MacLeay, played a full season. He scored a few runs but his wickets were rather expensive, while the 13 captured by the New Zealander Gary Robertson were exorbitantly so. Nor did another Australian, left-armer Sam Parkinson, who opened the bowling in 1981, seriously strengthen the attack, though his compatriot Greg Ritchie, who arrived in the same year, showed that he was already a batsman of the highest class, passing fifty six times in the four matches in which he was able to play. Ritchie went on to represent Australia in 30 Tests, MacLeay played 16 limited overs matches for his country before returning to play for two seasons with Somerset in 1991, while Robertson played ten ODIs and one Test match for New Zealand. Parkinson alone of the quartet never tasted international cricket, but enjoyed moments of success with South Australia. Yet their combined performances for Bucks were arguably little better than the home-grown youngsters who might have been given their chance. 86 The North Circular team: Brian Poll and David Smith