History of Bucks CCC

The following year, 1986, Atkins averaged 61, with a top score of 160 not out against Shropshire at Bridgnorth, to earn the Wilfred Rhodes Trophy. For this season the captaincy remained a problem. Richard Hayward was not around and the nominal skipper, David Smith, could play in only the last five matches, Ian Hodgson deputising in the knockout matches, Neil Hames taking over in the Championship and Steve Burrow also captaining on one occasion. There were two tight games in the knockout, victory against Staffordshire coming with one wicket and two balls to spare, then failure, by just five runs, to overhaul Berkshire’s total of 194. Paul Atkins was at the centre of the action in both games, partnering Burrow in a recovery stand of 116 for the sixth wicket in the first match and watching the late order wickets tumble at Bracknell as he stood undefeated on 85 with victory tantalisingly close. The hero of the last wicket stand against Staffordshire had been Steve Edwards, who had first appeared for the county the previous summer. A useful batsman, his principal role was as a tight left-arm seam bowler. He came to Bucks in his mid-thirties, another from London club cricket but one whose work would take him to Milton Keynes and membership of the Wolverton club. In 1986 he was Bucks’ leading wicket-taker in the Championship, and he was regarded as an ideal bowler in the limited overs game. Opening the attack with Edwards this year was Chris Booden, briefly with Northants, who would become a pillar of Bucks sides into the 1990s, playing 66 matches. He had the first of two outstanding analyses, taking seven for 19 in the defeat of Devon at Marlow, figures he improved upon with seven for 17 against Wales MC in 1988, but at the end of the day the price of his 124 wickets, 32.48, illustrates the growing domination of the bat in minor counties cricket. Jack Tomlin had succeeded Paul Slatter as secretary in 1985. Another destined to serve a long term as secretary, Tomlin had played 14 matches for the county as a middle order batsman, but he had found greater sporting fame as a footballer with Wycombe Wanderers, for whom he played in front of a crowd of 90,000 in an Amateur Cup Final at Wembley. Sixth place in the Championship in 1986 was enough to ensure Bucks qualification for the NatWest Trophy but, with the only wins coming at the expense of Devon and Cornwall, the team’s performance was a disappointment to the new secretary, who wrote in his report of the season: ‘It is perhaps a pity that qualifying for the NatWest seems to be the primary objective in competing for the Minor County Championship and actually winning the Championship seems to be of secondary importance.’ Perhaps these words goaded the team on to greater things. The greatest day: defeat of Somerset The time had come for David Smith to hand the captaincy on to Neil Hames. Smith’s last match, in 1988, was his 141 st and when he retired only John Turner and Walter Franklin had scored more than his 4,922 runs for Bucks and only Turner had exceeded his 99 catches. Smith had enjoyed mixed fortunes as county skipper and he would share the assessment of others that he was not always the most aggressive of leaders. “Neil was more adventurous than I was,” he now says of his successor, “and whatever he tried it would always work!” 92 The greatest day: defeat of Somerset Jack Tomlin