Minor Counties ListA Cricketers

INTRODUCTION It was a sad day on 4 May 2005 when, alongside my father Victor, we left Heath Road in Whitchurch knowing that the days of coming to quaint club cricket grounds like this were over. It was the ECB’s decision to reformat the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy, as it was called at the time, the following season to a two-division north and south set-up which meant that minor counties, like Shropshire on that pleasant day, would no longer have a chance to pit their wits against the first-class opposition and put on a big occasion like this one. To the first-class counties, they had nothing to gain. For their opponents, they had everything to gain. More often than not, the sides were made up by former county pros, upcoming promising youngsters, the odd overseas player, drafted in to bolster the side but mainly, the traditional good standard club players, who can regularly be found plying their trade every Saturday afternoon in the local leagues up and down the country. Of course, the first-class county side came and comfortably conquered in the vast majority of cases, putting the challengers in their place by peppering the makeshift stands or proving to be too good or quick on the club wickets. But there was also the occasions when the minor county players got their chance to play ‘away’ and appear on fully fledged county or even Test grounds. It wasn’t always plain sailing for the professionals. Who can forget 1987 when Buckinghamshire stopped Somerset, containing Martin Crowe, Vic Marks and Neil Mallender – international cricketers all – at High Wycombe. Or Cheshire beating a powerpacked Northamptonshire team by 1 wicket at Chester a year later. And more recently, Devon prevailing over Leicestershire at Exmouth in 2004 by losing fewer wickets in a fairly low scoring encounter. These are just a handful of occasions but sadly, these days are unlikely to return as the days of knockout cricket seem to have passed. This book is a tribute to all those players who have represented their minor county or representative county board teams in the Gillette Cup, NatWest Trophy, Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy and the Benson and Hedges Cup. I have decided not to include Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark or the Universities for the purposes of this book but have included the county board XI’s who were added for a brief period to the C&G Trophy. This is my first step into producing a book for the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians, an organisation I have been a member of since I was a ‘slip of a lad’. Many a meeting I attended alongside my dad, although in my very early days of ‘involvement’, I was more interested in collecting conkers from the outer at Worcester than listening in to the Association matters! I believe that, while still just 36, I am still regarded as one of the younger members we have! But I hope this book, featuring players and statistics for a competition still being fought out – even if it is in a different guise – will be of interest to the membership. As always with a book of this type, I have a number of people to thank. First of all, to Peter Griffiths and Philip Bailey at CricketArchive, who helped me greatly with the player profiles and have produced this book for the Association. To Andrew Samson, whose outstanding database of cricket matches has been the source of much of the statistics. To High Wycombe Cricket Club for providing the picture of a memorable moment in the competition history. To Mike Davage, who not only assisted me with my Norfolk queries but used his excellent detective skills to trace a number of others. Also thanks must be passed to Michael Weeks (Cornwall), Kevin Beaumont and Douglas Miller (Buckinghamshire), Julian Lawton Smith (Oxfordshire), Harold Shaw (Devon), Kevin Clement (Huntingdonshire), Gilbert Johnstone (Cumberland), Andrew Hignell (Wales Minor Counties), Tony Percival, the Minor Counties cricket guru and the cast of many from various clubs and counties who have begun puzzled by my odd requests for biographical details for this book but pointed me in the right direction to find the players. 3