Famous Cricketers No 99 - Bob Taylor

Bob Taylor Robert William [Bob] Taylor was born at Stoke-on-Trent on July 17th, 1941. His cricket began at school, and it was while attending St. Peter’s Church of England Secondary School in 1953 that his ability as a cricketer was recognised, though not initially as a wicket-keeper. Bob soon found that so far as fielding was concerned he was not a sufficiently involved in the game as his make-up demanded. Consequently he asked the games master if he could have a trial at wicket-keeping in a games lesson, and he shaped so well that when he was only 12 years old of age he was appearing for the School Under 15 XI. These games, as well as school football, were played on the black cinders of the car-park-cum-training-ground of the Stoke City Football Club’s Victoria Ground, situated quite close to where he was born. Soon, however, he moved on to the grass pitches of the Sideway C.C., who play in the Stone and District league. The games master at St. Peter’s was Mr. Stanley Brassington, who was also Hon. Secretary of the Bignall End C.C., a well known and long established club in Staffordshire, where Aaron Lockett was the coach. Mr. Brassington gave Bob a very considerable amount of help and advice in his early cricketing days, and his protégé made such rapid progress that he took him along to Bignall End, where he received further sound advice in the art of wicket-keeping and soon he became a member of the Club’s Under 18 XI which played in the Kidsgrove League. Inevitably Taylor soon came to the notice of Jack Ikin (born at Bignall End), the former Lancashire and England batsman, and in 1956 Bob first played for Bignall End 1st XI in the powerful North Staffs. League. Bob’s ability increased at such a rate that in 1958 he made his first appearance for Staffordshire against Shropshire at Norton, whilst still some two month’s short of his 17th birthday. When he arrived at the ground on the opening day the gateman refused to allow “this boy”, with his cricket bag, to enter the ground until another player arrived and was able to vouch for him. He retained his place in the Staffordshire XI, thanks to the generosity of his employers (the local Electricity Board), who granted him leave in order to play, and he was ‘capped’ in 1960. In the same season he kept for the Minor Counties against South Africa, this being his initial first-class match. During this period Clifford Gladwin, the former Derbyshire bowler, was professional to the Longton C.C., and having seen how promising a keeper Bob Taylor was, he recommended him to the Derbyshire executive. He played in two matches for Derbyshire 2nd XI, first against Lancashire at St. Helens when he caught five, and then against Northamptonshire, at Derby when he made a very useful 25. He was then specially registered to play for Derbyshire in 1961 and when Dawkes hurt his knee badly in the eighth match of the season at Old Trafford, Taylor made his debut in the next game against Sussex at Derby. His first victim was Ken Suttle, caught off Ian Buxton, and he went on to claim two more in the second innings. He recalls, too, how he played out time to thwart Sussex when his partner, Harold Rhodes, batted in a pair of suede shoes because he had injured his foot whilst bowling. Bob played in 16 more matches out of the remaining 22 in 1961. George Dawkes had a cartilage operation during the following winter and made a good recovery. However, just before the season began in 1962, he hurt his knee again in a minor car accident. He quickly realised that he would be unable to stand up to the three day game, and Bob took over at the start of the season to remain as the regular Derbyshire wicketkeeper for the next 22 years. Having followed George Dawkes and Harry Elliott, who also had 1,000 victims in first-class cricket, he became only third post-war wicket keeper for the county. In his first full season he secured 80 wickets when he broke the Derbyshire wicket-keeping record with 77 catches. In 1963 he claimed 83 victims [81 caught], and in 1965 he dismissed 86 batsmen, 79 being caught. 4