Lives in Cricket No 14 - Jack Bond

When the declaration came, Lancashire had 15 overs in which to make 137. What might be seen as a challenging target in the age of Twenty20 was an improbable mission in 1970, while the defending champions, in John Woodcock’s view, had no more than a thousand-to-one chance of success. Conceding that Lewis’s remote prospect of glory could justify his gesture, Woodcock still opined that ‘by bringing Lancashire back into the game, Glamorgan might have persuaded the people of Kent to march in their fury upon them.’ Needing to score at just over nine runs an over, Jack sent in Clive Lloyd and Engineer, while he and Sullivan padded up in readiness to have a go. Eleven runs came from the first over, but the last ball of the second saw Lloyd beaten by Bryan Davis’ fine throw from the long-on boundary as he attempted a second run. With Engineer also perishing early, the target was beyond the remaining batsmen. Two overs remained to be bowled when the match ended in anti-climax with Lancashire on 77 for five. Their consolation was 11 bonus points to Glamorgan’s two, but an innings defeat of Leicestershire brought 23 points to Kent, which took them past Glamorgan in the table and virtually ended Lancashire’s hopes. There were mixed emotions as the players scrambled onto their train to Paddington, their sights now fixed on the Gillette final. Unthinkably to the more cosseted players of the modern game, when they booked into their Clarendon Court hotel at eleven o’clock that night, they were within twelve hours of taking the field at nearby Lord’s. Meanwhile, back in Lancashire, many of the team’s wives, not permitted to join their husbands at the hotel, would have been gathering at the Bond home, where Florence would accommodate as many as she could before they all set off at the crack of dawn to join the excitement. Five of the Sussex team were survivors of the side that had won the first two limited-overs finals in 1963 and 1964, and they had as rich a one-day tradition as any county, but for the Lancashire players memories of performing in front of a capacity crowd were just six days old, and their supporters were in full voice in the glorious Lord’s sunshine as Jack won the toss. Deciding to field allowed his players to parade their strongest suit. Clive Lloyd, their inspiration, soon made his mark on the match. Hesitant running in the early stages and three run outs towards the end of the innings complemented tight bowling to keep the ‘They stormed the gates to get in’ 93