Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

107 Centenary summer four straight wins and initially appeared to have done well, limiting Northamptonshire to 151 all out in their 40 overs. Once again, Edwin wasn’t asked to bowl, a decision that seemed all the more strange when Denis Breakwell, the home side’s left-arm spinner, bowled eight straight overs and took four wickets for ten. The other was on 5 July, when a Derbyshire side played the MCC at Chesterfield, in a match played under John Player League rules to mark the club’s centenary. The MCC was effectively a Derbyshire old boys side, bolstered by Yorkshire’s Phil Sharpe (later to play for the county) and Doug Padgett. Aged 49, Les Jackson conceded only 34 runs in his eight overs, while at 53, Cliff Gladwin conceded only 19. With ‘youngster’ Brian Jackson (37) also conceding only 34 runs, the old guard did well, Ian Hall’s 81 ensuring that the current side made a competitive 186 for six. Guy Willatt top scored with 26, exactly half of his age, as the MCC were bowled for 128, with Edwin claiming the wickets of his two captains from the 1950s (Donald Carr the other), as well as Padgett for just 24 runs. That was his final one-day action of the summer, one in which his side played some very good 40-over cricket, winning 11 of their 16 games and finishing in third. One of the best displays was at Ilkeston, when David Smith’s 85 from just 61 balls saw a potentially awkward run chase accomplished with over ten overs to spare. This came just a week after Alan Ward’s sensational four wickets in four balls saw another fine win over Sussex, at Derby. Twice they capitulated badly in front of the television cameras, while second-placed Kent beat them at Maidstone in front of a crowd of 10,000. Derbyshire failed to cope with Derek Underwood, on another wicket where a spinner might have proved useful. The big game was at Buxton, where eventual champions Lancashire, having been put into bat with rain threatening, amassed 229 for nine on a wicket that helped the bowlers. With the exception of Phil Russell, whose eight overs were remarkably parsimonious and went for only 20 runs, the rest of the attack was put to the sword, after Faroukh Engineer led off with 46 from just 28 deliveries. Derbyshire never got close and were all out for 115, yet another spinner, David Hughes, taking four wickets. An enormous straight six by Wilkins, still on its way up as it left the ground, was the only highlight for the home side, who were heavily beaten in front of a very vocal crowd, estimated at 8,000. It was a summer of exciting cricket, marking a new decade and a new century for the club. It was one that suggested a bright future, but it fell apart with undue haste, as Edwin explains. David Smith retired at the end of the summer to start a career outside the game. Ian Hall had a good summer in 1971 in his place, but then