Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

118 An impossible task the door of the coach, but people were generally understanding, as Edwin explains. Brian Bolus was some way off his best, as was Mike Page. Alan Hill came in and showed great promise, but he was a young lad and couldn’t be expected to carry the side. We hadn’t the experience for big scores, nor for bowling sides out. Losing Mike to England was great for him, but a blow for us, while Venkat wasn’t close to his best either. It amounted to a very frustrating summer. As the end of the season approached, Edwin received a letter from the club, saying that they would be dispensing with his services at the end of the season. The financial situation had become so precarious that two young players of potential, Colin Tunnicliffe and Bob Swindell, were released, while the club dispensed with its second team and gave up on Club and Ground matches, the usual conduit into the club for young players. Tunnicliffe was later to return and become a fine bowler for the county, but the club was in turmoil. An approach was made to Derby Borough Council to take over maintenance of the County Ground, a potential saving of £6500. They refused, offering £100 per day of cricket, or £1200 in 1975, but it was not enough. While the club offices remained at the ground, their continued existence, at least in the short term, became a nomadic one. In his annual report, the club chairman, Ken Turner, made the club’s parlous state quite clear. He said that the immediate aims were only survival, and a return to the club’s successful playing days of a few years before. They made for an unlikely pairing, the latter dependent on resources that the club simply did not have. Edwin never had a contract, merely a gentleman’s agreement. I didn’t get a big lump sum. I got £100 and a thank you for my services. After all those years I think they saw me as a stick of furniture, nothing more. When that sort of thing happens, you start to think back over silly things, like when we were short of bath towels and Jean and I went and bought some ourselves from a shop in Sheffield. Or how we never got paid for cleaning the indoor school. Fred Swarbrook took a collection from a few of the younger lads and they gave me 200 cigarettes, but that was it. Twenty-four years and gone, like that. It was difficult not to feel bitter. Derbyshire were unable to afford another coach until 1976.