Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

33 Chapter Five A hundred wickets Edwin wasn’t the only one with building plans in 1955. The County Ground got an overhaul over the winter and the club’s new indoor cricket school opened on 17 January, the ceremony being performed by the MCC assistant secretary S.C.Griffith. While not unduly spacious, with little room for bowler run ups, it was appreciated by the players. The season began with a home fixture against the touring South African side and saw the revamped County Ground declared officially open by the Duke of Devonshire. The game was played on the new square, which was now on the side of the ground that adjoined the Grandstand Hotel, bringing spectators much closer to the action. A new press box, changing facilities in the converted old jockey quarters on the racecourse and the demolition of the old pavilion gave the ground a new look. In front of the grandstand, new terracing to accommodate 3,500 members had been prepared. It augured well for the season, but the county slipped to eighth, suffering ten defeats. The number three slot vacated by Guy Willatt proved a problem all summer. Yorkshireman Charlie Lee had been specially registered for that position, but had suffered a broken leg playing football and was never fully fit. Various options were tried, none of them proving satisfactory. While Arnold Hamer and new skipper Donald Carr enjoyed prolific summers, Willatt finished top of the averages on his return to the side in the school holidays, reinforcing what was missed. Even worse was the shoulder injury that kept Les Jackson out of half of the season. He still finished top of the county averages, with 64 wickets at 14, but his absence placed an additional burden on the other bowlers. Cliff Gladwin rose to the challenge, taking 142 wickets at less than 15 and conceding under two runs an over, while Edwin enjoyed what was to be his most prolific summer. Much was down to increased opportunity, as he bowled 200 overs more than in the previous year, but his strike-rate and economy were also improved and Edwin became established as a key member of the Derbyshire attack. Hour after hour of sunshine in a golden summer dried out wickets and helped him too, but the confidence of being a capped player at 21 helped to make him, in the words of Donald Carr ‘one of the best off spin bowlers in the country’. Support came from Carr, whose left-arm unorthodox spin took 43 wickets. The nature of his bowling meant that there could be occasional, sometimes frequent, loose balls, yet these seemed to acquire an additional potency in