Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

35 A hundred wickets the light of the parsimony from elsewhere. While Derek Morgan had a summer where his bowling struggled for rhythm, time and again Gladwin and Edwin bowled long, accurate and penetrative spells to keep their team in games. A glance at the scorecards of the summer shows how remarkably accurate this young bowler was, evidenced not just by his economy but by the number of victims bowled and leg-before. I used to bowl very close to the stumps and aim for a spot just outside off at the other end. By getting in so close, I only had to turn the ball a little to beat the middle of the bat and if the batsman left a ‘gate’ I had a good chance of getting through and bowling him. Worcestershire were again victims, this time at Worcester. Six for 45 in 22 overs, five of them bowled and one caught at slip, before Gladwin and Carr made short work of their second innings for an easy win. At Bristol, Gloucestershire narrowly avoided defeat, despite Edwin’s figures of 18- 9-29-3 and 18-3-39-5. Back at Chesterfield, he took six for 69 in 38 overs against Essex (four bowled) and three for 14 in eight overs in the second innings. Four for 34 in 16 overs against Glamorgan was followed by a less prolific but equally meritorious effort against Lancashire, when a 40-over spell conceded just 52 runs for two wickets, while the Jackson-Gladwin combination took the rest of the wickets at the other end. At Leicester, on a good batting wicket where the game ended in a high scoring draw, he took three for 17 in 18 overs. These were the figures of an experienced bowler, not a relative rookie. His greatest memory of that summer came in the following game, against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. Derbyshire had only previously won twice on this ground and with the prolific Australian leg spin bowler Bruce Dooland in their ranks, the home side would have fancied their chances. Edwin takes up the story. Arnold Hamer was a wonderful batsman. He could be susceptible to the swinging ball early in his innings, like most players are, but when he got going he was a fine sight, as long as you weren’t bowling to him! He had a great record against Nottinghamshire and their opening bowler, Arthur Jepson, would usually offer him 50 runs if he stayed in the dressing room. That day, Arnold raced to fifty, but from 94 for one we slid to 133 for seven when I went in. Bruce Dooland had just taken three wickets in seven balls and the ball was spinning a long way for the first day of the game. I went in at number nine and Arnold just told me to stay there, while he did the rest. I did that for a while, but then started playing some shots of my own. Almost before I knew it, I had 50 on the board and that was my first for Derbyshire. I had the best view in the house of Arnold in full flow and he treated