Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

51 period, Derbyshire won their next two games. Leicestershire were heavily beaten at their Aylestone Road ground, a venue not used by the county since 1939. Edwin had three for 17 in nine overs in the first innings and was nigh-unplayable in the second, with figures of 16-5-19-6. Gladwin and Jackson then demolished Essex at Burton-on-Trent, before Yorkshire visited the scenic splendours of Queens Park in Chesterfield for the season’s return fixture. The game was a benefit for Les Jackson, the first awarded by the county since the one for all-rounder Arthur Morton in 1924. Astonishing as it may now seem, a crowd of 11,000 attended the first day and Edwin recalls them being ‘row after row deep’ at the bandstand side of the ground. The Yorkshire bowling didn’t have the edge of the previous encounter and Derbyshire amassed 292 in their first innings, led by a typically solid and understated innings by John Kelly, who made 106 and was supported down the order. Yorkshire’s opening batsmen were still together at the close and by lunch next day the visitors had reached 131 for two, with Brian Close well set, He went on to make 120 in the afternoon session, before being smartly stumped by George Dawkes off Edwin’s bowling. The rest of the side folded before Gladwin and Jackson, being all out just before tea for 199, Jackson taking five for 51. After tea, Derbyshire’s top order crumbled before Trueman and Bob Platt, but Donald Carr and George Dawkes launched a breathtaking counter-attack. Dawkes began by hooking Platt for six and made a run-a-minute 75. Derbyshire were 174 for five at the close, 267 runs ahead and the question as the crowds turned up on the third day was when the declaration might come. Carr and Laurie Johnson hit freely in an unbroken stand of 85, before Carr’s declaration left Yorkshire 325 to win in 260 minutes. Jackson dismissed both openers in the first 20 minutes, but solid contributions down the order left the visitors in with a chance, before Carr’s left hand slow bowling took three quick wickets. The new ball saw Jackson take wickets in his second and third overs, but another 15 were to elapse before he returned for a final spell and had Platt caught at slip by Laurie Johnson with the last ball of his 29th over. There were eight minutes to spare and he had six for 63, giving match figures of eleven wickets for 114 runs. It had been a wonderful match and a successful one for Jackson. Gate receipts totalled £1565, with a further £227 in collections; and he went on to another golden season, taking 138 wickets at an average of 16. So too did Cliff Gladwin, the 11th time that he had reached that landmark, but at 41 the bowler, who also passed 1500 wickets for the county during the season, realised that times were changing. Edwin explains: Cliff had become Derbyshire’s record all-time wicket-taker during the season and bowled nearly 900 overs. Yet an experimental law had been introduced, which limited the number of fielders a bowler could have West Indian summer