Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

60 Chapter Ten A decade ends As the 1950s drew to a close, the lot of the county cricketer had changed little. The financial rewards were few, but the camaraderie of the circuit remained. Transport was slowly improving, the first part of the M1 motorway opening in 1959 to link Watford and Rugby, though the vagaries of fixture scheduling led to many frantic trips across country late at night. Car ownership in the UK exceeded three in ten of households, one of them now belonging to Edwin Smith. I’d relied on the likes of Cliff and Les to give me lifts for several years and it was nice to be able to repay some of those favours. It saved me a lot of travelling time, although there were still journeys where it was deemed more financially viable for us to go by train. The rain of 1958 was followed by better weather in 1959 and it was a summer of firm, true wickets and regular sunshine. Perhaps it was a reflection on fortunes at Derbyshire, where young players were at last starting to emerge. We saw the likes of Ian Buxton, Ian Hall and Peter Eyre appear, tribute to the work done by Denis Smith. Ian hit the ball hard and swung it into batsmen, while Ian Hall became a really gritty, dogged opening batsman over the next decade. He was more valued by his team mates than perhaps by spectators and the opposition. He didn’t play too much in front of the wicket, but Ian became a valuable and brave opening batsman, once making a century in each innings against Kent. He played fast bowling very well and they gave up bowling bouncers at him. He either ducked or swayed and could never be tempted to hook. Peter Eyre was a lovely player and a smashing bloke. If I could have cloned him I could take on most sides, because he would always give you a hundred per cent. Like Harold, his career was affected by controversy, as there was a suggestion that he threw. He didn’t – tests later showed him to have a double-jointed elbow. He could bat as well, but he had a lot of bad luck with injuries. He also suffered from alopecia and was quite self-conscious about it for a while, so took to wearing a wig. One time at Ilkeston, he was running in to bowl and he’d not properly applied the adhesive tape and elastic on it. The wig was bouncing up and down as he ran in and