Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

64 Setbacks at the start of the Swinging Sixties African paceman Neil Adcock. Kelly was five years his junior, but had only two Championship innings in 1960, as Charlie Lee and Ian Hall took the opening berths. It wasn’t an ideal pairing, as Edwin explains. Charlie and Ian were good players, but as opening batsmen they were very alike. Charlie could play shots, but got bogged down at times and with Ian a dour player as his partner, we were very slow at the start of the innings. Both were good players of quick bowling but bowlers imposed shackles that we struggled to shake off subsequently. Arnold and John had complemented each other so well. Bowlers knew that if they over-pitched early in an innings Arnold would be after them. He was powerful and put his full body into shots, while John was more wristy. When he got going, John was perhaps the best-looking batsman in the side. Arnold was never stylish, but he was a very fine player. His cover driving was enjoyed by everyone, except those bowling to him and had he not lost those years to the war, he could have played for England, without a doubt. Yorkshire lost a few players to other counties over the years and he was as good as any of them. Despite his age, Hamer was apparently ‘devastated’ at the decision to release him, according to Walter Goodyear, who tried to console the player after coming across him when the news had been broken to him. One more season, perhaps partnering the young Hall and encouraging a more positive approach, may have been worthwhile, but the county’s perennially parlous finances meant that economies had to be made. Will Taylor, the county’s secretary from 1908 to 1959, had been replaced by Major Douglas Carr, the brother of the Derbyshire captain. Both men had a difficult job in balancing the books at a county where membership was traditionally low and money in short supply, as former groundsman Walter Goodyear recalled. Mr Taylor treated the club’s money as if it was his own, which in many ways it was, of course. There was rarely any spare cash for ground improvements and for most of my time at the club I had to ask favours of people to get tarmac, grass seed, fertiliser and other materials. I came to know that the time to ask for money was when he had people with him, as he didn’t want to appear ‘tight’. We had a few run-ins over the years, but he left the club in a better financial state than he found it, as well as overseeing a period of considerable success. The summer of 1960 was the club’s first without Will Taylor at the helm for over half a century, although he was to remain involved in the club in various capacities until 1972. Edwin remembers him with fondness. He was an outstanding administrator and learned early on that the only way the club could keep afloat was by prudent use of limited resources. Funnily enough, he was a generous man in other ways. When my wife