Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

66 Setbacks at the start of the Swinging Sixties wickets that summer and they cost over 30 runs each for the first time. Wickets were now covered and that made life more difficult for spin bowlers across the country, but Edwin adapted and eventually became a better bowler on good wickets than when the ball was turning appreciably. I didn’t feel right that summer. Maybe my action had changed slightly and unwittingly because of the injury. I always bowled with my left palm facing upwards as my arm came over – Arnold Hamer used to say I had the collection plate ready – and perhaps a small technicality affected the mechanics of the action. It is easy to overlook the mental side of a break to a cricketer too. You wonder if the first hard hit that you stop will break it again. The truth is that a broken bone mends and is perhaps stronger than it was before, of course, but for whatever reason I didn’t bowl at my best in 1961. Yet I thought about my game and started to use more flight, the arm ball and a top spinner. I got in closer to the stumps, so my arm was coming over middle stump. If I held on my front foot as I bowled, I got more turn, so sometimes I ‘went through’ on it, which opened up lbw decisions if the batsman missed, as it didn’t turn so much. At least Edwin’s batting improved, with a career-highest aggregate of 443, at an average of just under 15. It kept him ahead of the competition, as Bob Berry failed to take advantage of the dip in form, taking only 17 wickets in his appearances. Four batsmen passed a thousand runs, with the now-prolific Laurie Johnson highest in both aggregate and average, The dependable Charlie Lee, Yorkshireman Billy Oates and Donald Carr all did well, while in the bowling ranks Harold Rhodes reached a hundred Championship wickets for the first time, Meanwhile, Les Jackson was recalled to the England side after a 12-year gap, playing against the Australian tourists at Headingley. His Derbyshire team-mates were thrilled for the player, but also saddened, as Edwin explains. Les was 40 and while still a fine bowler, was understandably not quite as good as he had been. He took four for 83 in the match and went for two an over. Throughout the 1950s, every time the Australians came on tour they expected him to be in the England side and were astonished when it didn’t happen. They knew, like everyone on the circuit did, that he was the best, most consistent seam bowler in the county game. Indeed, Donald Bradman thought him the best young quick bowler they faced as early as 1948. He played his part in an England win then they dropped him again, for Jack Flavell of Worcestershire. He was a good bowler, but not as good as Les. It was frustrating for all of us, but Les just got on with his game. It was a season that suggested the end of an era, as news broke that Donald