Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

71 Family man 70 against Hampshire at Portsmouth, hitting eleven fours in 90 minutes of batting. This was beaten at Ilkeston, when, coming in at 147 for five against Nottinghamshire, he hit 90 in just over two hours, with 16 fours among his shots. He followed this with a spell of 31 overs in which he conceded only 32 runs and took two wickets. Edwin is honest about his batting over the years. I was never a good player of fast bowling. I suppose it’s like the old saying that’s been attributed to a few people over the years – nobody likes it, but some show it more than others. I didn’t make many runs against genuine quicks, though I got better at stopping in against them as I gained experience. I was fine against spin, though. Denis Smith always used to say ‘You bowl it, you should be able to play it.’ At Buxton his economy reached new heights. Colin Milburn made 102 for Northamptonshire, his maiden century in first-class cricket, but Edwin returned the extraordinary second innings figures of 25.3-18-13-2. While Jackson and Morgan took four wickets each at the other end, they were appreciative of the control offered by Edwin. It had built pressure that ultimately proved too much for the visitors. Similar economy was achieved against Glamorgan at Swansea, where he took four for 16 in 21 overs, at one point bowling nine successive maidens. Back on home turf at Chesterfield, figures of three for 23 in 20 overs helped to bowl out Middlesex for an easy win. There was a wicket to be proud of, at least in later years, in June of that year, when Bob Taylor held a catch off Edwin’s bowling to dismiss a young opening batsman named Geoffrey Boycott. He was playing his second first-class match and Edwin went on to the excellent figures of 34-17-39-5 against a strong Yorkshire batting side. These were the figures of a fine bowler and the words of Donald Carr in the following year’s club year book reflected his value to the side. Apart from Jackson and Rhodes, the main bowling success was Edwin Smith. In recent years, on good batting wickets, he had failed to trouble the batsmen, but he is now learning the ‘art’ of bowling and is no longer the automatic purveyor of off spin that he was previously He has taken a long time to learn, but I see little reason why he should not progress to considerably greater heights. At this stage of his career, Edwin was not yet in what would normally be considered the prime of a spin bowler, yet had a decade of county experience. He had coped with changes to the covering of wickets, to the lbw law and to restrictions in the number of leg side fielders. He had learned to switch from being an attacking bowler to one whose role was to keep things quiet, then back again. He had developed new deliveries, and his batting, rising from eleven in the order to seven or eight. Edwin had done well in his apprenticeship and in the seasons ahead