Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

81 Summer of drama He had figures of seven for 38 as Derbyshire nearly beat Warwickshire in the Championship and the side turned up at Lord’s for their second round Gillette Cup match at Lord’s against Middlesex after an easy win over Oxford University, where Edwin had five wickets for 23 runs. Edwin was twelfth man for the one-day game but remembers the ill-feeling clearly. We bowled well to put them out for 161, but after a good start, we had collapsed to 77 for eight. Then Bob Taylor and Harold added 74 for the ninth wicket and it came down to needing 11 off the last three balls. At that point Ted Clark fired all three well down the leg side, presumably on the instruction of his captain, Fred Titmus. Such a ball was not deemed a wide at that time, but it just wasn’t the sort of thing that you did. It made for an acrimonious end to a good match and was unnecessary. Just over a fortnight later, Middlesex were due at Chesterfield for a Championship match. Apparently one or two of their players had discussed a protest about Harold’s bowling, even to the point of insisting that he was left out of the team. It didn’t come to that and Rhodes replied with figures of six for 24 as Middlesex were bowled for 85 and Derbyshire went on to win with ease. After it, Fred Titmus reported Rhodes to Lord’s, although the two umpires, Tom Spencer and Hugo Yarnold, had been satisfied with his bowling. Worse was to follow. Rhodes had been filmed during the Gillette Cup match at Lord’s and based on that film the MCC felt his action still suspect. Doug Insole, chairman of the Test selectors, wrote to Derbyshire and said that he couldn’t be selected for the England team. No action was taken against Titmus for his comments. When the South Africans arrived at Queen’s Park on 26 June, Rhodes was top of the national bowling averages and the press clamour for his inclusion in the national team grew to a crescendo. Edwin takes up the story. It was the first tour match for them and a dull, cloudy day. Eddie Barlow, who later came to Derbyshire, got 50, but only Graeme Pollock and Colin Bland got going among the rest and they were all out for 149. Harold took four for 35 and bowled very well. We had been batting poorly and did so for most of the season, to be fair. After reaching 75 without loss, we were all out for 143. In the first innings, Jack Crapp had umpired at square leg for Harold, but when they began their second innings, Sid Buller was in that position as he began the second over. After the first ball he moved to point, where he watched the next two, then moved back to square leg, where he no-balled the next two deliveries. Harold finished the over bowling slow leg breaks off a short run. Derbyshire won the match by seven wickets, their first victory over a full- strength touring side since beating New Zealand in 1937. Edwin bowled