Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

83 Summer of drama black humour, Rhodes being nicknamed ‘Percy’ after the television gardener, Percy Thrower. He was not the only one under scrutiny in a difficult summer, as Edwin explains. Peter Eyre was another whose action was questioned. He had to change his action but they eventually discovered that he was double-jointed. It was a witch hunt and how Harold managed to conduct himself with such dignity over the years was a mystery to us all. It spoke volumes of the man really. He should have been an England regular and many worse bowlers opened the bowling for England over the years. Edwin was another who was being mentioned in higher circles and in the press. With Mick Allen unable to bowl with the requisite accuracy and taking only 22 wickets, Edwin’s 71 at just under 20 were appreciated by his captain, who said that Edwin ‘bowled his off spin magnificently, with no little skill and great stamina’. For the latter comment he was perhaps thinking of the summer’s drawn final match at Scarborough. Early on the second morning, Derbyshire having been bowled for 112 on the first, Rhodes tore muscles in his side and had to go to hospital. Peter Eyre pulled a muscle in his groin while Brian Jackson did the same, soon after dismissing Geoffrey Boycott. It left Edwin and Derek Morgan to bowl almost unchanged for the rest of the day. Edwin’s final figures were 55-21-117-4 and he also held four catches. At one point he bowled 37 successive overs and at the tea interval reportedly went straight into the bar for a pint. He laughs at the memory. I did, but it was only for a pint of shandy, nothing like the old days when something stronger was how some players got through a long day in the field. I remember being very tired that night though – and no wonder! Derbyshire finished ninth, exactly mid-table, in 1965. The batting was a major disappointment, Ian Hall heading the averages with 1162 runs at a modest 26, while no one else exceeded 21. Yet for Edwin it was a summer in which he cemented his reputation as one of the best finger spinners in the country. Once again he conceded only two runs an over, offering his captain control on even the best of wickets. While not running through sides in a summer that was made for seam bowling, he was a priceless asset to a side that struggled to mount a worthwhile total, taking regular and important wickets while conceding very few runs. Only Brian Jackson bowled more overs than Edwin in 1965 (Rhodes also bowled more overs than Smith, in the Championship). At the end of the summer Edwin returned to Grassmoor, to prepare for his long-awaited testimonial year in 1966. The Smith family expanded once more when a second daughter, Fay, was born on 6 November 1965. A month previously he sustained a bad injury while working down the mine at Grassmoor, damaging ankle ligaments. This kept him off work