Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

88 Testimonial year ball and they ended up bowling Mike Page’s occasional off spin. I could have understood being left out it if I had eight wickets at 40 each, but I had 40-odd at eight each and felt as fit as a fiddle. There was little play on the first two days but on the last there were three declarations that left us 119 to get in 95 minutes. We didn’t last an hour and were bowled out for just 58 by their spinners, who took eight wickets between them. Edwin was back in the side for the game against Worcestershire at Ilkeston the following day, where his figures of five for 74 and three for 33 should have inspired another win, before the batting collapsed yet again and his side lost by three runs. Then came another five wickets against Worcestershire at Kidderminster, ahead of a trip to Coventry for an eventful game against Warwickshire. We made 281 in the first innings, largely thanks to Derek’s 96, then Brian Jackson found a ‘spot’ on the wicket and bowled them out for 38. He took eight for 18 and was just about unplayable. They batted better in the second innings, but Brian, who was a very good bowler, took four more wickets and I bowled a long spell. That long spell again highlighted his stamina and ability to remain accurate while doing so. The figures are worthy of repetition on a wicket that favoured seam bowlers: 53-25-65-3. In August, John Arlott wrote an appreciation of Edwin in The Cricketer magazine. In it, he cited the many challenges faced by off spin bowlers over the period of the bowler’s career and said: Edwin has endured primarily because he is a first-class bowler ... Now, at 32, he is a better bowler than he has ever been before: thoughtful, controlled, thrifty and penetrative. He is, too, keen and fit enough to carry on for some years to come. He ended the summer with 87 Championship wickets at 18, top of the averages for the county. While his batting declined badly and his highest score was only 22, he had bowled more overs than anyone else and had made a major contribution towards an eventual finish in ninth place. Not bad for a side that constantly seemed to struggle for runs. We had some good batsmen, but they weren’t consistent. Laurie Johnson retired at the end of the summer, having averaged less than 20, while Derek Morgan was top and only managed 24 runs per innings. Someone usually got a few runs, but there were rarely enough contributions to set imposing totals. Teams leaving us small totals to chase always fancied their chances, because once we started losing wickets we seemed to go to pieces. Mick Allen also left at the end of the summer, being unable to discover the form of his best days. Meanwhile, two young players had joined the staff, both of them set to make a big impression on Edwin and the county