Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

95 Match-winning captain best efforts the game ended in a draw. Figures of five for 31 and six for 89 did not allow enough time for the runs to be knocked off. Gloucestershire were beaten at Queen’s Park, Edwin’s six for 57 spinning his side to victory on the final day, but nine wickets against Lancashire at Southport could not prevent a heavy defeat. It was a summer where overseas players were seen for the first time and some of the best began to appear around the counties. The greatest of them all, Garfield Sobers, turned out for neighbouring Nottinghamshire, while Majid Jahangir, later to be known as Majid Khan, enhanced Glamorgan. Fellow Pakistan international Mushtaq Mohammad played for Northamptonshire, while Rohan Kanhai gave excellent service to Warwickshire. Meanwhile, two young South Africans, Mike Procter and Barry Richards, gave a hint of things to come for Gloucestershire and Hampshire respectively, the former taking six wickets against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, despite a fine century from Mike Page. He had at last married talent to weight of runs, as Edwin explains. Mike had looked a good player when he first got into the team, but like Laurie Johnson it took him a while to realise his talent. After that, the runs started to flow and he was a lovely player to watch, his best shots all in front of the wicket. In addition, Mike had a terrific pair of hands and held some blinding catches. He was especially good at short leg, but anywhere close he ranked among the best in the country. A young, highly-rated Australian played the season for Somerset, but was frustrated when the game between the two sides at Bath was rained off without a ball being bowled. So violent were the storms at the end of the first day that several bridges were washed away in the Pen valley. With the ground under four to five feet of water in places and deckchairs bobbing across the outfield, the game was abandoned at the end of the second day. In the return at Buxton, Greg Chappell, soon to become one of the world’s finest batsmen, was dismissed twice by Derbyshire’s wily off spinner, as Derbyshire won a tight match by two wickets. For once, Edwin had forgotten about something. Did I really get him twice? You know, I’d forgotten all about that. I suppose he was just a young player at the time, learning the game and I thought little of it. Mind you, it’s not a bad thing to have on the CV, is it? The highlight of the summer was the match against the visiting Australians at Chesterfield. Batting first, they made 259, largely thanks to a typically aggressive 95 from Doug Walters. Derek Morgan took five for 83, while Edwin had four for 80. In reply, Derbyshire slipped to 79 for five, before Bob Taylor and Derek Morgan joined forces to avoid the follow-on. Coming in just before the close, Edwin hit three boundaries in the day’s final over, then next morning launched an assault on off spinner Ashley Mallett, who was hit for 14 from