Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

96 Match-winning captain one over. Edwin reached a fine 50 with a six and seven fours before holing out, a lead of 74 being conceded. Openers John Inverarity and Ian Redpath both made sixties before Edwin dismissed them both, but Brian Jackson took four wickets and the tourists collapsed from 234 for three to 270 all out, leaving Derbyshire 345 to win. They had reached 91 for two by the close, with Peter Gibbs going well, but he went early the next morning and at 97 for four, the game looked over. John Harvey had other ideas and added 74 with Derek Morgan, then an unbroken 39 with Peter Eyre by lunch, which was taken with the score 210 for five. The partnership continued after lunch and the score reached 261 before Eyre was caught down the leg side. Bob Taylor helped to add 30, but then he and Harvey were out quickly, the latter for a fine 92. Edwin and Harold Rhodes added 28, seam bowler David Renneberg being hit for ten in an over, before Rhodes played on to Neil Hawke. With 26 required, Edwin farmed the bowling and scored 12 runs in the next two overs, before Renneberg returned for one last spell. Edwin cut his first ball for four, before edging a fast leg cutter into the safe hands of Ian Chappell at slip. He was out for 31 and Derbyshire lost by nine runs, on a pitch that the visitors thought the best they had played on during the tour. It was a wonderful advert for cricket and Edwin’s fine summer was capped by being made captain for six matches, taking over from Derek Morgan after the first innings against Worcestershire at Kidderminster, when the latter pulled a hamstring while batting. Still showing a penchant for Worcestershire’s batting after all the years, figures of 29.3-17-37-5 in the first innings established a stranglehold on the game that Harold Rhodes ensured was not released in the second. A feature of his captaincy was his willingness to bowl the young Fred Swarbrook, who took two wickets in each innings while adhering to the accepted economy rate that Edwin had set over the years. It spoke well of the 17-year old, but equally so of a captain who had faith in him. Fred was a lovely lad. He stayed with his grandparents around the corner from the County Ground, so he was handy for the training sessions. He was a player who responded to an arm around the shoulder and gentle encouragement, but tended to sulk and withdraw into himself if someone had a go at him. He developed into a really good county cricketer. He was never an athlete, but he had a good pair of hands, became a very handy batsman and was a wicket-taking bowler. There was a lot to like in Fred. Edwin skippered the side in six other Championship matches that summer, as Morgan later sustained a dislocated finger against Middlesex at Lord’s. One of those matches, the return against Worcestershire, was won, another two were rain-ruined, two were drawn and only one lost. That was against Nottinghamshire at Ilkeston, where Garfield Sobers proved to