Lives in Cricket No 6 - Bill Copson

Championship, winning eleven of their twenty eight matches. Their most successful bowlers, apart from Copson, were L.F.Townsend with 87 wickets, T.B.Mitchell with 136 and T.S.Worthington 50. Although he did not generally excel as a batsman, he made what proved to be his highest score in first-class cricket, scoring 43 in Derbyshire’s last game of the season, against Lancashire at Blackpool. On a soft pitch after his side had reached 135 for nine, he helped to add 80 runs for the last wicket with his captain, A.W.Richardson. In scoring a six and seven fours, Wisden thought he revealed ‘unknown skill’. He was a right-handed batsman and usually went in at either number ten or eleven in the order: he reached 25 runs in a first-class innings only six times in all, and throughout his career his average never rose to double figures. Nevertheless he did on a number of occasions during his career help to add valuable runs in late wicket partnerships: the largest of these are given in the Appendix. He seems rarely to have been selected as a night watchman; but every now and then he joined the defiant ‘big hitter’ school of fast bowlers with a couple of sixes, sometimes cross-batted off the back foot. * * * * * By now Copson was beginning to be noticed outside Derbyshire as an extremely promising fast bowler and the 1934 season certainly added to his growing reputation as a dangerous performer whose faster ball frequently led to opposing batsmen being deceived as to his pace. He took ninety-one first-class wickets at an improved average of 18.10 runs. He managed to take five wickets in an innings on only three occasions however. He did, though, miss seven games through injury, after straining a leg in the third match of the season, at Derby. Statistically his best return was five for 36 at Tunbridge Wells against Kent at the beginning of July. He played his first ever game against an Australian team when the tourists visited Chesterfield. This attracted a large crowd which no doubt would have included a number of his immediate family, friends and colleagues. Copson failed to take a wicket in this match. He did however have the daunting experience of bowling against Don Bradman and Bill Woodfull in this his second full season in the game. 20 Starting in First-Class Cricket