Lives in Cricket No 6 - Bill Copson

Derbyshire improved their final standing in the County Championship by rising to third position, behind Lancashire and Sussex, the county’s highest position since returning to the competition in 1895. They won twelve of their twenty eight games. Eight of these were won in the second half of the season. They won three out of their last four games and completed a fine double over their close rivals, Nottinghamshire. Tommy Mitchell, the leg spinner, had a splendid season with 138 wickets and was selected for two Test Matches. Wisden , in its seasonal comments on the county’s performance, said that Derbyshire ‘had few if any superiors as a bowling combination.’ Referring to Copson, the Almanack said that ‘many competent judges predicted a brilliant future for him’, and that ‘many of the best batsmen found his late swerve and pace off the pitch difficult to counter.’ The News Chronicle Cricket Annual also reported that ‘good judges think he is a future England bowler.’ * * * * * Copson’s fourth season in first-class cricket, in 1935, saw his progress falter. Because of injury he missed matches in early June, at the start of July and then at the end of August, appearing in only eighteen of Derbyshire’s twenty eight Championship fixtures, taking seventy one wickets. At the end of June the county sent him to Skegness, the Lincolnshire seaside resort, well known for its bracing airs, to regain his health. Examinations by specialists in the summer and in January revealed that he was suffering from a strained sacroiliac joint at the lower extremity of his back, a not uncommon sports injury. As part of the remedy he was sent in the following January to train with Chesterfield Football Club, then a member of the Football League’s Third Division North. The training Starting in First-Class Cricket 21 Bill Copson training with Chesterfield FC at Saltergate in January, 1936. Seventy years on, are fast bowlers still expected to head heavy footballs?