Lives in Cricket No 6 - Bill Copson

Derbyshire had been asked to play an exhibition match, but declined as they wanted to travel home early. Arthur Richardson, the appointed captain, then joined the side and they slipped into gear with three consecutive victories over Surrey, Sussex and Gloucestershire. By this stage of the season, Copson from his first six matches, including a ‘friendly’ versus Oxford University, had taken thirty three first-class wickets. He had four returns of five or more wickets in an innings during this period. His best performance in these games was undoubtedly in the match versus Surrey at Derby when he took twelve wickets altogether, with returns of five for 33 and seven for 19, his best first-class match and innings performance to date. The visitors were dismissed in their second innings for 77 and Wisden referred to Copson’s bowling as ‘irresistible’. He had a spell of six wickets for eight runs after the tea interval. He took five for 42 in the Sussex first innings in the next match. Further accurate bowling at Northampton followed, when he took six for 24 in 22 overs in the home team’s second innings. His excellent bowling at this stage of the season helped to win him a place in the Test Trial, North v South, which took place at Lord’s in mid-June. This was his first-ever representative match and the first time that he had played for a first-class team other than Derbyshire. As a trial for the Test matches, the game was alas ruined by bad weather and play only took place on the last two days. Copson only captured one wicket in the match, that of E.R.T.Holmes, but scored 24 runs helping Joseph Hardstaff to add 39 runs for North’s tenth wicket. He also held two catches. Although he had bowled extremely well in the season to date, he was unable to gain a place in any of the three Test matches against the visiting All India team. The opening bowlers’ places in these games were filled by G.O.B.Allen, A.R.Gover, R.E.S.Wyatt and W.Voce. The rain which affected the Test Trial also brought a draw to Derbyshire’s match with Yorkshire at Chesterfield being played at the same time, when the visitors had followed on. He returned to the Derbyshire side for their next two games against Somerset and Warwickshire, but took only two wickets in the three innings in which he bowled. He was at the top of his form, however, in the next match at Chesterfield against Worcestershire, taking five wickets in their first innings for only 34 runs. The home team won this game by the narrow margin of three wickets. He had identical figures of four for 35 in both innings of the next game, at 26 Annus Mirabilis