Lives in Cricket No 6 - Bill Copson

The entry for Copson gave a fair resumé of his career to date and described how he came into the first-class game. It mentioned that ‘his deadly bowling was one of the main factors in Derbyshire winning the Championship’ and added that ‘Though he had never figured in a Test Match, no surprise was caused when his name appeared in the list of players chosen to participate in the tour to Australia.’ Copson finished his wonderful season with a match at the Scarborough Festival, his first at that venue, where the MCC Australian Team took on H.D.G.Leveson Gower’s XI. The game was drawn and Bill managed to take only one wicket in each innings, although they were the valuable ones of Sutcliffe and Hendren. In modern terms, his ‘image’ was now of some commercial worth and it duly appeared in the Churchman’s cigarette card series this year, along with those of his county colleagues Denis Smith and Stan Worthington. This trio also appeared in the 1938 Players’ series. 18 It is unlikely that he received more than a few pounds from the tobacco companies. 32 Annus Mirabilis 18 Like many sportsmen of the time, Copson smoked, though not heavily.