Lives in Cricket No 6 - Bill Copson

Africa. Although England won that rubber by one match to nil, with four drawn games drawn, their fast bowling in this high scoring series was not particularly effective, being entrusted to Farnes, Edrich, Hammond and Perks, who between them only took 27 wickets in the Tests. Copson might well have found the hard South African wickets to his advantage had he been selected. * * * * * Copson finally fulfilled his ambition of becoming a Test cricketer in the season of 1939. He had a much better season than his two previous ones and turned in a number of excellent performances. His final tally of first-class wickets was 146, second only to his 160 in 1936. Derbyshire, however, had a much less satisfactory summer and for the first time since 1933 failed to finish in the top six in the Championship table, falling to ninth position. They won ten out of twenty eight games, losing eight and drawing ten, of which three failed to reach a first innings decision. The low point of the season was their dismissal for 20 by Yorkshire at Bramall Lane, Sheffield. This was the county’s lowest ever innings total in the ‘official’ championship. Their batting consistently let them down and only six centuries were scored during the whole season. Copson made the very wise move of starting his season with impressive figures which brought him to the notice of the Test selectors fairly quickly. In Derbyshire’s first match of the season, versus Oxford University in The Parks, he performed the third and final hat trick of his career, when he dismissed the last four second innings batsmen in five balls. His match return, with five wickets in each innings, was ten for 21 in only 10.7 eight-ball overs. Wisden reported that ‘he swung the ball and his off break was unplayable.’ He also helped to add fifty runs for the tenth wicket with Rhodes. On the second day, nineteen wickets fell for eighty six runs and Derbyshire won comfortably by 163 runs at 2.45 pm. He took his third consecutive five wickets in an innings in the next match, against Surrey at Chesterfield, at one time having a spell of four for nineteen in four overs. Further successes followed and by 9 June, he had taken 48 wickets and was bowling at the top of his form. Derbyshire’s next match, on 10 June, was against the West Indies touring team. In those days county games against the tourists were the highlight of the season and good performances by local players were usually the subject of much Press attention. Copson 50 Test Cricket, At Last