Lives in Cricket No 6 - Bill Copson

figures of five for 85 from 24 eight-ball overs. West Indies had been dismissed for 277. Copson had thus made an excellent start to his Test career and this performance has entitled him to a place on the Lord’s dressing room honours board. England, after being 11 for no wicket on the Saturday evening, made rapid progress on the second day and took their reply by the close of play to 404 for the loss of five wickets. After losing their first three wickets for 147, England’s bright young performers Compton and Hutton added a glorious 248 runs for the fourth wicket. Both completed excellent centuries. Hammond declared overnight and Copson was immediately among the wickets again. He dismissed Stollmeyer without a run on the board when he was well caught by Verity in the gully. Headley batted well again and completed his second century of the match, 107. Copson dismissed a further three batsmen, having Sealy and Hylton caught, and then enticed Clarke to give him a return catch. England scored the 99 runs needed for victory in an hour and a quarter to give them a very comfortable victory by eight wickets. Bill Copson could look back with extreme satisfaction on his first Test Match. To take nine wickets on debut is a comparatively rare feat. 23 What is more, this had been done at cricket’s headquarters. He was still only 31 years of age and could, if he maintained this sort of form, look forward to a bright future at the international level. Sir Pelham Warner in his popular book ‘Cricket Between Two Wars’, published in 1942, had this to say about Copson’s bowling: ‘This was Copson’s first Test Match and well indeed he did. He has a smooth, and not long, run to the crease, an easy action with a good follow through, and makes pace off the ground. He bowls a genuine off-break, as opposed to an in-swinger and puts life and venom into every ball. He also fielded extremely well at short leg and mid on.’ On returning the following day to the county side for the next Championship fixture, against Essex at Chesterfield, he had further success with ten wickets in the match. He and Alf Pope dismissed their opponents for 143 runs, with Bill taking 6 for 57. The home team took a first innings lead of 71 and then Essex collapsed at the start of their second innings losing their first four 52 Test Cricket, At Last 23 There have been 27 instances in all Test cricket. For England, it has been achieved eleven times altogether, by F.Martin, T.Richardson, C.S.Marriott, K.Farnes, A.V.Bedser, J.C.Laker, R.Berry, L.J.Coldwell, J.D.F. Larter, and J.K.Lever, as well as Copson.