Lives in Cricket No 6 - Bill Copson

wickets for only five runs, two each to Alf Pope and Copson. They were all out for 117, giving Derbyshire an easy two-day win by ten wickets. Bill Copson’s splendid Test debut earned him selection for Players v Gentlemen at Lord’s, his second and final appearance in this historic fixture. The Players’ team was captained by Eddie Paynter and Bill’s county colleague George Pope was also in the side, the only time he ever played in this match. The Players scored 270 in their first innings, with Tom Dollery making the top score with 70. Copson opened the Players’ bowling with Bowes, as they had done in the Test match. He took the wickets of H.T.Bartlett, B.H.Valentine and F.R.Brown to finish with the useful figures of three for 49 from 20 overs. After rain had interrupted play on the second day, the Gentlemen declared their first innings some 112 runs behind. The Players, after Hutton and Compton had put on 141 in 80 minutes, declared setting their opponents 315 runs to win, but good bowling, in which the wickets were shared by four different bowlers, with two to Copson, removed any possibility of the target being reached. The Gentlemen were all out for 154: only eight wickets fell as R.E.S.Wyatt retired hurt – he later described the bowling of both Bowes and Copson in this innings as ‘vicious’ 24 – and J.W.A.Stephenson was absent because of a hand injury. Australian-made balls, said to be harder than those in regular use, were employed in this match: the experiment seems not to have been prolonged, perhaps because of the damage done to the performers. Copson was never anything but an automatic selection for the Second Test to be played at Old Trafford. England made two changes, bringing in Fagg and Goddard in place of Gimblett and Verity. In the meantime Bill had four Championship matches to play before this event. He did not however obtain much bowling practice in three of these games as they were badly affected by the weather. He bowled fifteen overs at Trent Bridge without taking a wicket in a match reduced to two days by rain. He did not get onto the field in the local ‘Derby’ against Yorkshire at Chesterfield, where play was restricted to 100 minutes, or at Dudley in the Worcestershire fixture where only Derbyshire batted in the one Test Cricket, At Last 53 24 Copson was dangerous in other matches, too. Dr N.Vere Hodge, who scored 81 for Essex against Derbyshire at Ilkeston in 1937, said of Copson’s bowling on that occasion, ‘that really was at one’s head.’ Unwise perhaps, as Essex had Farnes who could respond in a similar style.