Lives in Cricket No 6 - Bill Copson

Copson and Alf Pope were replaced at Saltaire by George Pope, who had been invalided out of the Royal Corps of Signals with a knee injury. Copson played for Windhill for two years and then returned to the Saltaire club for the remaining two wartime seasons, 1944 and 1945. Windhill finished second in Division A in 1942, Bill taking 66 wickets at 8.42. They narrowly missed taking the title; the principal cause being their loss against Great Horton at the end of May when, fielding a side with five county players, they lost to an all amateur side by six runs. The following year he had 48 wickets at 10.39 when they again finished second. A copy of the contract Bill signed with the club for the 1945 season shows that the club would pay William Henry Copson, now living at 30 George Street, Saltaire, the sum of six pounds per match ‘in which the player shall play or be present ready to play at the request of the club. Half fees to be paid when a match is not commenced.’ In his two last seasons with the club, Saltaire finished fifth in Division A in 1944 and third in 1945. Copson took 76 league wickets at 8.89 in 1944, more than any other player in the competition, and 64 at 9.43 in 1945, when Johnny Lawrence, then of Bingley and later of Somerset, was the leading wicket taker, with 69 at 6.50. The presence, no doubt brooding, of Alec Coxon in the Saltaire side in 1945 reminded Bill that when first-class cricket eventually returned, there would be stiff competition for places in county sides. From 1941 to 1944, Derbyshire had confined themselves to two matches per season, against their immediate neighbours, Nottinghamshire. They could not however, call on any of their former professionals who were mostly fully engaged in the Bradford League. In 1945, however, with the war in Europe finally over, they made good use of the opportunity to play other counties and arranged to play as many as eight matches. Home and away fixtures with Lancashire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire were arranged. Copson played in four of these games securing eleven wickets, but produced only one really effective spell of bowling when, ‘using his best pace’ in the one day match versus Lancashire at Chesterfield on 18 July, he took their last five wickets for only one run to finish with six for 25. There can be little doubt that the Bradford League, week by week, provided the hardest competitive cricket available in Britain throughout the War. In 1943, for example, more than seventy county players appeared in its matches. Bill Copson was one of the World War Two 63