Lives in Cricket No 6 - Bill Copson

Chapter Seven Final First-Class Seasons In spite of, or perhaps because much war-time austerity remained in place, there was strong sense of anticipation in the spring of 1946 among cricket followers, whose number included the author, about the return of a full season of first-class cricket, with its county championship, a touring side of players with new names, university teams and festival matches at seaside resorts. County cricket was still followed avidly by millions of people, even though Press reporting was limited by newsprint rationing. However, changes started to appear: in particular the distinctions made between amateurs and professionals began to decline. It had been decided that the counties would each play twenty six Championship matches, so that the rankings would be decided entirely on points. This did away with the highly unpopular ‘average points per match’ method which had been introduced because counties played different numbers of games. Under the heading of ‘rationalisation’, each county was now required to play against every other county at least once, ten of the counties being met in home and away matches and the other six to be played either at home or away. It is interesting to note that Derbyshire did not first meet Middlesex in a County Championship match until 1929. Very few of their players therefore would ever have had the opportunity of playing at Lord’s in a first-class match prior to that date, apart from matches against MCC from time to time or through selection for representative matches. 30 Derbyshire resumed their season with a new captain, G.F.Hodgkinson, from a family with greengrocery businesses in the county. Robin Buckston, the 1939 captain, who served in the Forces, had been invalided out and did not feel fit enough to resume first-class cricket, although he captained the Second XI. Stanley Worthington, a professional who had been a commissioned officer in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical 65 30 For the record, Derbyshire surprisingly did not meet Oxford University until 1928 and Cambridge University until 1957.