Lives in Cricket No 6 - Bill Copson

should we forget that, over against the pleasant aspects, these were decades of gross economic injustice and harsh social censoriousness. But perhaps it goes a little deeper than that. There is a profound attraction in the wholesome attitudes and simple values of the likes of Bill Copson and his fellow-professionals. Indeed, in what has been called the ‘pathological individualism’ of modern existence, and for all the benefits of its material comforts, we would soon be searching for the hidden agenda and the psychological axe-grinding of anyone in public life who exhibited such wholesome traits. We have come frighteningly close to suspecting sincerity and to spotting hypocrisy round every selfish corner. For all their individual foibles and idiosyncrasies — several of them, inevitably, displeasing — the English cricket professionals of the mid-twentieth century presented a collegiate ethic of some force and worth. There is much to learn as well as enjoy in this, just as there is in the similar collective ethic of several groups of craftsmen and tradesmen, miners included, of that day. Bill Copson was a superb fast bowler and a laudable representative of a craft that was remarkable for both its skills and its credo. Foreword 5