Lives in Cricket No 6 - Bill Copson

interested in him as a possible candidate for the Test side. Copson played for The Rest and opened the bowling with Harold Butler. The match was ruined by the weather and neither side completed an innings in a game played in very miserable conditions. Copson bowled well against a strong England XI and took the wickets of Washbrook, Compton and Yardley in thirteen overs for thirty nine runs, quite a tidy performance. Nine of this side played in the First Test at Trent Bridge a week later, Robertson and Wright being replaced by Hutton and Laker, who had not played in the trial match. It is interesting to note the other members of The Rest team who must have been in the selectors’ minds. These were Fishlock, Fagg, Simpson, Palmer, Emmett, Cranston, Broderick, Griffith, Robins and Butler. Only Cranston and Emmett of these players were subsequently chosen in the series, both playing in the Fourth Test at Headingley. But for his subsequent injuries, Copson might well have gained a place in one or more of the Tests as he was surely a significantly more useful and experienced bowler than the other opening bowlers used this season: Coxon, Pollard, Edrich and Watkins. The England selectors gained a reputation of being somewhat desperate men this summer, highlighted by the dramatic sacking of Hutton after the Second Test. Copson’s injury was to affect the rest of his season dramatically. On 15 and 16 July, he had a successful ‘fitness trial’ for the Derbyshire Second XI against their Nottinghamshire equivalents at Chersterfield, in the Minor Counties Championship – this was the only match he ever played in this competition 33 – when he took one for 15 off ten overs. He returned to full duty on 17 July and took four wickets against Sussex at Burton-on-Trent, three of them for sixteen runs in a hostile spell. After that, his season went into decline and further injury restricted him to just two more Championship appearances. He finished the summer with a mere thirty one first-class wickets, his lowest ever seasonal aggregate. Despite all Copson’s tribulations, Derbyshire had a remarkably successful season in 1948. Although finally finishing sixth in the table, they reached top position on 7 June when they defeated Somerset in two days at Ilkeston. They had then won five out of their eight games, including a most convincing victory by 301 runs over Glamorgan, the eventual champions. They made it to the top again on 20 July, when they won against Sussex by ten wickets at 72 Final First-Class Seasons 33 There can be few players who have played in a Test trial and later in a Minor Counties match, with only a six week interval between them.