Open Writing

1965 is remembered as the year Winston Churchill died and the year that the Beatles changed the world of music. That is except for cricket lovers in Northamptonshire who remember it as the year their County nearly won the championship for the first time.

When we finished our fixtures Northants were top of the league 16 points ahead of Worcestershire who still had two games to play. They had to beat Hampshire and then Sussex, both away from home, to overtake us. Everybody at Northants was confident we had won the championship and celebrations were ready to commence.

The sting was in the tail however. Worcester, batting first against Hampshire at Bournemouth, declared at 363 for 9. Ingleby-McKenzie, Hampshire's extrovert captain, knowing the wicket was rapidly deteriorating due to changing weather conditions, prematurely declared his side's innings closed at 217 for 6. Don Kenyon - Worcester captain, then amazingly declared their innings closed at 0 for 0 after one ball, leaving Hampshire at 147 to win in 2 hours 40 minutes. By then the wicket was practically unplayable. Hampshire were bowled out for 31 in little over an hour, Flavell taking five for nine and Coldwell five for twenty two.

That result meant that we were only six points ahead of Worcester at the top of the championship, and they now had to defeat Sussex at Hove to keep the league title from us. Sussex batted first and were skittled for only 72. Worcester replied with a modest 166 and Sussex totalled 225 in their second innings setting Worcester 132 to win. They got the runs, for six wickets, to win the game and the championship. Ironically, thirty minutes after the game finished, the ground was flooded by a violent thunderstorm. We were devastated.

The disappointment in Northampton was indescribable. Plans for a celebratory banquet had to be cancelled. We felt the County Championship had been snatched from us. Many people in the Press thought the same and some accused Ingleby-McKenzie of handing Worcester the title on a plate by his premature declaration at Bournemouth.

Others blamed the unbalanced fixture list caused by us sharing our ground with Northampton football club. This resulted in us playing without a break for most of the summer in order to finish our fixtures early to allow the football club access to the ground.

Writing in the local paper Alan Ford claimed: "The championship was lost early in the season when we failed to pick up a point in a series of five games."

Whatever the reason, our disappointment was magnified when we got to the end of season annual dinner. Half expecting a bonus for being second in the County Championship or a possible incentive for the next season we got nothing; except a Parker pen with our name on it, and that was presented by the Wellingborough Supporter's Club. The County Committee was very frugal in those days.

During the hectic season I had played in 27 matches and taken 67 wickets at an average of 20.86 and scored 403 runs at 16.12, my highest batting average for the county.

At the end of the summer when the touring side for Australia was announced I got a major ego boost when experienced Test cricketer Brian Close wrote in the Sunday Mirror:-
"I cannot understand why the tour selectors have left themselves without a left-arm spinner in the party. I would have thought Malcom Scott of Northants or Don Wilson of Yorkshire should have been taken along."

The summer of 1966 is remembered by many as the time when England's soccer team won the World Cup. At Northamptonshire County Cricket Club it was like the calm after the storm. To the surprise of many, the County secured the services of Pakistan's Mushtaq Mohammed, a wonderful batsman and a fine spin bowler. After finishing a close second in the championship the previous season this upset several senior players. Peter Watts, a good batsman who also bowled leg spin moved to Nottinghamshire where possibly he faced more competition from Gary Sobers. Mushtaq also stole a lot of my overs. After injury I struggled to take 35 wickets at 25 runs per wicket.

Colin Milburn on the other hand had his best season ever scoring 1,481 runs at an average of 48, including three centuries before lunch. He would have made 2,000 runs had he not broken a finger, three-quarters of the way through the season.

We had the pleasure of completing the double over Yorkshire, and it was team mate's Hayden Sully's turn to take a hundred wickets. Overall, however, we fell to fifth place in the championship table. Writing in the Evening Telegraph, Skipper Keith Andrew wrote: - "Many factors have caused our fall, the absence of Geordies Colin Milburn and Malcolm Scott for many games was one of them."

During the season we had another recruit from County Durham. Peter Willey made his Northants debut at 16 years and 5 months and scored 78 in his first match. Peter went on to play for England and over 40 years later is still officiating as an international umpire.

1966 was very significant for me for another reason; I received an offer of a lifetime. During the late summer, our senior coach Percy Davis, who coached abroad during the winter, approached me with the offer of a coaching position at Queen's College in South Africa. "Would I be interested?" he asked. If so, he would be prepared to recommend me. "Is the Pope a Catholic?" I replied. My football days were over and I had spent the last two winters working in the offices of British Timkin, so I jumped at the chance.