Open Writing

If you asked County cricketers who was the best wicket-keeper on the circuit in the 1960's, I guarantee the majority would say Keith Andrew of Northants. In my opinion, with the possible exception of Alan Knott, the others who played for England, "couldn't tie his shoe laces".

Keith was also a shrewd captain. He built up a sound young team, taking us from eighth in the County Championship in 1962, to seventh in 1963, third in 1964 and a very close second in 1965. An article by Neville Cardus in the 1966 County Handbook, reproduced from the Playfair Cricket Monthly reads - "Andrew has stirred the best out of the talents of his colleagues, the violent swashbuckling Milburn, the versatile Wattses brothers, the dependable Prideaux, the long-limbed Larter, the insidious seamer Crump, the worthy serviceable Reynolds, the attractively useful fair haired Norman-not forgetting Scott, Steele, Bailey, Sully, Willis and all."

I got on well with the skipper although he thought I wasn't aggressive enough when bowling. He used to shout "I'm sick of appealing for you Scott." The trouble was he was right. I was very economic with my appeals.

We travelled to all away games by Wesley's private coaches, again something I didn't enjoy. After being in close contact with the team for three days, I wanted a break. Also, after finishing a match at about 6pm, we had a quick meal and often a four hour journey to our next fixture. Our skipper used to attempt to use the long journeys on the coach for so called team building: if you call playing cards such an exercise. Having seen what gambling could do, up north, during my footballing days, I chose a quiet corner with a good book.

Stephen Chalke tells many amusing stories about Keith Andrew's captaincy. One being when he used six bowlers during a nine over spell causing umpire Cecil Pepper to ask a nearby player "What's going on, does your skipper think I've got BO or something?"

Perhaps the most industrious member of the team was Brian Crump. Small in stature, but big in heart he could bowl his medium pace for ever. How many opening bowlers do you see the wicket keeper standing up to? This is what our skipper did and it restricted the batsmen to the crease. Brian also scored over 1,000 runs in each of his first two seasons with the County. Was this another example of a good batsmen being told to concentrate on his bowling?

Part of the team, but not on the field, was Jack Mercer who had been the team's scorer as long as anyone could remember. Jack was also a wonderful entertainer as a Magic Circle conjurer. The skipper recalls a rainy day at Northampton when he entertained the touring Pakistan team. "You should have seen them. I think they would have carried him off to Karachi, they were that spell-bound." Completing the team was Jack Jennings our masseur, for an allegedly forty years. We sarcastically called him Zatopek after the famous Czech Olympic athlete who was known for his brutally tough training methods. In truth, Jack was just the opposite. With none of the equipment of the modern physiotherapist, two aspirins with instructions to 'run it off was his usual response to any injury.

Success in cricket is very weather dependent and 1964 was a relatively dry summer which made wickets suitable for my bowling. I reaped the benefit.
I played in all 30 county games and bowled over 1,000 overs and took 113 wickets at 19.27 each which put me sixteenth in the national averages. As South Shields Cricket Club historian, Clive Crickmer, points out, among left-hand spinners, only Worcestershire's and England's Norman Gifford had, fractionally, better figures.

The highlight of the season was at Hastings against Sussex. We got the home side out for 213 and I got 6 wickets for 62. We responded with a poor 85 and then I took 7 wickets for 32 as we skittled Sussex for 99. This left us with 227 runs to win. We failed by 28 runs.

The game was important for me because it produced my best ever match figures of 13 wickets for 94 runs which earned me my county cap, and a photo in Wisden. At 28 years of age it was perhaps rather late in coming, but the success felt good after five year's hard work with the county. Another high spot of the season was when I bowled 14 consecutive maiden overs against Cambridge University to finish with the figures of 38 overs, 27 maidens, 38 runs and 3 wickets.

The Aussies were here again in 1964 but unlike 1961, they gave us a good hammering. They made 436 and then bowled us out for 235 and 212 to win by 10 wickets. I continued my habit of doing well against them with a 29 and 48 and taking 4 for 95 in 35 overs. As somebody in Shields said "not bad for an ex-shipyard fitter."