In the immortal words of Max Bygraves, let me tell you a story. In 1977, when I was very young, I made my only trip to the home of cricket, Lords. I am going to try and write this entirely from memory so some of the “facts” may well be wrong, but it was a day I’ll never forget on a date I can’t remember.
It was the final of the Benson and Hedges Cup, a one day tournament played over 55 overs a match. Gloucestershire were up against Kent. In keeping with my glory hunting mentality, I had not been to any of the previous games in the tournament, although I had watched one or two on the BBC. One game that I remember was when Gloucestershire beat Hampshire, with the great Mike Procter taking four wickets in five balls, including a hat trick, ending up with six wickets for not very many. I remember also that the commentator during that spell was the great Richie Benaud.
How we came about going to the final was an example of it’s not what you know, it’s who you know! My mum worked with a lady whose husband was best friends with David Shepherd, the portly batsman who later went on to become an umpire. Shep, as he was known, got us two tickets for the big day.
I don’t remember arriving at Lords, but I do remember that we had a box of beer with us. You were allowed to do that back in 1977 – everyone did. I also remember that we sat behind deep mid off facing the pavilion. the day was dry, slightly overcast and not very warm.
We – Gloucestershire – batted first and we go off to a good start. The opening batsmen were Sadiq Mohammed and Andy Stovold. They put on a good few – maybe a 100, I can’t recall – after which the great Zaheer Abbas came in and gently stroked the ball to all ends of the ground. My only other memory of the batting was Jim Foat, who was a less than average batsman, couldn’t bowl but was a brilliant fieldsman, who scuffed a flukey 20-odd missing far more balls than he hit.
Kent had a star-studded team. Their bowling attack included Bernard Julien from the West Indies, Derek Underwood and John Shepherd who went on to play for us some years later. I can’t remember who took the wickets but I remember Alan Knott, the England wicketkeeper, making one brilliant catch.
When Kent batted, I feared for our boys. Bob Woolmer opened the batting and got an iffy 50 (I think) and I remember Asif Iqbal played too, but don’t know if he scored many. I think not. John Shepherd came in late in the order and blasted a few but Gloucestershire ran out easy winners. I cannot remember who took the wickets for us, although I think Brian Brain may have taken a few.
Once victory was assured, the pitch was invaded, as always happened in those days. The police made token efforts to stop us but soon gave up. We could barely hear the presentation, which was on the pitch, and we certainly couldn’t see it, but I know Fred Trueman made a speech and was very grumpy about the crowd chanting and singing whilst he tried to speak. He awarded the man of the match award to Zaheer.
All this is apropos nothing really, just a selection of random memories from a cricket match I can’t even remember the month of.
I do know that it was just great to beat Kent because they were the media, establishment and selectors darlings and you only had to turn up in a Kent cap and you’d be halfway to an England place. David defeated Goliath and I hope he does this week at Lords too, when Gloucestershire play Surrey in the final of the Royal London Cup.
