Читать книгу Classic After-Dinner Sports Tales - Jonathan Rice - Страница 6

One of English cricket’s greatest all-rounders, he played for Cambridge University, Essex and England between 1945 and 1967, playing 61 times for England. A true all-rounder, he was also a very accomplished footballer and subsequently a noted sports journalist.

I loved playing cricket and became very involved in every aspect, but once a county match, or a Test match, was over I very quickly forgot the runs, the wickets, the catches, the scores, the players and even the outcome. I just remembered the incidents that appealed to me. For example, I shall always treasure a few moments of magic at Chelmsford, when Essex met Sussex in the early fifties. The visitors had established a substantial lead and a declaration was imminent, when I happened to take a wicket with the fourth ball of my over. This brought Robin Marlar, who had been appointed captain of Sussex that year, to the crease. Before taking guard, Robin summoned his partner, George Cox, to the middle of the pitch for a discussion.

Eventually I was able to deliver my fifth ball, which happened to be straight and sent his middle stump for a walk, while at the same time the two batsmen were about to cross in the middle of the pitch, attempting to take a run to the keeper and give George the strike. The declaration was immediate and we all walked off the field with the entire Essex team in tears of laughter.

Another magic moment occurred in South Africa, when a quarter of an hour before the start of the First Test in Johannesburg in December 1956, Peter May asked me to open the innings with Peter Richardson. I immediately asked my partner if he realised that we were taking on the roles of high-class batsmen in English cricket history, like Hobbs and Sutcliffe, who had both possessed an ability and repertoire of strokes of an entirely different class to what we had to offer. The outcome was that we went out to the middle with Peter as Herbert Sutcliffe and myself as Sir John.

Our shouts of ‘Get back, Sir John,’ and ‘Come one, Herbert’ certainly surprised the opposition as I do not think that frivolity of this kind was quite their scene. However, it worked rather better than either Peter or I expected, as we made a good start and Peter went on to make a solid century.