Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2023

24 Born in Middlesbrough in 1957 Bill attended local schools where both football and cricket were taught and played. Despite being accomplished at the former, the youngster chose cricket as his major sport, a decision no doubt helped by the keen interest being shown by Yorkshire CCC. It was well founded because he made his County debut at only 18 years old and plotted a prolonged and successful career in the game. A Test debut followed in 1980 when he faced Australia in the Centenary Test. Over the next eight years he made a total of 23 Test appearances and 31 in ODIs, registering one Test century and two more in the shorter format. A year later he replaced Brian Rose on the winter tour to the West Indies where he faced The evening’s speaker - post AGM - began by confirming that this was to be his final engagement before retirement. None of us anticipated playing an active part as the final curtain fell… Lloyd took us on his dogged journey of investigation; to establish the make and location of the ball used during the famous over in which Garfield Sobers smashed six sixes at Swansea in 1968 - as delightfully detailed in his book Howzat? Thirty eight years after the historic event the ball supposedly used was sold for a world record price of £264,000 at Christie’s in London. But Grahame has long contended that it could not have been the genuine article since it is of the wrong make. Was it a Dukes or a Surridge? Was more Can we have our ball back? 7 February 2022 Grahame Lloyd Journalist/Author than one ball used in the dramatic over? What happened to the ball in the intervening years? Controversial questions, each with different versions of the answers. The quest to verify the truth took Lloyd to India, via Nottingham, London, New Delhi and Faisalabad (twice), and Chester. His super sleuthing during ‘Operation Howzat’ unearthed startling new evidence, including a colourful list of characters, some of whom were - unsurprisingly - less than keen to talk about their part in the mystery. One has to admire the tenacity of Mr Lloyd. The project was painstaking and certainly not an easy one but the suspicion is that, despite all that, he enjoyed it. Must have - he had us join in with his self-penned song about it at the end! County switch suited 8 March 2022 Bill Athey Ex Yorkshire, Gloucestershire & England batsman what he described as ‘the best bowling attack ever’ in Roberts, Holding, Croft, Garner and Marshall. This tour is also remembered for the sad death of Ken Barrington. After leavinge Yorksire CCC at the end of the 1983 season Bill claims his reason for doing so was the existence of a ‘very toxic environment’ at the county - his new club offered a much more relaxed existence. Athey remained as skipper at Gloucestershire until 1997 when he joined Worcestershire as coach. Since then he has held the position of cricket coach at Dulwich College. at the crease SPEAKERS 2021-22