A History of Cricket at King Edward's School, BIrmingham

54 successive years. (AC Smith seemed to have a liking for unusual records, as will be seen later.) In 1958 he began to play for Warwickshire, and became the regular wicket-keeper in 1961, in which season he gained his cap and was appointed vice-captain to MJK Smith, also a former Oxford captain. Over the next few seasons, he consistently scored round about eight hundred runs a season and gained about sixty victims behind the stumps. His best year was 1962, when he scored 1,201 runs (average 31.60) and made 82 dismissals (79 caught, three stumped). In this year he played in the last Gentlemen v Players match, on the same side as OS Wheatley, and the two put on 48 for the last wicket in the first innings (Smith 33 and Wheatley 14 not out). Wheatley took two wickets and Smith made five catches. Smith was selected for the MCC team to tour Australia and New Zealand that winter, and replaced the senior wicket-keeper, JT Murray, in four of the Test matches against Australia. He scored 47 runs at an average of 11.75, with a highest score of 21 in the First Test at Brisbane, and held 13 catches. One unusual aspect of this achievement is that Alan Smith was playing against Australia on the same day as another Old Edwardian, Peter Jackson, was representing England at rugby. In all first-class matches in Australia, AC Smith scored 257 runs at an average of 25.70 (highest score 55) and dismissed 28 batsmen (27 caught, one stumped). He also played in two Tests against New Zealand, scoring 69 not out and taking seven catches. He and MC Cowdrey shared in an unfinished partnership of 163 for the ninth wicket at Wellington, still the England record in 2018, though since exceeded on four occasions by players from other countries. Smith also toured Canada in 1959, and had to withdraw from a tour of New Zealand in 1960-61. In 1964-65 he captained an MCC side touring South America. In 1968, AC Smith took over as Warwickshire captain from MJK Smith, and retained that position until he retired in 1974. His final record was 11,027 runs (average 20.92) and 776 dismissals (715 caught, 61 stumped). Although he was predominantly a batsman and wicket-keeper, there was nothing he liked to do so much as bowl, and in the last season or two of his first-class career he often played for Warwickshire as a bowler: in all first-class cricket, he took 131 wickets at an average of 23.46. He may be the only wicket-keeper to take his pads off and perform the hat-trick with the ball in first- class cricket – against Essex at Clacton in 1965. Captaining the side on this occasion in the absence of MJK Smith, he kept wicket in the first innings, but in the second, because one of his opening bowlers was injured, he bowled instead and took three wickets with three successive balls, finishing with 4 for 36. After retiring, he served as Warwickshire secretary from 1976 to 1986, then as Chief Executive of the Test and County Cricket board from 1986 to 1996. He was a Test selector from 1969 to 1973, and again from 1982 to 1986, and managed the England team touring West Indies in 1980-81.