The Twelfth Man 2011

31 and his first wicket was Ray Illingworth’s. Recalling his first Test match at Trent Bridge in 1966, among many memories, one which unfortunately stuck out, was dropping a catch off D’Oliviera, and promptly having his nickname changed from ‘Unders’ to ‘Blunders’!! His other main memory was being felled by Charlie Griffiths with a ball he never saw. Derek also recalled his first pair at Gravesend, also against Yorkshire. Trueman was the bowler who pulled him as he was leaving the ground and said “next time we meet, hold your bat still and I’ll try to hit it.” Derek went on to treat the audience to a wealth of stories and anecdotes, including his year as President of the MCC and he recalled hosting the Queen at Lord’s. He told her Majesty he thought the experience was equivalent to scoring a double century at Lord’s to which she replied “Now I think you’re dreaming aren’t you!” Question and Answers: • Q: Derek was asked of his memories of the 2-0 Test victory in Australia. A: Amongst many great memories of that tour, the main feature has to be the form of all the many batters who performed at the top of their form, as did the bowlers, with John Snow being exceptional. • Q: Derek was asked how he developed the style of pushing the ball through so quickly. A: At the start of his career, Derek was advised by an old pro, that every wicket had its own particular pace and Derek was convinced of this theory. However, once he started playing for England, captains demanded maiden overs if wickets were not falling in an effort to continually increase pressure on the batters. • Q: Derek was asked about Tony Gregg’s captaincy. A: He was a first-class captain especially when touring. Recalling a tour of India, pre tour he told Derek he was to be the main wicket taker, which gave him great confidence. The series was won convincingly 2-0 after great batting set up good situations for the bowlers. The question and answer session went well into overtime to conclude a brilliant evening. March – Pat Murphy Our early March guest was journalist, cricket writer and Test Match Special commentator Pat Murphy, whose many books on famous cricketers gave him a wonderful insight into our beautiful game. Pat commenced by giving us a full background into his cricket writing life. He stated that his number one hero in cricket was John Arlott, who had been very influential in Pat’s younger reporting years (Worcester and Warwick- shire). Pat went on to write books for 18 cricketers plus John Arlott himself. This, of course, involved plenty of wine consumption with both Pat and John being appreciators of fine wines. This continued for Pat when he interviewed Percy Fender for a prospective book as Percy by then was a wine merchant – very handy. Pat talked about his books on Bob Willis (a straight talker) and Bob Taylor (a straight chatterer). Pat also did some cruising with the above pair which included some after dinner speaking with lots of happy memories. Pat then went on to talk about his books with the following: David Cromer, Basil D’Olivera, Mike Proctor, Brian Brain David Constent (umpire) and Chris Broad on the Aussie tour of 1986/87. The list just went on and on, like a who’s who of cricket. Tiger Smith (Warwickshire coach and then umpire) Alan Donald, Imran Khan, Wasin Akram, and of course Ian Botham. Ian he recalls was less than impressed after one tour of Pakistan, by saying he wouldn’t send his mother-in-law their, even with her expences paid! On his more recent books, Pat said Alec Stewart was very good to work with and ‘Freddie’ Flintoff preferred a coffee table book (plenty of photographs but not one of Duncan Fletcher!). Pat finished his introduction with further details on Basil D’Olivera, and finally Graham Gooch (a man of few words but his book had 70,000 of them!). Question and Answers: • Q: Pat was asked about the early books of Hutton, Bradman etc. were they assisted by a journalist. A: With perhaps the exception of Bill Bowes, even these early writers were assisted by journalists, just like today. • Q: How did you get on with Percy Fender. A: He had a reputation for being difficult and arrogant and quite often was. He was also very different (he used to drink sherry whilst eating cashew nuts). • Q: Which player would you have liked to interview but never did. A: W.G.Grace. So many stories about him including his last county season where it was said he suffered from having had too good a Christmas and previous Winter! • Q: Pat was asked about his most memorable cricket moments. A: There are so many, but one that really sticks out probably for the wrong reasons was West Indies being bowled out for 26 in Ireland; believed to be caused by a previous evening on the Guinness. Pat continued to reminisce about the great journalists, commentators and players, to conclude a very special evening. March – Anthony Callis and Geoff Wellstead (cricket inns and pubs) Our guest speakers commenced the evening with a slide show on the cricket themed pubs of England with many interesting and amusing stories connected to them (taken from the book Inns and Outs ). In fact this is one of BBC sports broadcaster Pat Murphy (left) receives a Wombwell glass from Society member Brian Exley.