Mike selvey

John Emburey was a very decent player Dragon, his test stats dropped off in the latter part of his career but earlier on he was more than useful for England.
You know i love my stats - Emburey is the player who has scored the most runs for England without compiling a century.
Alec Stewart has scored the most runs in test history without scoring a double ton. Remarkable really given he scored over 8000 runs in his test career.

David Steele, aka the Bank Clerk,  is a bit of a harsh pick imo, he only played 8 tests but averaged 42 in them ! Was shafted by the selectors. Became a cult hero in 1975 and ended up winning BBC Sports Personality of the year and was one of the Wisden cricketers of the year in 1976.

Fat Sam indeed deserves his place on the list, hardly scored a run and bowled pies !

Yes the football/cricket thing was relatively common back in the day TC, Jim Cumbes and Chris Balderstone spring to mind, saw both playing against Kent.

Balderstone made history in 1975 when he was playing for Leicestershire against Derbyshire in a 3 day championship game, he was 51 not out at stumps on Day 2, then shot off to Brentford FC for an evening kick off and played against the hosts for Doncaster Rovers in a 1-1 draw. Remarkable stuff. The next day at chesterfield he carried on batting and completed his century. A very talented guy.

Arnold sidebottom

Yorkshire,England

And man united

Can’t get much better than that

Kept George best out of the side once.

Thanks for mentioning the word Procter cuth , despite the spelling difference my first thought was a horrible memory of Mike Procter taking 4 in 5 balls against Hampshire in the B & H cup SF in 1977 including a hat trick , 48 years ago and it still hurts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25EcIdBAikM&t=29s

Proctor bowling 90 mph at 8.50 pm against Jack Bond in the Gillette. Now that was a match !

Hughes hit 23, I think, in an over off John Mortimer. In those days it was a 60 over competition and there had been a rain delay.

Jack Bond was Lancashire's equivalent to Mike Brearley except he couldn't do the Times crossword. An excellent captain who batted low down the order, didn't bowl but, as you say was a fine fielder. Asif probably still has sleepless nights after that catch !

Kent got their revenge on Lancs 3 years later in the 1974 Gillette final. The game went in to a second day due to the weather and finished on the Monday as no Sunday play scheduled.   

Conditions for batting were difficult.  Lancs batted first and made just 118 all out in their full 60 overs ! Clive Lloyd top scorer with 25 before being run out.

Kent also struggled in reply and were 89 for 6 when Bob Woolmer joined Alan Knott to see Kent home by 4 wickets.
Not a bad pairing for the seventh wicket with 8 Test Match centuries between them.

Yes quite remarkable Hayden, but Kent had such a strong side in those days. There are still conspiracy theories about Bob's untimely demise, i doubt we will ever know the full truth although it was probably natural causes.

Amazingly low scoring game, cannot ever remember a team batting their overs out and only scoring at 2 an over.

Knotty got Man Of The Match and he only scored 18 not out ! Mind you he was brilliant behind the stumps that day, took 2 catches and a stumping standing up to the medium pace of the lesser spotted James Graham-Brown who hardly ever played for Kent. J G-B is actually now an award winning playwright under the name of Dougie Blaxland, a lot of his stuff is cricket related including a play about Colin Milburn, When the Eye Has Gone.

just found he was involved in  and produced in association with Live Wire Theatre, Our Little Hour is based on the inspirational life story of of the legendary pioneering hero Walter Tull.

Award winning playwright Dougie Blaxland and celebrated composer Chris Anthony bring his story to the stage, exploring how Walter Tull – grandson of a Barbadian slave, orphaned at eight years old – rose to prominence against all odds.

The first black footballer to play at the highest level of the domestic game in the UK he went on to achieve yet another historic breakthrough as the first man of his heritage to be commissioned as an Officer in the British Army.

Tragically killed in action just a few weeks before the end of World War 1, Walter Tull’s pioneering achievements have earned him a distinguished place in British history and in the hearts of everyone who knows his story.

im going to see that as its touring again nationwide in 2026

Also the Plymouth or Portsmouth footballer who was selected for England and was then sent home because they found out he was black!

You gotta feel sorry for the current crop who get called names on Social Meja! John Barnes had the right idea.

my wife is of Jamacian heritage- her  dad was born in Kingston so was brought up on cricket as a young girl.. Total magic that we both love cricket.

all our kids love it too . will take them all to watch the production.its on in Salford in FEB 2026- thanks for the Dixie wd never had known about it but for your post -- the forum at its finest

working on the grandkids

In another low scoring final John Abrahams won the man of the match award in the Benson and Hedges Cup final at Lords in 1984 for his captaincy, despite not bowling and scoring a duck. Warwickshire scored 139 in 50.4 overs and Lancashire knocked them off in 42.4 overs.

Dragon,

Not sure if I told you but a couple of girls at my school had a Jamaican father. One of them moved back and had a beautiful house in the Blue mountains. I went with the other sister for a holiday and to visit the sister. Being a small Island the social scene was integrated into the cricket and we were given tickets for the Members Stand for each day. I was introduced to their friends one of whom was an officer in the Jamaican Defence Force and he got us the tickets. The thing I remember most about that Test even more than the ending of 30 years of hurt and Harmison getting 8 wickets was on the second morning of the Test one of the Stewards came up to our host with the bar bill for the previous day and on presenting it to him he said I am so sorry Sir I forgot to give you your bill yesterday. I thought that was such a cool way of telling someone they were drunk out of their tiny mind the previous evening and incapable of standing straight let alone accepting a bar bill!

I had a great holiday and went back for the 2007 World Cup and went on to Barbados for the Final. We stayed at Frenchman's Cove for a couple of days and had crabs in the South on a black sand beach, can't remember the place and also went inland to Mandeville. I have to say I had a great time there.