Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2026

C ec’s cajoling of Gilchrist to play for us was a real coup because, quoting Barry Richards’ story ‘Sundial in the Shade’, Andrew Murtagh states, “Gilchrist was an interesting, talented, notorious, ultimately tragic character in the history of the game. Possessed of a fiery temper, he was rightly feared for the speed and hostility of his bowling.” Evidently, even a young Barry Richards found him a handful. These were quite serious cricketing days for me. I fielded in the gully and was mightily grateful to cling on to a couple of catches off Roy against Egerton CC. Batting wise, perhaps the two innings that I’m most proud of were as follows… Tonge CC had a tremendous professional called Keith Eccleshare, a local Bolton boy whose bowling terrorised teams around the leagues. The late Jim Gledhill, 30 years in charge of the Lancashire Federation, was asked who was the best player he had coached. Despite his charges including Mike Atherton, David Lloyd and Frank Hayes, his reply was, “Without a doubt, Keith Eccleshare.” One sunny summer afternoon in around 1978, I opened for Astley Bridge and got a half century, picking up a nice collection from the gathered spectators. Getting the better of the great Eccleshare that day - well, for a while at least - remains my proudest batting achievement. Secondly, was a spirited 36 against former Pakistan Test star Mudassar Nazar who was the pro for Horwich RMI (Railway Men’s Institute). He played 76 Tests, was a useful bowler at Lancashire League level too, and was famous for two things… 1. He was best on slow, low pitches. In 1977 he hit the slowest Test century of all time - a shade under 10 hours. 2. ‘Mud’ also earned the unfortunate distinction of being the first batter ever to be out on 199 in a Test. My final big ‘name drop’ must be the formidable Sonny Ramadhin who, early in his career, tormented the English test team with his spinning guile. Much later he settled down in Delph and ran a pub Old friends... Ged (3rd left) and his teammates... some years later! 14