As I took guard Tony Greig, captain of Sussex, soon to be
captain of England and recently one of the few English players to return from
the brutal tour of Australia with head held high, set the field. At the end of
his mark was John Snow, the mainstay of the Ashes victory of 1970/71. I was in
dreamland. These were some of my boyhood heroes.
It was early April and still
wintry. Snow was wearing about five sweaters as he glided up to the crease. His
first ball thudded into my front pad but only after nicking the inside edge of
the bat. I had survived one ball. In fact here's the good news: I top scored
for Oxford University in that innings. The bad news? I only scored 22.
In fact in both innings of my first class debut I was caught by Snow off the bowling of John Spencer. There may be a small minority out there who might like to note that this was the first known collusion of Marks and Spencer in the history of the game.
Memory added on December 16, 2020
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