After four enjoyable years playing for Middlesex, I left Lord’s at the end of the summer of 1977 and went off to play for what turned out to be six seasons for Northamptonshire – a rather less glamorous club it has to be said, and a different set-up altogether compared to the grand precincts of London NW8!  Most games – Championship matches especially – took place with no more than just a mere smattering of stalwart spectators. With reference to possible crowd trouble at Northampton, the then Club Secretary Ken Turner was once heard to say in his rather lugubrious way: “Bloody 'ell me doock – it would be nice to have a crowd to GIVE trouble!” Indeed it used to be said that if you phoned the ground to ask what time play was due to start, they’d say: “What time can you get here?”
I did occasionally have my memorable moments as a Northants player... like the time I managed to bowl out someone who is still revered as a cricketing legend – Viv Richards no less (or rather I should say, Sir Vivian Richards).
Viv had got a few runs – about 70-odd I think – and he was not out overnight. Whether he’d been partying hard or not I don’t know, but first thing the following morning, in about the second over, he aimed to smash me back over my head halfway to Kettering and I bowled him... stumps everywhere! Having been mobbed by my excited teammates, I started to walk back to my fielding position on the boundary at the end of the over, proudly puffing my chest out and sporting my maroon and gold sweater and County cap, all ready to acknowledge my accolade from the adoring crowd. All I heard was a solitary voice shout out: “Oi, Lamb, I just paid ten quid to watch him bat!”
Memory added on February 2, 2021
Comments (Add your voice)
No comments have yet been added to this memory.
