Andy Roberts was one of the most feared West Indian fast bowlers ever to set foot on a cricket field. He made even the best batsmen in the world nervous and terrified all of the others. I fell into the second category.
In the summer of 1973 Anderson Montgomery Everton Roberts was invited to Hampshire County Cricket Club to contest the overseas spot in the Hampshire squad for the following season with David O’ Sullivan, a left arm spinner from New Zealand.
The previous winter, playing in the Shell Shield tournament in the West Indies, Andy had suffered what many considered to be a career threatening knee injury. However, he arrived at Hampshire and declared himself fully fit and ready to play a full season in the 2nd XI County Championship.
I had played intermittently for Gloucestershire County 2nd XI since the age of seventeen and my only appearance in the First XI was in the John Player League earlier in May that year when I scored six runs and was involved in the run out of captain Tony Brown! Fortunately we went on to win that one.
I had also played against most of the counties whilst playing for Oxford University in 1970 and 1972. This was the time of no helmets and I can remember all too well the torrid times batting against the pace of England’s Alan Ward and West Indian Keith Boyce. I had also scored a first class century against Warwickshire. But nothing had prepared me for the encounter with Andy Roberts.
My rugby career could also demonstrate a useful pedigree and some degree of maturity as a sportsman. I had played in the Oxford University Rugby XV that had defeated the Springboks, the best rugby team in the world at the time, at Twickenham in 1969 and played countless other first class games for the University and London Irish. But the game of cricket posed a whole new set of challenges for me.
The encounter between Hampshire and Gloucestershire 2nd XI’s at Bournemouth on the 13th & 14th August 1973 has achieved folk-lore status in the annals of professional cricket and is often referred to in after dinner speeches by cricketing celebrities – some of whom were not even there at the time. But, as Max Boyce was fond of saying, “I know, because I was there”.
However, before we enter into the action, a little background information will be invaluable. In those days, because the county clubs were short of money, they only retained a skeleton staff of contracted players for the summer months to cover for injuries, international calls and chronic loss of form to members of the 1st XI. So, the 2nd XI’s of most county sides consisted of only a few contracted players.
Roberts had already established a formidable reputation for himself before we arrived at Bournemouth in the middle of August. The side that we put out against him included only three players that played, or were to play, any decent amount of cricket at first class level for Gloucestershire: batsman Jim Foat, wicketkeeper Andy Brassington and bowler Julian Shackleton.
We were to bat first and I was due in at the fall of the second wicket. That could be very early into the match!
You can imagine my state of mind as I watched, with my pads on, those early overs bowled with the very hard, bouncy new ball by “The Hit Man” Roberts.
Amazingly, our opening batsmen and Jimmy Foat survived his opening salvos to such an extent that the score was 106 before I had to bat - with Roberts no longer in the attack. I managed to score a fairly respectable twenty six runs without having to face a ball from him. What a relief!
However, things did not go quite so well in the second innings. Someone must have told Mr Roberts that his contract was on the line and that he needed to show that he was worth the investment.
I watched from the pavilion as we lost our first wicket and then saw Nick Cooper hit on the head from a bouncer from Roberts. He was immediately taken to hospital. This brought me to the crease to partner Jimmy Foat with Roberts at full steam.
I don’t think that I managed to lay a bat on any of his deliveries as they whistled pass me to the wicketkeeper at chest height and I was very happy to station myself at the non striker’s end whenever possible when he was bowling. My instincts for survival were further enhanced when I witnessed, from 20 yards, a sickening blow to Jimmy Foat’s hand as he attempted to fend off another short ball from Roberts. Hospital casualty number 2.
Figuring out that, if I was going to score any runs at all it was going to be from the bowler at the other end, I determined to attack. This proved my undoing – as it did for the rest of the team. With the damage done, both literally and figuratively, Andy was then withdrawn from the attack.
The rest of the team continued to bat frantically, at the prospect of having to face a further spell from Roberts, and we were dismissed for a paltry total of 69 – with only one batsmen achieving double figures. Ironically, it was another West Indian, Larry Worrell, an off break bowler from Barbados who cleaned us up and in so doing registered a hat trick!
Roberts earned his contract for Hampshire for the next year and in 1974, his first season in County Cricket, he demoralised professional cricketers everywhere. He took 119 wickets at an average of 13.62.
I might have shared the same stage for a moment with one of the greatest fast bowlers ever but my part was the equivalent of “5th Spear Carrier” in a Greek play. But, it is an experience I have never forgotten and, thankfully, the nightmares are no more!
Memory added on February 16, 2021
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