I joined the 1st Class Cricket Umpires Panel in the UK in 1983. My second match was between Essex and Surrey at Chelmsford in early May. It was a 3 day match starting on the  Saturday and played on Monday (May Day) and Tuesday. My colleague was an Australian former Somerset player Bill Alley.
Rain reduced play on the Saturday, with the hosts batting but Monday brought bright sunshine. In those days Essex had a big following of enthusiastic, noisy supporters and on that bank holiday they were packed into the ground.
Despite Surrey having the fearsome Sylvester Clarke spearheading its attack, an easy paced Chelmsford pitch took the sting out of Sylly's thunderbolts, so Essex easily declared on around 300, leaving the visitors to bat for 65 minutes till the close of play.
When Essex batted, the ball rarely beat the bat. South African Kenny McKewan scored a century and captain Keith Fletcher 70 or so. A young Neil Foster opened the bowling at Bill Alley's end and immediately batting looked difficult, with the ball swinging.
Norbert Phillips bowled the second over at my end, sending down a series of unplayable out swingers. Batsmen played and missed and edged the ball, everyone of which could have been a wicket and the partisan crowd loved it, appealing more loudly than the players at every false stroke or wicket. The tension in the middle was unbelievable, with batsmen being bowled, LBW or caught.
As an inexperienced umpire I thought " why is this happening to me, with my lack of experience?At one stage Surrey was 9 runs for 9 wickets and in danger of being bowled out for the lowest total in 1st Class Cricket. At that total Sylvester was dropped at slip off the last ball of Norbert's over and Sylly took a single which took the total to 10!
Sylly slogged the first ball off Foster's next over past me at square leg and was bowled next ball. Surrey all out for 14. This was an extraordinary period of cricket, the like I have never seen before or after. Essex enforced the follow on and Surrey batted out the last day, forcing a draw, with great ease.
The ball which bowled the visitors out and which swung like a boomerang, looked no different from the other used balls. It was just an unbelievable passage of play.
Memory added on July 3, 2021
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