6 to 12 September 1975: Another Dull Lord’s Final

For the second time in the 1975 season a Lord’s final was an anti-climax, and for the same reason as the first: Middlesex batted first and did not score sufficient runs to make a game of it. Their 180 for eight in the 60-over Gillette final was an improvement on the 146 they scraped together in the 55-over contest, but John Woodcock may have been underestimating when he wrote that “For the second time this season in a one-day final Middlesex needed another 30 runs to give their bowlers a fair winning chance”.

The whole event was conducted at a stately gait, only pushing past three an over in the final stages. Lancashire followed the unwritten rule that the side chasing a small total should extract whatever joy they could from proceedings by using most of the overs available to them. They went so slowly as to induce anxiety in their vociferous if untuneful supporters, but Clive Lloyd, incapable of playing dully, took the game by the scruff of the neck, just as he had the World Cup final in June. He was a wonderful player.

The think I remember most about watching the match on television was the warm reception given to the Middlesex (and in 21 tests, England) wicketkeeper JT Murray as he walked out to bat at Lord’s for the last time. He provided one of the few highlights for the Londoners by taking what Wisden describes as “a brilliant one-handed catch” to dismiss Frank Hayes.

Nobody realised how that mundane match marked the close of one era and the start of another. For Lancashire, it was a fifth final in six years, only that of the previous year lost. “See you next year” they might justifiably have said to the gatemen as they left. Middlesex fans were still more inclined to rhapsodise about Edrich and Compton than dwell on the present.

Yet it was 15 years until Lancashire next got their hands the 60-over trophy, by which time Middlesex had won it four times. The following season Middlesex won the Championship for the first time since 1949 and were to do so (including the 1977 share with Kent) seven times in 18 years, more than any county in the rest of the century. The veneration of Mike Brearley was about to begin.

The County Championship resumed on Wednesday with, rather oddly, just three matches, two of which involved teams that had to win to stand any chance of cresting the tape ahead of Leicestershire. Lancashire succeeded, Hampshire did not.

In his preview, John Woodcock suggested that the absence of the injured Andy Roberts might be a decisive blow to Hampshire, and he was probably right. John Ward made his maiden century for Derbyshire in his final innings and Alan Hill batted with his trademark obstinacy to hold them up for much of the third day. Roberts would surely have blasted through Alan Ward and Mike Hendrick who ground things out into the last hour until Hampshire gave up on the game and therefore their slim hope of winning the Championship.

It is a measure of the times that when Hampshire chose to shake hands, had they taken the last wicket with the following ball they would have had 86 to win from seven overs with Barry Richards and Gordon Greenidge to open. Now, that would be tough but quite possible. Then it was seen as fantasy.

At Old Trafford, Lancashire also faced some dogged resistance, partly from the Gloucestershire batters, but mostly from the rain, which delayed play until mid-afternoon, at which point Lancashire wrapped things up quite swiftly. They were now second in the Championship. If they secured the maximum 18 points against Sussex in the final match, Leicestershire would need the full eight bonus points to top them.

Hampshire had managed to wrap up the Sunday League, also against Derbyshire, at what must be county cricket’s most obscure venue, Darley Dale. As we have discussed, Derbyshire had lost the use of the County Ground in Derby after the opening game of the season, so for the rest of the summer wandered the county as itinerant minstrels in search of a stage. Thus did Darley Dale come to host what remains its only county cricket match, and they got a trophy presentation, fifties by Richards and Greenidge, and John Arlott and Jim Laker thrown in. With a population of 3,500, I cannot think of a smaller place to have hosted a county game. One of two here in New Zealand in the past might have matched it, for example Waikanae, north of Wellington, which has been an occasional venue for Central Districts over the years. Hampshire won easily enough by 70 runs.