Jack Bond is dead and he was 87 when he died which is much older than I thought he was but then again looking back he was already Lancashire’s senior citizen back in 1971 or so when the grand era of limited overs-winning transformed the club.
That Lancashire team was perhaps the most exciting, the most varied, the most idiosyncratic, of any CC team I know of (but you lot know better, right?). Our family moved to Liverpool in 1969 and one of the highlights of my Sundays (the lowlights being compulsory church attendance followed by obligatory ballroom dancing classes, during both of which I would have to dress up like a mini-adult and really feel envious of the kids who could just take a “casey” outside and play ).
But after statutory Sunday Lunch (which to be honest wasn’t that bad with the joint – no, not that kind – and the trimmings, even if one had to suffer Family Favourites on the wireless (always on: that song about a mouse on the stairs in Old Amsterdam) we had, on BBC2, the Sunday League. Memory fails now; was John Arlott a regular commentator or was he reserved for more “important” competitions? Peter West, maybe? Anyhow, the 40 over a side game was perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon and I soon started planning my afternoons around them. Even if that meant arguing with my sisters after the innings break/tea interval because they wanted to see something different on another channel on our only TV.
[Brief aside, about a player called Brian Langford, copied from wiki: In 1969, he had the following remarkable analysis in the John Player League (40 over List A match) against Essex at Yeovil: 8 overs, 8 maidens, 0 runs, 0 wickets. He remains the only person to have bowled a full complement of overs in a List A match without conceding a single run. Tell that to the kids nowadays.]
If Hampshire were on, that meant Barry Richards. Gloucestershire was Mike Proctor. And Lancashire was Clive Lloyd, David Lloyd, David Hughes, Ken Shuttleworth ,Farokh Engineer, Jack Simmons, Barry Wood, Harry Pilling. Etc, The WI Lloyd was a genius, Simmons ate fish and chips for England, Barry Wood had played for Yorkshire, Harry Pilling was super-tiny. As for David Hughes, who can forget that semi final in the Gillette Cup? How dark must it have been!
Jack Bond? He was the bond (pun intended) of all the above. No more than an averagely-talented cricketer himself (think Mike Brearley) he was a superb captain and managed to bring together this disparate yet hugely talented bunch of players so that one-day success became theirs by rights for a few years. They never won the Championship (weather issues?) but for a young teenager living in the area for a few years at the same time as all this happening (and going through his own personal travails) they helped to make Sunday afternoons much more bearable. Unless my sisters won the battle of the channels.
RIP Jack Bond.
That Lancashire team was perhaps the most exciting, the most varied, the most idiosyncratic, of any CC team I know of (but you lot know better, right?). Our family moved to Liverpool in 1969 and one of the highlights of my Sundays (the lowlights being compulsory church attendance followed by obligatory ballroom dancing classes, during both of which I would have to dress up like a mini-adult and really feel envious of the kids who could just take a “casey” outside and play ).
But after statutory Sunday Lunch (which to be honest wasn’t that bad with the joint – no, not that kind – and the trimmings, even if one had to suffer Family Favourites on the wireless (always on: that song about a mouse on the stairs in Old Amsterdam) we had, on BBC2, the Sunday League. Memory fails now; was John Arlott a regular commentator or was he reserved for more “important” competitions? Peter West, maybe? Anyhow, the 40 over a side game was perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon and I soon started planning my afternoons around them. Even if that meant arguing with my sisters after the innings break/tea interval because they wanted to see something different on another channel on our only TV.
[Brief aside, about a player called Brian Langford, copied from wiki: In 1969, he had the following remarkable analysis in the John Player League (40 over List A match) against Essex at Yeovil: 8 overs, 8 maidens, 0 runs, 0 wickets. He remains the only person to have bowled a full complement of overs in a List A match without conceding a single run. Tell that to the kids nowadays.]
If Hampshire were on, that meant Barry Richards. Gloucestershire was Mike Proctor. And Lancashire was Clive Lloyd, David Lloyd, David Hughes, Ken Shuttleworth ,Farokh Engineer, Jack Simmons, Barry Wood, Harry Pilling. Etc, The WI Lloyd was a genius, Simmons ate fish and chips for England, Barry Wood had played for Yorkshire, Harry Pilling was super-tiny. As for David Hughes, who can forget that semi final in the Gillette Cup? How dark must it have been!
Jack Bond? He was the bond (pun intended) of all the above. No more than an averagely-talented cricketer himself (think Mike Brearley) he was a superb captain and managed to bring together this disparate yet hugely talented bunch of players so that one-day success became theirs by rights for a few years. They never won the Championship (weather issues?) but for a young teenager living in the area for a few years at the same time as all this happening (and going through his own personal travails) they helped to make Sunday afternoons much more bearable. Unless my sisters won the battle of the channels.
RIP Jack Bond.
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