Paul Robinson is a lifelong resident of Chesterfield and has been attending Derbyshire games at Queens Park since the early seventies. His favourite Derbyshire players of all time are Bob Taylor & Mike Hendrick. Since taking retirement he’s been able to reconnect with the sport, becoming a member of Derbyshire CCC for the first time in many years as well as joining Friends of QP cricket. This is his second article to appear in Friends Annuals

The Chris Balderstone Match

As autumn approached, the 1975 cricket season drew to a conclusion with Derbyshire’s final game being played against Leicestershire at Queen’s Park. Due to the on going dispute between Derby Council & Derbyshire CCC there was no cricket played at Derby that season. Queen’s Park was one of the beneficiaries of this & the town had been blessed with some memorable cricket moments that summer including a visit from the Australian tourists & a Gillette Cup semi final in front of a packed house against Middlesex. The County Championship however, had largely passed Derbyshire by (no change there) & we finished the season in 15^th place out of 17 with only Gloucestershire & Sussex amassing fewer points. We did however manage to win 5 games from 20 but as far as we were concerned this match was just a typical end of season affair.

It was a different story for our visitors however. Led by their captain Ray Illingworth they came to Queen’s Park knowing a win would almost certainly guarantee a first County Championship title in their history. Their side included opening batsman & future umpire Barry Duddleston, highly rated wicket keeper/batsman Roger Tolchard & Chris Balderstone who was also a professional footballer in the winter months. He was to play a major part in the game, more of that later.

County Championship games back then were played over 3 days, often starting on a Saturday & concluding Monday & Tuesday. Sundays were set aside for the John Player League, a popular 40 over competition. The first innings for each side was limited to 100 overs. This match began on Saturday 13^th September & despite both counties having completed their JPL fixtures for the season the previous week, Sunday 14^th was a designated rest day so this fixture was to be played in the usual Saturday-Monday-Tuesday format.

Day 1:

Leicestershire won the toss & decided to bat first. Some accurate bowling by the Derbyshire attack soon had them regretting the decision as wickets regularly tumbled throughout the first 2 sessions. At one point they were 77/6, the wickets being shared between Hendrick, Ward & Russell. Their lower order rallied & they were finally all out just after tea for 226. Graham ‘Garth’ McKenzie the Australian bowler who was playing his final game for the visitors came in at number 10 & top scored with 44. Derbyshire’s opening pair of Bolus & Sharpe managed to steer the home side to 41/0 by close of play without too much trouble.

Day 2:

Work commitments meant that I & many others were unable to attend the Monday session until the last hour or so, but at least I was present to see all the excitement as the day drew to an interesting climax. On the field Derbyshire totalled 211, some 15 runs behind their visitors. Alan ‘Bud’ Hill top scoring with 44. Ominously the pitch was starting to turn. Half the Derbyshire batsmen had succumbed to spin, Illingworth leading the way with 4 wickets.

With run rates in the County Championship averaging 2-3 per over the match looked like petering out to a draw. Whilst this may have been enough to earn Leicestershire the title they would need the win to be certain. Yorkshire, Hampshire & Lancashire all simultaneously went into their final games knowing that win for themselves & a slip up from Leicester could swing the title in either of their favours. This left our visitors with no choice other than to go into their second innings with the intention of amassing as many runs as they could in the shortest time possible, leaving them enough time to bowl out their hosts on the final day.

They were off to a poor start with both openers falling to catches behind by Bob Taylor off the bowling of Alan Ward. Enter one J.C. Balderstone to steal the show. Chris Balderstone was one of a select band of cricketers who also played professional football for a living. In the modern era this is almost unheard of with the demands of both sports being so high. Then however, it wasn’t uncommon for talented sportsmen to ‘double up’. Others who did so at the time included the Sheffield United defender Ted Hemsley who was an accomplished batsman & occasional bowler for Worcestershire. He once uniquely played cricket for Worcester against Yorkshire at his home ground Bramall Lane! Yorkshire’s Arnie Sidebottom was on Man U’s books. Jim Cumbes played in goal for Tranmere Rovers, West Brom & Aston Villa. He spent the summer months bowling right arm medium for Lancashire, Surrey, Worcestershire & Warwickshire. Following retirement he spent 14 years as chief executive at Lancashire. Ian Botham famously played 11 games for Scunthorpe between 1979 & 1984. Derbyshire’s very own Ian Buxton who enjoyed a 14 year career with county doubled up as an inside forward for Derby County & Luton Town amongst others, whilst local lad Chris Marples who kept wicket for Derbyshire on around 25 occasions as well as several second xi appearances enjoyed a long career as a football league goalkeeper, home town club Chesterfield being amongst his many clubs. The full list goes back over a century with Denis Compton (Arsenal/Middlesex) probably being the most famous.

At the time Balderstone was still juggling his cricket & football careers. Earlier that summer he had ended a long association with Carlisle United & signed for Doncaster Rovers who on that very same evening just happened to have a home fixture against Brentford. He’d been given permission by Leicestershire to play in the fixture as long as the title had been won. Rovers boss Stan Anderson was so keen to play him in that he personally drove to Queen’s Park, arriving shortly after 4pm to drive him the 30 or so miles to their Belle Vue ground.

Had Leicestershire been fielding at the time, or had been dismissed he would have got away, but with wickets falling around him he had to stick it out. Close of play was due at 6pm with the Rovers game kicking off 90 minutes later. Off the field the press & media had wind of the situation with the focus on an anxious Anderson continually checking his watch & probably hoping his new signing would hurry up & lose his wicket. ITV had sent a camera crew to the ground to do a small feature for their forthcoming Saturday football preview programme ‘On the ball’. My own claim to fame is that I was caught on camera & managed to see myself on tv. A big thing for a 16 year old, I was the envy of my mates that weekend.

At the wicket Balderstone appeared unaware of all the fuss around the ground as he calmly batted through a mini crisis. 3 further wickets had fallen & with the score at 102-5 he was joined at the crease by wicket keeper Roger Tolchard. He reached his half century around 10 minutes before stumps. The applauding Anderson’s face was quite a picture. At the end of the day’s play Leicestershire were on 108/5, (123 ahead). Balderstone who was still there on 51 not out sprinted from the field still in his pads straight into Anderson’s car which sped away from the ground & into the late rush hour traffic.

Around 45 minutes later they arrived at Belle Vue. Balderstone, still in his cricket whites, dashed to the home changing room with around 15 minutes to go to kick off. Following a quick change into the Rovers home kit he was jogging out on to the turf with his team mates to play his part in a 1-1 draw against the Londoners.

Day 3:

With Leicestershire needing a win to secure the title their batsmen were instructed to go out swinging in order to set Derbyshire a target. The pair of them duly obliged, Tolchard hit a quick 65 not out but was outshone by Balderstone who completed a memorable few days by scoring a century before being run out for 116. Shortly afterwards Illingworth declared on 260/6 setting the hosts an target of 276.

With Leicestershire needing a win to secure the title their batsmen were instructed to go out swinging in order to set Derbyshire a target. The pair of them duly obliged, Tolchard hit a quick 65 not out but was outshone by Balderstone who completed a memorable few days by scoring a century before being run out for 116. Shortly afterwards Illingworth declared on 260/6 setting the hosts an target of 276.

The Derbyshire opening pair of Bolus & Sharpe were both caught behind for 21 & 7 respectively, the wickets then gradually tumbled & the home side succumbed to 140 all out in 68.3 overs. Balderstone again got in on the act taking 3/28 with his slow left arm spin. Typically he had the last say in the match, & indeed the whole season, by taking the last wicket to fall when he had Bob Taylor caught by captain Illingworth. Despite having no overseas player & bizarrely no home grown player in the side Leicestershire had won the County championship for the first time in their 96 year history.

Chris Balderstone still remains the only player to have played professional cricket & professional football on the same day. A feat which I doubt will ever be repeated. The following year he played a couple of tests against the West Indies before taking up umpiring for the next 2 decades. He sadly died of prostate cancer in March 2000 aged just 59.

As for Derbyshire a new broom was about to sweep clean. Following years in the doldrums a coach by the name of Eddie Barlow was to take charge the following season. Exciting times lay ahead.