As a young man I discovered the name John Shawcroft and the players who wore the Derbyshire shirt.
He was the author of my favorite cricket books and will always be a pioneer in Derbyshire cricket writing. His book on the 1936 Championship winners is a classic and still in my top ten books of all time, and his history of the club provides chapter and verse about the club since its inception.
It’s been a pleasure getting to know him over the years and his latest work brings together the careers of two of the county’s favorite sons and is a worthy addition to your collection.
Cliff Gladwin and Les Jackson were the twin scourges of the County batting line-up in the 1950s. In that decade, Derbyshire probably only needed to add one more dependable batsman to win their second County Championship. They were often able to put together enough runs to give them something to use in powerful offenses, but there were times when they fell apart, so too often they were just there and not the leader of the pack. Surrey were very strong during that decade, but Derbyshire kept them close and could have won the title in 1954, but bad weather forced them out.
Gladwin is probably not up to true international level, being a very good, error-free and accurate medium pace bowler at county level who can reduce his pace and bowl a cutter when the conditions suit. He developed a leg-cutter that kept batsmen guessing and Edwin Smith said he had the ability to swing late, unlike many swing bowlers. Sometimes he swung and cut the ball when pitching, which really put him in a prime position.
He was a fierce competitor and could be blunt on the field, especially if a catch was dropped or a poor fielding played against his name. He could relate his analysis at the end of an inning without consulting the scorer and was an ideal, unstoppable leader of the offense.
Jackson must have played more than two Test matches 12 years apart. Meanwhile, most county batsmen would have put him in their top three bowlers and only his accent, perceived brooding persona or untextbook behavior seems to have held him back. Establishment selectors generally preferred to select smaller bowlers from the ‘right’ backgrounds of southern England.
That was outrageous, and many of his contemporaries said he was a friendly and approachable teammate, a workhorse who could bowl from kick-off until lunch and start again later. He was also more philosophical, shrugging off missed opportunities and usually reacting with ‘If it’s bad luck, take the next chance.’ To quote Walter Goodyear, a former county administrator for many years, ‘He was a great friend, Les. ‘It’s one of the best.’
They missed a relatively small number of matches, a tribute to their solid physique and perhaps late career (Jackson did not play until he was 27, and Gladwin was 29 when cricket resumed after the war) .) There was no obvious successor until Harold Rhodes came along. And he replaced Gladwin when he retired at the end of 1958. Jackson himself was 37 years old at the time, but between 1958 and 1960 he took a whopping 443 wickets.
John Shawcroft has done his usual reliable job with this biography that brings together their careers in one volume. He does not fall into the trap of suggesting that modern cover pitches, with their different approaches to batting, would have been equally effective today as they would have been a greater challenge. But if they had controlled the lines and lengths they could have remained a minority.
They were two of the greatest men in the long history of the county, and those who saw them were truly fortunate.
If you’re looking for something to add to your Christmas wish list, look no further than this one for Derbyshire supporters. This is another addition to the excellent Lives in Cricket series published by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians, well illustrated and in a very readable font size, we really appreciate it!
Les Jackson and Cliff Gladwin: Masters of the Craft Written by John Shawcroft and published by ACS Publications.
