From Grace Road to Glory: Jack Birkenshaw | Playing The Right Way

By Tim Murray 

Few have given greater or more varied service to cricket than Jack Birkenshaw. He had a 24-season playing stint at first-class level, is one of a select band who have played in and umpired Test matches, has coached a host of teams and is now, 67 years after his Yorkshire debut, an England and Wales Cricket Board spin-bowling scout and Leicestershire president.

The genial all-rounder has particularly happy memories of Queen's Park because it was there, in September 1975, that he played a key role in Leicestershire clinching their first County Championship title. But his introduction to the ground came in the 1950s as a young member of a Yorkshire side that included such legendary players and characters as Fred Trueman, Brian Close, Ray Illingworth and Johnny Wardle. "There was always a good crowd at Chesterfield and they were very partisan towards Derbyshire so it was a bit of a needle game," he recalled. "Our captain Ronnie Burnet had a belly on him and the crowd used to call him The Landlord." 

Those games brought Birkenshaw up against one of the most respected bowlers on the circuit, Les Jackson. "He was an unbelievable bowler," said Birkenshaw. "He had a slingshot action, hit the seam consistently, had good pace and didn't give runs away. I think he took his wickets at seven apiece against Leicestershire." 

In the crucial end-of-season game of 1975 Birkenshaw's Leicestershire side found themselves up against two more formidable opening bowlers in Alan Ward and Mike Hendrick. That duo and Phil Russell reduced the table-toppers to 77-6 before Birkenshaw hit 37 to help spark a recovery to 226 all out, enough for a first-innings lead of 15. By the second afternoon it was clear that Leicestershire - skippered by Illingworth, who had followed Birkenshaw to Grace Road - were champions because Lancashire, their only remaining challengers, had not gained enough bonus points at Hove. 

There were celebrations among the travelling fans who had a banner saluting 'Leicestershire cricket kings' but no high jinks among the players. They were staying at the now-demolished Midland Hotel opposite the station and Birkenshaw said: "We went back there and had some halves of beer but there was no champagne, Illy wasn't into that sort of thing." 

Leicestershire polished off Derbyshire by 135 runs on the final day to round off a glorious season in which they also won the Benson & Hedges Cup and beat the Australians in a three-day tour game but, again, there were no lavish celebrations because they were driving home. 

That was the second time Birkenshaw had played in a Championship-winning side. In the final match of the 1959 season, he took four second-innings catches to help Yorkshire to set up a five-wicket win over Sussex and end Surrey's run of seven consecutive titles. They clinched victory by plundering 215 runs in 105 minutes, an unheard-of scoring rate in those days. That night the victorious Yorkshire team had to drive from Hove to Scarborough to play MCC the following day in the opening match of the Festival. "Scarborough was full and before the start the crowd were on the pitch," said Birkenshaw. "When we came out to field, we had to walk through a tunnel of spectators. It was an amazing experience for an 18-year-old." 

Birkenshaw feels that the key to success for both teams was that they were packed with all-rounders. He was a stylish left-handed bat who scored more than 12,000 first-class runs while his beguilingly-flighted off-spinners took more than 1,000 wickets. He, Illingworth, John Steele and Chris Balderstone would have got into the Leicestershire team as batters or bowlers as would Close and Illingworth at Yorkshire. 

Close is revered for his extraordinary bravery, bordering on insanity, against fast bowling and fielding at short leg in an era before helmets. "He was incredibly brave, a fantastic character and a terrific cricketer," said Birkenshaw. "I umpired a game at Sheffield when he was in his 70s, it was Brian Close's XI against Martyn Moxon's XI. He was still standing half a yard from the bat at short-leg." Close was a fiercely-competitive all-round sportsman who also played football for Bradford City, having previously been on Arsenal's books. 

The top attraction in that Yorkshire team was Trueman. The mop of black hair and the gradually accelerating run-up made him a fearsome proposition and he was revered as much for his wit as his fast bowling. "He was fantastic," said Birkenshaw. "Just to be in the dressing room with him was super. We were playing Surrey. It was a big game and a big crowd. I was at first slip and Don Wilson was at second slip. Fred was bowling to Bernie Constable and he nicked one. It went to my right and Don's left. We both left it to each other and the ball went for four. A few balls later, the same thing happened again. At the end of the over I passed Fred as I was going to third man at the other end and I said: 'Sorry'. He replied: 'Don't worry, it's my fault for putting you there.' With that wonderful side-on action, he could swing the ball from leg stump. People can't do that now." 

Birkenshaw was the junior member of the side and he recalled: "I didn't say a lot in the dressing room, I just listened. I was 12th man away to Kent at Maidstone. In the bar afterwards, when it got to 10 o'clock, Johnny Wardle said to me: 'That's it, off you go to bed.' Wardle was Yorkshire's top spinner of the 1950s and Birkenshaw said: "He was teriffic with me. I was in the dressing-room at Sheffield when he was sacked. It was amazing. It was thought he was a bad apple so no-one took him on but now there would be a queue of counties wanting him." 

Limited to just 28 Tests because Tony Lock was about at the same time, Wardle took 102 wickets for England at the remarkable average of 20.39. For Yorkshire he usually bowled orthodox slow left-arm spin but, on the tour to South Africa in 1956-57, he took 26 wickets in four Tests with wrist-spin. Birkenshaw said: "Brian 'Tonker' Taylor was one of the keepers on that tour. So the story goes, he couldn't pick him so they practised on the boat on the way out. Of course, every time he missed, the ball went into the sea and they ran out of tennis balls before they got there." 

Illingworth's game went up several notches when he moved to Leicestershire as captain. Birkenshaw said: "He took over from Tony Lock a nearly very good side and his wickets and runs completed it. Illy was a brilliant captain, the best I played under. He knew when to attack and when to defend. He would defend but, when it was time to attack, he would go for the kill. He was a brilliant tactician. He'd leave teams 220 to win and people would say: 'That's a bad declaration,' but he would back his bowlers to bowl them out. When he was batting, he never thought he was out and, when he was bowling, every time it hit the pads, he thought it was out."

He added: "Illy used to polish the ball a lot because one of his best balls was his arm ball. One year he took 100 wickets and 40 of them were with his arm ball. But John Steele used to put spit on the ball so, if he was bowling with Illy, he could get into a bit of trouble." 

Leicestershire's star attraction was Brian Davison and Birkenshaw said: "He was a terrific attacking batsman. When he defended, he looked like Donald Duck but, when he attacked, he looked like Don Bradman. He was an outstanding fielder and he could bowl - he was a mean bowler. We had a lot of mean bowlers - Illy, John Steele and Ken Higgs. I was more inclined to experiment." 

Australian Graham 'Garth' McKenzie spearheaded the Leicestershire attack. He shared many of Trueman's attributes as a bowler - but not his temperament. Birkenshaw said: "You could not get him angry. Illy used to say to him: 'For goodness sake, bowl a bouncer.' One day we were playing the West Indies and Lance Gibbs hit Garth for a couple of fours. Garth was running in and Illy stopped him and said: 'You must bowl a bouncer.' Garth ran in again and bowled a full toss. Lance was a couple of yards down the leg side and he was bowled." 

One of the most telling pieces of advice Birkenshaw received came from Burnet, his first Yorkshire captain. Birkenshaw recalled: "He said: 'If you edge it, you must walk. If you don't walk, you are not going to be playing for Yorkshire.'" At that time walking was the accepted practice in county cricket although that began to change in the 1960s. 

Birkenshaw made his England debut in the fourth Test against India at Kanpur in January 1973 and he was on 64 when he faced the whippy wrist-spin of Bhagwat Chandrasekhar. He said: "He got a ball to bounce a bit, there were shouts of 'catch it' and I walked. As I was going off, I thought: 'What am I doing? I don't know if I hit it.' But it was what you did in those days. I still don't know to this day whether I hit it." 

He remembers another incident involving Gloucestershire opener Arthur Milton. "Illy was bowling to him before lunch and we thought he was caught bat-pad but it was given not out. During the interval his partner must have told him it was out because he came out afterwards and said: 'Sorry for what happened before lunch'. Then he walked down the wicket against Illy, missed and was stumped." 

He added: "Another time we were playing Gloucestershire and I was bowling to Mike Procter. He hit a ball back to me and I wasn't sure whether I had caught it. Illy was at short mid-on on the drive and he said: 'You caught it.' I said: 'I'm not sure.' Procter said: 'If you want my wicket that badly, Illy, I'll just walk off.' He was given not out and carried on. That night he tore in down the hill and took six wickets and I was batting with Illy. Every ball he bowled at Illy was a bouncer but he didn't bounce me at all. The next day his knee had swelled up and he bowled off-spin." 

In that era it was almost the custom for the players of both teams to talk cricket over a drink at the end of the day. Birkenshaw said: "There was such a good camaraderie between the players and the members. At Leicester, we'd go in the pub by the ground. I learned from talking to players like Jim Laker and Fred Titmus. It was the same with John Mortimore and David Allen when we played Gloucestershire." Those times have gone. He added: "It was a drinking thing. People have got more fitness-conscious. We didn't do a lot of training then but we practised more. Everyone could bowl line and length in those days. The important thing was doing something with the ball to deceive the batsman." 

Birkenshaw would like to see modern players spend more time practising cricket skills and that brings him full circle to memories of those early tussles with Les Jackson, saying: "He wouldn't leave the nets until he'd bowled the whole side out!"