From Grace Road to Glory: Russell Cobb | Riding the Blows and Memories of a Brian Davison Special

By Tim Murray

Russell Cobb plays a key role in developing the potential stars of the future but he also has fond - if painful - memories of playing at Queen's Park.

In 1985 Cobb batted at number three in a Leicestershire side which beat Derbyshire by seven wickets at the ground. 

The make-up of the two teams gives an indication of the strength of the County Championship at that time. Kim Barnett, John Morris, Geoff Miller, Michael Holding and Ole Mortensen were in Derbyshire's side while England players Chris Balderstone, Peter Willey, James Whitaker, Jonathan Agnew and Les Taylor lined up for the visitors alongside West Indian express bowler George Ferris. 

You might think such strong teams would be title contenders but Derbyshire finished the season 13th in the table while Leicestershire were 16th of the 17 teams. 

Cobb battled to 27 in the first innings and he recalled: "Ole Mortensen was bowling from the Pavilion End and he was swinging it. Michael Holding was bowling from the other end at a fair speed. He was nipping it back, the ball was following you and I let a couple hit me." 

Cobb took the blows to the upper body but that did not spoil his enjoyment of the ground. "It's a beautiful setting with the trees all around," he said. "The pitch was good too. There was good bounce and the ball swung but it was also good for batting because the ball came on to the bat well." 

Two years before that game Cobb witnessed at close quarters what should have been one of the most memorable moments in cricket but which has almost disappeared from the record books. In 1968 Sir Garfield Sobers achieved immortality by hitting Malcolm Nash for six sixes in an over. Fifteen years later, no-one had repeated that feat. But in 1983 Leicestershire faced Zimbabwe at Grace Road in a one-day game in an era when such matches still had lunch and tea intervals. 

Just before lunch, Cobb was at the Pavilion End facing off-spinner John Traicos. The over began with a dot ball before Cobb on-drove the second for three, putting Brian Davison on strike. Davison hit the third ball for six and the fourth, and, with Traicos bowling two no-balls, cleared the ropes four more times to equal Sobers' feat with the over costing 39 runs off the bat plus the two no-balls. 

It was all the more remarkable because Traicos - who played internationally for two countries - was one of the best off-spinners in the world. He made his Test debut for South Africa in 1970 before they went into the sporting wilderness because of apartheid but he re-appeared at the top level in 1992 after Zimbabwe achieved Test status. 

Davison, with immensely strong forearms, was one of the most spectacular and successful players of the time. Cobb said: "It was obvious he was going for it. I just stood there in awe. He was such a fantastic player. Traicos was a very good bowler and he was very experienced by that stage." 

Since 2012 Cobb has been head coach at Loughborough University Centre of Excellence. Sam Billings, Sam Cook, James Bracey and Matt Montgomery are among those to have come under his wing. The programme gives would-be cricketers three years of top-class coaching and games against county teams plus a university education. 

"It is a platform for cricketers aged 18 to 22 to develop," said Cobb. "They also get a good degree so they have something to fall back on. The great advantage of Loughborough is that during the winter some of the neighbouring counties use the indoor centre and they ask for bowlers. It's about putting people in the shop-window."

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Tim Murray witnessed Brian Davison's six-hitting spectacular and found himself in a tricky position.

He said: "At that time I was a young sports reporter on the Leicester Mercury, the daily paper for Leicestershire and Rutland. One of my roles was covering Leicester Lions speedway team, who had a match on the Saturday night, the day before the Zimbabwe game at Grace Road.

"I was going to watch the cricket as a spectator so I went early and headed for the Press Box to write the speedway report for Monday's paper before the game began. 

"Work done, I sat back to watch the cricket. The only other occupant of the Press Box was the Mercury's cricket correspondent Martin Johnson, who went on to win national fame for his humorous writings, including the 'can't bat, can't bowl and can't field' description of England before they won the Ashes in Australia in 1986-87.

"We sat chatting and watching the cricket until, just before lunch, Martin said:  'It's handy you being here, could you do me a favour? I want to nip out in the interval and see a mate. If you could keep an eye on the last couple of overs, it would give me a bit more time.'
"I said: 'No problem, Mart,' and then saw him head for the car park. The next over Davison launched his amazing display of hitting and I was left to spend the entire lunch break wondering how I was going to tell Martin what he had missed. Would he even believe me? Spot on the resumption, he marched up the steps and opened the Press Box door with a huge smile on his face. 'It's all right,' he said. 'I watched it from the car park.'

"Martin was a superb writer and many people bought the paper simply to read his cricket reports. The players loved reading them, except when he wrote about them. The remarkable thing was that he was even more hilarious to meet than he was in print.

"He was unmatched as a story-teller, he could make a trip to the corner shop to buy a newspaper sound as dramatic as walking to the North Pole in a T-shirt."