Our Former Players Day

Tributes were made to the late Mike Turner MBE as part of the Former Players Day at Grace Road on Sunday.

Mike’s daughter Helen and son-in-law Laurie Potter were presented with a special tie that our former players receive as part of being in Leicestershire County Cricket Club’s Numbers Club.

Every player who has made a first-class appearance for the club has been given a number that represents their position in the list in chronological order. That number is then embroidered into a tie and cap as a permanent memento of being part of Leicestershire County Cricket Club.

Mike’s contribution to the club over 43 years will never be forgotten and he is number 220 in our Numbers Club.

A lovely service of thanksgiving was held for Mike at St Andrews Church in Aylestone last Tuesday, where his friends and family came together to celebrate his wonderful life.

Lots of Leicestershire players past and present attended the service, including David Gower, Jonathan Agnew, James Whitaker, Peter Willey, Nigel Briers, Les Taylor, Paul Haywood, Robin Matthews, Paul Nixon, Phil Whitticase and Russell Cobb. Several of Mike’s friends from the ECB also came to Leicester, including David Collier, Mike Gatting, the Hon Tim Lamb, Ian Lovett, and Bruce Cruse.

Part of Mike’s legacy was the amazing 1975 double winning season and several members of that squad returned to Grace Road for the third day of the Derbyshire game.

Barry Dudleston, John Steele, Peter Booth and David Humphries were among our guests as famous names of Leicestershire’s cricketing history gathered in the Illingworth and Cottesmore suites.

The side not only enjoyed title success in the County Championship that season but also lifted the Benson and Hedges Cup and beat the touring Australians.

Leicestershire won 12 of their 20 matches to finish first in the 17-team system which was in place. Yorkshire were our closest rivals back then but Leicestershire finished an impressive 16 points clear at the top.

During the victorious 1975 campaign four batsmen passed over 1,000 runs in the County Championship: Brian Davison, Dudleston, Steele and the late Chris Balderstone.

The fierce bowling attack consisted of Ken Higgs (50 wickets), Raymond Illingworth (48 wickets), the late Norman McVicker (45 wickets), Balderstone (41 wickets) and Jack Birkenshaw (40 wickets). 

A standout fixture from that year was against Nottinghamshire at Grace Road, where batsmen Davison (184) and Balderstone (168 not out) scored season bests to win by an innings and nine runs.

In the same year Leicestershire also completed winning the Benson and Hedges Cup due to a victory over Middlesex in the final at Lord’s. A five-wicket victory thanks to a brilliant McVicker spell of 4-20 was enough on that day to win the Cup for the Foxes.

En route to the final, a knock of 101 not out from Balderstone on his home ground was enough to defeat Hampshire. Both batsman Balderstone and fellow teammate Higgs finished with the individual accolades of being the top run-scorer and leading wicket-taker.  

A total of 21 former players were in attendance on Sunday including Chairman Paul Haywood and Board Director Robin Matthews.

As well as Barry, John, Peter and David, we also welcomed back Nigel Briers, Peter Willey, Laurie Potter, Ray Julian, Russell Cobb, Bernie Cromack, Terry Spencer, Freddie Foulds, Geoff Coe, Geoff Hickinbottom, Martin Hickman, Don Munden, Rodney Pratt, John Harrop and Bob Gardner, who made a brilliant hundred against the touring Australians in 1961.

We would like to thank all former players for coming and if any of our past players would like to get in touch regarding the Numbers Club, please call 0116 245 2401 or email enquiries@leicestershireccc.co.uk

We’ve also set up a Twitter account to keep in touch with our players and to update with news about our former players, so please follow @LCCCNumbersClub