Kent’s 'Decem Anni Mirabiles': Kent Cricket in the 1970s

 

On 24^th August 1970, at Blackheath’s snug cricket ground, an increasingly nervous 14-year old watched as Surrey inched towards victory over Kent in a County Championship cricket match. Set 263 to win, Surrey had reached 250. But they had lost nine wickets, and time was running out, there would probably only be one more over before the end of the match. Surrey’s number 11, Pat Pocock, went for glory, hitting off-spinner Graham Johnson back over his head. Six runs seemed inevitable, but Asif Iqbal sprinted round the boundary and held out a hand. I did not see the catch, as every spectator had jumped to their feet, obscuring my view. But the massive cheers and raised arms told me that he had held the ball, and Kent had won.

It was one of a remarkable run of games that secured the county championship that year for Kent and began a decade in which Kent dominated county cricket. During the seventies, Kent won a total of ten titles in the four domestic competitions, far more than any other county, and far exceeding their achievements before or since. In this article I will tell the story of Kent’s marvellous decade, and the controversies that accompanied the achievements.

Kent's 1970 Championship winning side. The photo was taken at the Oval as that was where Kent secured the title

Kent's Trophy Cabinet during the 1970s

The history of cricket in Kent can be traced back for three hundred years. The very first matches between representative county sides took place in Kent in the early 18^th century. The present county club was formed in 1870 and was a founder member of the county championship in 1890. However, prior to the late 1960s, Kent had not experienced much success, in terms of silverware. They had won the county championship just four times, all in a purple patch between 1906 and 1913, when Frank Woolley dominated the batting and left-arm spinner Colin Blythe the bowling. The Great War put an end to Kent’s run of success (and led to the death of Blythe, killed in action in 1917), and for the next fifty-four years they were more often in the lower half of the table than the top half.

Things began to improve in 1967 when, as I related in a previous article, Kent won the Gillette Cup and came second in the county championship. They repeated the latter feat in 1968, setting the scene for their first championship win for 57 years in 1970. Nine further titles (one shared) came their way during the seventies. Their nearest rivals during the decade in terms of trophies were Lancashire, with five trophies, four of which came in the Gillette Cup, and Leicestershire, who gained five assorted trophies under the shrewd captaincy of Ray Illingworth.

What were the components of Kent’s success? Three main factors can be identified. Firstly, Kent were blessed with a core of world-class players, who would all be in a cricket ‘Hall of Fame’ if one existed. There was Colin Cowdrey, who had dominated English batting for much of the 1950s and 60s. By 1970 he was 38 years old and troubled by illness and injuries, but he was still influential, captaining the side in 1970 and 1971 and scoring his 100^th first-class century in 1973. Left-arm spinner Derek Underwood is still sixth in the list of English test match wicket takers with 297, and wicket-keeper/batsman Alan Knott played in 95 test matches. Both first played for Kent in the mid-1960s, and were still there at the end of the seventies, as was the Pakistani all-rounder (and brilliant fielder) Asif Iqbal, signed on special registration in 1968.

Secondly, the stars were supported by a deep seam of quality county players. In the first half of the decade, Mike Denness and Brian Luckhurst anchored the batting and the 6’ 8” seam bowler Norman Graham led the bowling, supported by West Indian left-hander Bernard Julien. Later in the decade  batsman Chris Tavare, all-rounders Charles Rowe and Chris Cowdrey (son of Colin), wicket-keeper Paul Downton and fast-medium bowlers Kevin Jarvis and Graham Dilley came into the side. Additionally, and crucially, a solid backbone of players joined Underwood, Knott and Asif in playing throughout the decade: all-rounders Bob Woolmer, Graham Johnson and the West Indian John Shepherd, and batsmen Alan Ealham and David Nicholls (who was also reserve wicket-keeper). Other fringe players came and went, as listed in the table below. Denness, Luckhurst, Woolmer, Shepherd, Julien, and (in the 1980s) Downton, Tavare, Chris Cowdrey, and Dilley joined the stars in playing test cricket, and the ability of the squad to absorb the frequent absences of players on international duty was vital.

Kent's First-Class Cricket Players during the 1970s. In addition, DM Sayer came out of retirement for one match in 1976, and J Howgego and AOC Verrinder played against Cambridge University in 1977

One might expect the third factor in Kent’s success to be ‘leadership’, but the county actually had four captains during the decade, two of whom, as we will see, were controversially dismissed from the role. Captaincy, especially by Mike Denness, who held the role for five years, was certainly important, but perhaps more significant was the positive attitude and team spirit that came from being a victorious side. This was especially apparent in one-day cricket. Kent was particularly suited to this form of the game and took full advantage of the three trophies per year that was available once the Benson and Hedges Cup (B&H Cup) joined the Gillette Cup and John Player League (JPL) in 1972. The stars were available for the two knock-out tournaments as these were not scheduled at the same time as test matches. Kent’s squad was full of all-rounders, allowing flexibility in bowling and depth of batting. Derek Underwood observed in his autobiography:

“Not only has the county’s fine run spoken volumes for the strength and quality of the young players waiting in the wings, but it has been a credit to the way the non-Test players have carried the extra burden heaped on their shoulders and have accepted being thrust up and down the batting order”.

As I discussed in my previous article, one-day cricket was still in its infancy and today’s specialised skills and tactics (and playing conditions) had yet to be developed – toying with the batting order was often the only special strategy used. Throughout the decade, Kent fielded essentially the same teams in one-day and three-day cricket and their success in all competitions came from the same simple mix of tight bowling, above average fielding and positive, attacking batting. The latter should, however, be seen in the context of the times. Today’s run rates were never achieved. Kent’s highest score in a 55 or 60 over final was 236 in the 1976 B&H Cup (a run rate of 4.2 per over) and even as late as 1979, when they came second in the competition, they did not reach 200 (or 5 runs per over) in any John Player league innings.

The decade began inauspiciously. By July 1970, Kent had been knocked out of the Gillette Cup and were bottom of the county championship. A team meeting was convened by the team manager, one-time Kent and England wicket-keeper/batsman Les Ames - a hands-on manager was an innovation at the time. It was established that the team was not making sufficient effort to gain batting bonus points, which had been introduced a couple of years previously. A more attacking approach led to a rapid improvement, supported, as we saw earlier, by victories in tight matches, and the county championship was won in the final game of the season, against old rivals Surrey at the Oval. In addition, Kent came second in the JPL and also won the 2^nd Eleven Championship, demonstrating their depth of reserve and younger players.

1971 was one of just three years during the decade that did not produce silverware, though Kent were fourth in the championship and lost to Lancashire in the Gillette Cup final. At the end of the year Colin Cowdrey gave up the captaincy, which was taken up by Mike Denness, who had deputised when Cowdrey was absent through test calls or injuries. Derek Underwood payed tribute to Cowdrey in his autobiography: “He was a player who commanded respect by his performances on the field, and earned it by the way he treated us and his infectious enthusiasm”.

In 1972, 2^nd place was achieved in the championship and Denness won his first trophy as captain with triumph in the JPL. The county got into its stride in 1973, with two trophies, the B&H Cup and the JPL. I attended the B&H final against Worcestershire at Lords. Like all finals during the seventies, the match was a sell-out and a fine game with a great atmosphere, though somewhat low-scoring by today’s standards. The highlight of the day was a partnership of 116 in 29 overs between Luckhurst and Asif; exactly 4 runs per over, though it seemed faster than that to a young and enthusiastic Kent fan. Asif also took four wickets as Worcestershire was bowled out cheaply, and was named Man of the Match.

Kent win the B&H Cup in 1973. I was there! Left to right: Underwood, Nicholls, Shepherd, Asif, Johnson, Graham, Elms, Woolmer, Denness, Ealham, Cowdrey, Luckhurst, Knott

In 1974, Kent sank to 10^th in the county championship, but won their only Gillette Cup of the decade, in a low-key game played on a Monday after the scheduled Saturday had been rained off. In 1975, they rose again to 5^th in the Championship, but won no silverware, and behind the scenes mutterings were being heard regarding Denness’s captaincy.

The long, hot summer of 1976 saw Kent fall to 14^th in the Championship, their lowest position since 1957. As was the norm during the decade, they lost key players to international calls, with Julien absent all year with the West Indies tourists and Knott and Underwood playing in every test match, but the apparent lack of priority given to the Championship was noted, and was put into relief by the acquisition of two further one-day trophies, the B&H Cup and JPL, the fifth and sixth trophies of Denness’s captaincy. I attended the B&H final again, which was against familiar opponents in Worcestershire, and recall the fine atmosphere that came with sitting on the grass at Lords among a full house, an experience denied to spectators today. 

Kent v Somerset at Folkestone in 1976 with an attentive crowd...

...well, mostly!

A bit of razamataz in 1976. On the last day of the JPL, three counties could have won and a helicopter hovered between their grounds to deliver the trophy to the eventiual winner - Kent, natch.

At the end of the season, to general surprise, Denness was relieved of the captaincy. The decision, made by the county’s cricket committee, was due, according to Kent's historian Dudley Moore, to Denness being “aloof, stand-offish, non-communicative and not good with the young players”. This was despite Denness having captained England in 19 test matches during his time as Kent's captain. In his autobiography, Alan Knott remarked, “It was an amazing decision; Kent should have stuck with [Denness] because he had improved so much as a captain. I was against his going, because he had done such a good job – six trophies won in five years”. But the trophies were all won in one-day competitions. Despite being a money-spinner, one-day cricket was still regarded by the Cricket Committee, which was dominated by players from previous eras (the chairman was WHV 'Hopper' Levett, a distinguished pre-war wicketkeeper), as being secondary to three-day cricket, and Denness’s relative lack of success in the Championship (2^nd, 4^th, 10^th, 5^th and 14^th) was held against him. He was replaced as captain by Asif Iqbal and unsurprisingly decided to leave the county, moving across the Thames to Essex.

Asif Iqbal leads Kent out at Maidstone in 1975, when acting captain. He was given the full-time role in 1977

The Blazers’ wishes were fulfilled in 1977 when Kent were joint winners of the Championship with Middlesex, and may well have been sole champions but for rain denying them results in key matches. The B&H final was reached again, but by the end of the year the county was plunged into further controversy when it became established that Knott, Underwood, Woolmer and the captain Asif Iqbal had joined Kerry Packer’s rebel World Series Cricket venture for the 1977-8 Australian season. The authorities worldwide sought retribution against all the Packer players, banning them from official international cricket and trying to persaude their counties to dismiss them. Legal action brought by some of the players established that this would be unlawful. Kent tried to tread a delicate path through the controversy, stripping Asif of the captaincy and offering the four Packer players one-year contracts only for 1978, though these were later extended.

So Alan Ealham became Kent’s fourth captain of the decade, and with the luxury of no test calls on the star players (though Knott decided to sit the season out, allowing the promising Paul Downton to keep wicket), Kent won the Championship comfortably in 1978, adding a third B&H Cup for good measure.

There was no silverware in 1979, but with a new generation of quality players joining the regulars, there was little reason to believe that Kent’s success would not continue into the 1980s. However, it was not to be - and further controversy ensued from Knott, Woolmer and Underwood's involvement in the 1982-3 rebel English XI tour to South Africa. It would be 17 years before Kent acquired another trophy, winning the Sunday league in 1995. Since then, they have added just two more trophies, another Sunday league in 2001 and the Twenty20 Cup in 2007 – thirteen years ago.

So Kent have sunk back to the ranks of the also-rans as rapidly as they rose – though they have won the Women’s County Championship a record eight times since 2006. Their success in the 1970s was based on continuity - a backbone of quality players who represented the county throughout the decade - and enterprise, in recognising the significance of one-day cricket and quickly developing the skills and attitudes to excel at the new format. In the 1980s, the vintage team inevitably broke up, and other counties caught up with and overtook Kent at mastering the evolving one-day game. In today’s fragmented domestic scene, players regularly swap county and overseas stars drop in for a handful of games and white- and red-ball cricket have become increasingly separate games. This indicates that the dominance that Kent achieved in all forms of cricket over a ten-year period is unlikely to be repeated. But I will never forget that thrilling moment at Blackheath fifty years ago, and the pleasure that I gained from watching Kent play throughout their marvellous decade.

Sources Used

Birley D (1999) A Social History of English Cricket. London: Aurum Press

Knott A (1985) It’s Knott Cricket: The Autobiography of Alan Knott. London: Macmillan

Moore D (1989) The History of Kent County Cricket Club. Bromley: Helm

Underwood D (1975) Beating the Bat: An Autobiography. London: Stanley Paul

Kent County Cricket Club Annuals, 1971 – 1980

Playfair Cricket Annuals, 1971 – 1980

Wisden Cricketers Almanacks 1971 - 1980