JOHN PRICE
– The Final Middlesex Years and an England Recall
by Hughie
In January 1965 John played in the fourth test against
South Africa at Johannesburg. His match
figures were 124-3. He did not feature in the last three tour matches. In the
injury-hit 1965 season he took just 33 first class wickets for Middlesex, and
it seemed that his England
career was over. Nevertheless 1966 was a vintage season. He took 94 first class
wickets at an impressive 18.74, including a career-best 8-48 against Derbyshire
at Lord’s. 1968 was another successful campaign: 89 wickets at 16.51.
1969 was the first year I was able to watch Middlesex
on a regular basis as I was enjoying what is now called a gap year. However it
was in 1970 that John entered what might be called his golden twilight, bagging
80 first class wickets. How many I saw I can never know because to my
everlasting regret my carefully annotated collection of scorecards is no longer
extant. I bear no grudge, Mother. I appreciate the fact you were just keeping my
room tidy.
In 1971, Pakistan
and India
were the tourists and Mike Brearley was captain of
Middlesex. John was in fine form in the early part of the season. Leicestershire
were dismissed for 65 in 28 overs, John taking 6-29, completing a ten wicket
match haul in the second innings. But he did not achieve much more of note
until he took eight Northamptonshire wickets in June. Then to the surprise of
many, John was recalled to the England
side after a gap of six years. The national team had struggled at Edgbaston,
narrowly avoiding defeat after following on. The England pace attack of Ward,
Lever and Shuttleworth had been put to the sword by Mushtaq, Asif Iqbal
and Zaheer Abbas, who
scored a devastating career-best 274. John, an unlikely saviour, was by now nearly
34 years old. The second test at Lord’s was ruined by the rain, but John made
the most of the familiar conditions and location by posting the impressive
figures of 11.4-5-29-3
in Pakistan’s
first innings. Again at Lord’s for the first test against India, John
took 3-72, including the valuable scalp of Sunil Gavaskar.
At Old Trafford he again got Gavaskar caught behind,
taking 4 wickets in all, while at the Oval he took 1-61, opening the England attack
with John Snow.
And then came 1972, an Australian summer. I was at
University in Southampton and took time off
lectures to watch the tourists on three cold May days, thrashing a strong
Hampshire side including Richards, Greenidge,
Marshall and Bob Herman, who had been unable to keep a regular place in the
Middlesex XI the previous year. My main memory is of the little group of
admiring young ladies who followed Dennis Lillee
round the boundary. England
won the first test, however, at Old Trafford, and it was with eager
anticipation that I made my way down the Wellington Road for the second Ashes test
at Lord’s. John Price had been selected for the match, Middlesex’s sole
representative. At the end of May he had taken 8-85 in the Sussex second
innings at Lord’s and eleven wickets in the match. In June he had taken six S----y
wickets for 34 in the Gillette Cup second round, winning the man of the match
award.
The second test of that Ashes series turned out to be
John’s fifteenth and final test match. However,
despite being an unlikely second-top scorer in England’s second innings, he was
only to play a walk-on part in what was to be one of the most extraordinary
test matches of all time. More of that celebrated encounter in another article.
There were other highlights still to come in John’s
career: the 1975 Benson and Hedges Cup Final for example. He was still turning
out occasionally for the county championship matches in that year. I have no
recollection of his final appearances as I was in the United States during the summer of 1975
supporting the Red Sox at Fenway Park,
Boston! John’s
last first class match at Lord’s was against Glamorgan in August. He bowled
just nine overs without taking a wicket. His final Middlesex appearance was at Grace Road in
September. He took 1 for 44.
In 242 first clas matches
for Middlesex, John Price accumulated 902 runs at an average of 8.12. He took
88 catches. However it is for his bowling and his bizarre change-of-direction
run up that he will always be remembered by Middlesex supporters. He took 734
wickets for 16,440 runs, an average of 22.39. When you add 192 one-day wickets
for the county during a career that stretched from 1961 to 1975, you realise
what a wonderful servant he was for the club, linking the Middlesex generations
of Alan Moss and John Emburey.
