48
Jack Davey - The birth of one-day cricket in the 60s and 70s
I think few people would argue against the fact that the birth of one
day Cricket was the saviour of our fi rst -class game. Gillett e were the
fi rst Sponsors, introducing a 60 over a side Competi ti on in 1963, which
immediately caught public att enti on. Games were played on a Wednesday
with Thursday and Fridays reserve days, and BBC agreed to cover the fi nal,
and, later, both semis as well.
There was extra money (not for the players, of course) for the seventeen
counti es, (Durham did not become First Class unti l 1992),
although there were bonuses, which increased for winning
successive rounds to the fi nal. If you lost in the fi rst round,
tough, but you could have a couple of days off before
Saturdays County Championship game started! Gillett e
were delighted with the public response, and aft er a couple
of years decided to pay home and away teams’ expenses
for the coming season: Big Mistake!!
Arriving at our Brighton hotel on the Tuesday evening
before our fi rst round game, my Gloucestershire colleagues
and I were greeted with torrenti al rain that had followed us
from the Oval where we had been playing Surrey. “Don’t
forget,” said our Skipper, Arthur Milton, “we’re all eati ng
in the restaurant tonight and Gillett e are paying”, and the
other seven Counti es playing away were doing the same.
Each county would have had a minimum of 12 players and
a scorer and so around the country over 100 of us enjoyed
a very unusual, but very welcome, evening meal. This was unheard of for
county cricketers in those days, we were allowed £3.00 for an evening meal
and a drink, away from our Hotel. We got stuck in - starters, T-bone steaks,
desserts, cheese and biscuits and port.
Thankfully, it rained all day Wednesday so we were back in the restaurant
that evening, and as ground conditi ons were so bad we could not start unti l
4pm on the Thursday, which meant we stayed Thursday evening and fi nished
off on the Friday. Sadly we lost the game, and with it the opportunity of
another away match with some decent food! Sadly, it was also the one and
only season that Gillett e were so generous, never before had so few been so
grateful to such a mega company!
Even six years later in 1973, when we reached the Final at Lords, we drove
there on the Friday evening before the game, (aft er ending a County
Championship game at Bournemouth that day at 6pm). It was to be
Gloucestershire’s fi rst ever chance of silverware, only to fi nd out we had not
been booked into our Hotel for an evening meal.
So six of us, on the evening before the most important game
of our lives, sat on a wall in the Edgware Road eati ng spare
ribs and chips (mind you our meal allowance had been
increased to £3.50) and so one of our number who shall
remain nameless, went back for extra chips, but then, he did
come from North Devon!
We beat Sussex in the fi nal, and on Sunday morning at 9am
started our journey to Chesterfi eld for a Sunday League
game, some left a bit later, and some later sti ll, consequently
we had to bat fi rst because we only had four players in the
ground for the 2pm start!
The John Player League was introduced in 1969, a “40 over
per side game on a Sunday aft ernoon with bowlers’ run-ups
being restricted to 15 yards to assist with the ti mings.
“Ok fi ne, no matt er that it ended the one day in the week
that the players had off . We could put up with that, because it was going to
put a lot more bums on seats which could only be good for the Counti es.
Aft er the fi rst couple of seasons some smart ass county chairman proposed
that the county that was at home for the Saturday, Monday and Tuesday
should stay at home for the Sunday fi xture, but the team they were playing
on the Saturday should travel elsewhere for their Sunday game.
It was thought that another team on the Sunday would provide diff erent
faces for the public and so sell extra seats. The extra driving was ludicrous,