Thursday 26 December 2013

BOB TAYLOR ON WICKET-KEEPING


In amongst an October interview splurge yielding chats with Peter Lever and Chris Old, I also spoke to the ex-England and Derbyshire ‘keeper Bob Taylor, ostensibly for another ‘Gleanings’ feature, but which also involved so many unprompted digressions on the finer points of wicket-keeping that I also managed to sift a standalone technical piece on that topic from our conversation.

Heres how the interview went: 

Bob (at outset): How long’s this going to take? It’s just I’ve got a few things to do.
Me: ‘Bout 25 minutes, half an hour...
BT: Go on then.

15 minutes later he has answered, at length, although interestingly, three of about 25 questions. I proceed, occasionally enquiring whether he has “another ten minutes, or shall I call back over the weekend?” A blink of an eye later, an hour and twenty minutes have passed.

Me: I still haven’t asked about Headingley ‘81, Melbourne ‘82...
BT: OK, quickly then.

He takes 10 minutes describing the surface details of the two games to me -- games that I know inside out -- without saying anything that hasn’t appeared in dozens of autobiographies (I want quotable lines, innit). I feel the sands of time ticking; toward night time, toward death. We’re coming up for 1h 40m...

Me: Just a couple more then. Quickfire. One-sentence answers are fine.
BT: Sure.
Me: Are there any missed stumpings or dropped catches that have stayed with you down the years?
BT: Well, there’s a funny story about that...

I enjoy the story immensely but feel curiously guilty that we are now an hour and twenty minutes over the interview span I initially quoted him (I later discover that his nickname as a player was “Chat”, which has nothing to do with sledging). At this point, he asks for an address to send me a pamphlet about the technicalities of wicket-keeping. I’m in Stoke, dogsitting, so give him the folks’ address here. With him being ex-Bignall End, I mention I played at Moddershall CC. He then starts telling me about how he used to supply the NSSCL with Duke’s balls and – quite surreally – how difficult he found it trying to get in touch with Keith Tunnicliffe, “a friend of mine but a bugger to get hold of on the phone”. I still have a couple more questions to ask, so decline to mention that I spent 21 consecutive cricketing weeks chasing sub pro’s who often needed to be registered on Friday evening with the elusive aforementioned League Secretary...

Anyway, a very enjoyable two-hour chat, during the course of which I basically received a brief-ish wicket-keeping masterclass. If only I’d have had that conversation 25 years earlier...





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