By Ken Taylor

The 1978 season was a difficult one in several ways. The weather was often adverse and, perhaps more important we were left to ponder what might have been achieved if only Richard Hadlee, who had made such a tremendous impact in the early matches, had been available throughout the season.

To finish seventh in the County Championship, compared seventeenth the previous season, was highly creditable, particularly as we did not win a match in the Schweppes Competition after Hadlee joined up with the New Zealand touring part. This left us in the now too familiar situation of lacking penetration in our bowling. Nevertheless, thanks to some good performances, a large number of bonus points were won and it was unfortunate that we lacked that little something which would have clinched the outright win.

The Gillette Cup Match against Yorkshire was lost off the third ball of the last over with the Tykes last pair at the wicket. Unfortunately the first day’s play was interfered with by rain, and few supporters were able to get to Bradford on the second day to see a very spirited performance by the side.

Once again we suffered defeat in the quarter finals of the Benson and Hedges Competition at Canterbury at the hands of Kent, who went on to win the trophy.

Our involvement in the John Player League was disappointing in that five matches were abandoned, without a ball being bowled and a couple of games were lost in the field after we had played ourselves into a winning position. The absence of Basharat Hassan, who was injured at the beginning of May and did not play again unitl August, was sorely felt, more particularly in this competition.

Mike Smedley stepped in at a very difficult time to take over the captaincy of the side and once again demonstrated his loyalty to the Club and the game of cricket. Although he did not enjoy one of his better seasons with the bat, he nevertheless rescued the side from a difficult position on several occasions, notably against Kent at Trent Bridge and Gloucester at Cheltenham.

The established batsmen did well, with Clive Rice finishing comfortably at the top of the national averages and Derek Randall being selected the Australia tour. These two, together with Mike Harris and Paul Todd, completed 1000 runs during the season.

Kevin Cooper, at 20 years of age, was saddled with a heavy responsibility, the more so with Peter Hacker, Richard Hadlee and Clive Rice being unavailable for varying periods of the season. Kevin stood up very well to the task, as indeed did Ken Watson, who could also be relied upon for 100% effort and who achieved some success when called upon. Bruce French, who improved as a batsmen as the season progressed kept wicket for the Under 21 XI against the young West Indies team in all three representative games. Dilip Doshi bowled well and it is most unfortunate that owing to the registration rules we cannot retain his services to play in the County side together with two other overseas players. John Birch and Trevor Tunnicliffe showed a steady but marked improvement with the bat. Chris Curzon, Roy Dexter, Kevin Mackintosh, Tim Robinson and Kevin Saxelby were given opportunities to show their paces at first class level and all showed promise for the future.

In last year’s report I stressed that the real need was for a fast bowler. In the event we obtained the services of a world class performer in this department but last the services of a first class left arm spinner as a result. To fill this latter category is now our top priority, as otherwise there will be an imbalance in the attack. Naturally enough Bob White is feeling the straight of three day cricket nowadays and it is to be hoped that Mark Allbrook will benefit from his advice sufficiently to take his pace in the side.

Having worked hard to build up a staff over the last few years, composed of three world class players, together with a mixture of youth and experience it is imperative that everybody works hard to prove himself a real professional performer. We are now in a position when players with some years of first class experience are able to step in and play in the event of injury or absence for some other reason. Even if we are unsuccessful in our efforts to sign a left hand spinner there is no reason to believe that we will not be able to improve on last season’s performance. It is essential however that each match is approached in a positive and aggressive manner with believe in our ability to win and with all negative thinking eliminated.

With the acquisition of home bred players able to go straight into the County side becoming more difficulty every year, it is more important we find as many good youngsters as possible and encourage them to develop along the right lines. In an effort to do this and to further promote cricket in the County, a coaching scheme for selected youngsters has been organised to take place during the winter at three centres, namely Trent Bridge, Sutton in Ashfield and Retford. Andrews Industrial Equipment have kindly sponsored this scheme, which will be run by the Notts Coaches Association in conjunction with the County Club. In addition, application has been made to enter a side in the Bassetlaw League and, if successful, the best youngsters attending these courses will be invited to form the nucleus of this side.

Ron Allsopp and his staff continued to produce first class wickets and once again he proved himself an older campaigner in various battles over the preparation of wickets.