By Cricket Manager, Ken Taylor, 1982

Despite failing to win a competition during the 1982 season, in many ways it proved to be one of our best years for a long time. Although dogged by injuries to such an extent that eight players were unavailable for selection against Middlesex at Lord’s, we did finish fourth in the Schweppes Championship, reached the final of the Benson and Hedges Cup – the Club’s first appearance in a final at Lord’s – and were fourth in the John Player League.

With Clive Rice unable to bowl without causing himself pain and injuries to Richard Hadlee, Mike Hendrick and Mike Bore, the younger bowlers had an opportunity to prove themselves. This they did successfully with Kevin Cooper taking 85 wickets in all competitions and Kevin Saxelby 58. Peter Such, after playing a couple of games in the 2nd XI and taking his A levels, found himself at Lord’s for his first-class debut against Middlesex and by the end of the season, he had taken 25 Championship wickets. Eddie Hemmings and Cooper bore the brunt of the hard work while Hadlee took 84 wickets in all competitions and topped the national averages for the third successive year.

Rice, for him, had a quiet season with the bat but nevertheless scored 2,083 runs in all competitions. John Birch registered 1,000 runs in first-class cricket for the first time while Derek Randall, Basharat Hassan, Tim Robinson and Hadlee contributed valuable runs. Bruce French, kept wicket outstandingly well and scored 721 first-class runs so he was probably unfortunate not be to selected to tour Australia.

Performances in the John Player League stuttered at the start but picked up as the season progressed. Hopefully we can start next season as we finished the last.

In the Benson and Hedges Cup we played well until the final but were then well beaten by Somerset. Unfortunately we were playing badly at the time and had injury problems. However we got to Lord’s, enjoyed the atmosphere and hopefully the experience will spur us on to return as soon as possible.

The NatWest Trophy was our biggest calamity of the season. I knew we had a tough job when we were drawn against Sussex at Hove but in the event, won comfortably. Unfortunately, while severely weakened by injuries, we went from the sublime to the ridiculous with an abysmal performance in the next round against Gloucestershire.

There were so many difficulties raising teams for Second XI matches that it would be pointless to comment on results. Nevertheless, it gave us an opportunity to look at many players and there were some good individual performances.

Paul Johnson scored 1,432 runs, including an innings of 236, while Mark Fell scored 728 at an average of 48.53 and made a first-class century. David Saxelby did well to make 916 runs in the competition and Andrew Pick bowled well, as did Richard Baker.

The Bassetlaw League side gave a commendable performance in finishing runners-up and with an age-range of 15-21, their steady improvement was a credit to Bob White. Sadly, due to economic reasons, we have had to part company with Bob, but I should like to record my thanks to him. Bob has captained the 2nd XI and Bassetlaw League teams very successfully in recent years and many players have benefited from his advice. I am delighted that he has been appointed to the first-class umpires list and will therefore not be lost to the game completely.

Paul Todd had a disappointing season and left in September, feeling he would benefit from a change of club. He played many exciting innings for Nottinghamshire but never managed to maintain consistency. Also released were Neil Weightman and Ian Pont. Weightman was unfortunate in that he never recovered from an early-season back injury while Pont was unable to take advantage of a number of opportunities in the first team.

The club was dealt a very severe blow with the death of Bill Thornley. Travelling around the country with Bill, I got to know him well. A meticulous and helpful scorer, he was a charming person to have around and very popular with us all.

Despite the usual criticism of our wickets, Ron Allsopp and his groundstaff lads have once again done a splendid job.

I should also like to record my thanks to Ann Pullan and Janice White, whose efforts in doing the teas for Bassetlaw League matches are greatly appreciated.

With the financial loss incurred last season, it has become necessary to cut the playing staff and with only 17 professionals, injuries and Test Match selections could leave us in a difficult position. However, we must play our part in improving the financial position and I am hoping the policy of developing our own youngsters will pay off. The sole purpose of our job is to entertain people with exciting, positive cricket and we shall certainly aim to do so again in 1983.