Review - Sun, Snow and Strike!

The 1975 County Championship match at Buxton between Derbyshire and Lancashire is justly one of the most famous in the history of the competition. As well as producing the highest score in the hundred-overs limit (477-5 by Lancashire), and Derbyshire's heaviest defeat since 1898, it of course saw play abandoned on the Monday because of a heavy snowfall, two days after the ground had basked in warm sunshine, and on the verge of one of the hottest summers of recent years.

With the nation gripped by trade union militancy, industrial unrest found its way even into the rather more conservative world of county cricket, with several senior Lancashire players withdrawing their services and being suspended as a result (how do you suspend someone who has refused to play?). While the rift was eventually patched up, the scars remained and the incident is surely one reason why Lancashire, on paper one of the strongest county sides of the 1970s, faded into under-achievement after 1975.

Colin Evans' enjoyable booklet tells the story of the match and its extraordinary background with the aid of cartoons by Bob Bond, interviews with many of the players and an article on the meteorological aspects of the match by Andrew Hignell, as well as a foreword by Geoff Miller.

Richard Lawrence

Published jointly by Market Publications and Max Books. 76 pages.
Price £8.00 inc. postage (UK postal addresses* only).

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