A remarkable game at Southport in 1982

 By Mike Latham

Alvin Kallicharran and Geoff Humpage in front of the Southport scoreboard 

The summer of 1982 and Lancashire are at Trafalgar Road, Southport for their county championship game against Warwickshire.

County cricket had a rhythm and predictability back then- three-day games starting on Saturdays and Wednesdays, Sunday League on a Sunday, knock-out cup-ties on a Wednesday.

Even the most mundane of fixtures eagerly awaited, holidays booked, especially for out grounds.

It sounds easy, but it is a fixture schedule long abandoned in county cricket these days.

Neither Lancashire nor Warwickshire had serious aspirations of the county championship title when they gathered at Southport on a glorious Wednesday morning, 28 July 1982.

Despite that, a big crowd was in attendance, bench seats and deck chairs claimed early, latecomers viewed with disdain.

Warwickshire won the toss and batted, Dickie Bird and Jack van Geloven the umpires.

The first hour was fairly standard stuff– Les McFarlane worked up a pace and removed openers Dennis Amiss and Robin Dyer, Ian Folley had Andy Lloyd caught behind, 53 for 3 after 12.2 overs, 11-45am. Time for a coffee from the flask.

It wasn’t a bad Lancashire attack. McFarlane and Folley, bustling right arm and left arm swing, Steve O’Shaughnessy, now a first-class umpire, then an up-and-coming former England U19s all-rounder, bowling brisk medium pace swing.  ‘Flat Jack’ Simmons, long an established member of the Lancashire bowling attack, with his miserly off-spin; David Hughes, equally long-serving, left arm spin.  John Abrahams (off spin) and David Lloyd (SLA) thrown in.

What followed was remarkable. Alvin Kallicharran was joined by wicketkeeper Geoff Humpage. I scored the innings and put an ‘x’ when a chance was dropped. Humpage was missed on 11, Kallicharran on 178, Humpage again on 189, again on 233, Kallicharran again on 177, Humpage surviving a stumping chance on 233.

In five hours of mayhem the pair added, according to me, 469 for the fourth wicket in 92.5 overs, until Humpage was bowled off-stump, heaving by the left arm spin of David Lloyd for 252.

Humpage had hit 24 fours and 13 sixes, many threatening the railway line, the gardens of adjoining houses and the deckchairs of those early spectators.

Kallicharran stroked 31 fours, off memory beautifully timed, imperious. He was 231 not out, when the declaration came. 522 for 4, 63 fours, 13 sixes, 106.1 overs.

It had been a simply amazing passage of cricket, the most sustained and ferocious attack on the bowling by Humpage I’d ever seen, but Kallicharran easily beat him to his hundred (out of 171-3) and 200 (345-3), Humpage reaching the same landmarks at 296-3 and 464-3 respectively.

In the last stages of his innings Humpage ran amok, going from 201 to 251 in the space of 11 balls, including two fours and seven sixes. After reaching 201 with a couple of runs off the third ball of the 103^rd over, bowled by McFarlane, he hit the last three of that over for 646.

He hit Folley for 646 off the last three balls of the 104^th over, then faced two dots including a missed stumping off Lloyd before hitting the final three balls of the 105^th over for 666. He faced two balls of Folley’s next over, dot and a single to go on strike to Lloyd for the start of the 107^th over, whereupon he was bowled.

I always asked batsmen who had scored a hundred to sign my scorebook and after that famous photo in front of the scorebox both kindly obliged.

My scorebook of a record-breaking partnership.

I compared my scorebook to the official version on Cricket Archive. They have the partnership as 470, not 469, Kallicharran 230 not 231 Humpage 254 not 252, total 523-4 not 522.

So, I spent part of my Christmas Day re-working the sequence, ball by ball. I got Kallicharran 228 and Humpage 255, score still 522-4.

Anyway, I don’t suppose it matters.

What followed on the next two days completed a remarkable cricket match.

Graeme Fowler had sat out most of the Warwickshire innings with a thigh strain, 12^th man Tony Murphy deputising in the field. But Fowler was allowed to open the Lancashire innings and, 40-1 overnight, the Red Rose reached 414-6 declared off 113 overs, Fowler b Asif Din 126. Ian Cockbain batted superbly for 98- what proved to be his highest first-class score. A hugely talented batsman, and a top performer in the Liverpool Competition, he never quite made the transition into first-class cricket his talent promised.

Clive Lloyd, the Lancashire captain, made 45, John Abrahams an unbeaten 51. Fowler batted with a runner, fellow Accringtonian David Lloyd on the Thursday, scoring exactly 100 runs while Lloyd did the honours. The banter between the pair would have been well worth hearing.

As another first, Gladstone Small was called up in an emergency for the first Test against Pakistan, David Brown, the Warwickshire manager replacing him in the bowling attack, the first case of a substitute in such an instance. Small later returned to the game when not required to play by England.

Warwickshire closed the second day 14-2, Dyer completing a pair, again a victim of McFarlane, Lloyd bowled McFarlane for a duck.

The third morning saw McFarlane have one of those golden days, perhaps the best of his career. He ripped through the Warwickshire batting, taking six for 59 in 20 overs, backed up by O’Shaughnessy (3-29).

First innings tormentors Kallicharran and Humpage came back down to earth, the former caught brilliantly at backward short leg by David Lloyd off O’Shaughnessy for a duck, the latter driving O’Shaughnessy to Abrahams at long on, last man out for 21, five minutes after lunch, Warwickshire all out for 111.

To complete an amazing turnaround Lancashire reached their victory target of 221 without losing a wicket, David Lloyd 88 not out, Fowler 128 not out, the latter ending the game in the grand manner with a six off Asif Din.

This time Fowler had Ian Folley as runner and he later told a good story about the innings. Maybe too confident, he skied several shots when in the 80s and 90s before Folley came over from square leg and had a sharp word. ‘Get your head down,’ he said. ‘I’ve never scored a hundred before.’

Lancashire finished a remarkable game 226-0, victory achieved at 5.36pm after 13 of the final 20 overs.

Warwickshire finished bottom the county championship that season, without a single win in 22 games, eight defeats, 14 draws, remarkable when you look at the quality players they had. Kallicharran hit 2,118 championship runs at an average of 68, while Humpage, Lloyd and Amiss all comfortably exceeded one thousand runs. Small was the only Warwickshire bowler to take over 50 wickets.

I must have been Geoff Humpage’s lucky charm as I saw him score 205 against Derbyshire at Chesterfield two years later. I last saw Alvin Kallicharran playing for Blackrod in the Bolton Association a few years ago.

And nearly 40 years on many people still talk of that remarkable game at Southport. And, for all three days, I was there.